Background

Thousands of videos, posts and forwards compete for every second of our mobile screen time. Our thumbs scroll endlessly through the hundreds of pieces of content and we have the attention span of a goldfish. Yet marketing managers believe they need 30 second ads to tell an engaging story. Our brief was to demonstrate to marketers, media professionals and the creative community that they need to approach social media differently - that a shorter format for storytelling would catch the attention of social media users much more.

Describe the strategy

We wanted to involve the marketing and creative community, and demonstrate to them that a 10-second format could be a powerful and engaging way of storytelling. We organised workshops at the offices of digital companies and advertising agencies to help them understand techniques and approaches for writing effective 10-second film scripts. Then we announced the Thumbstopper Challenge and invited them to send in their own 10-second scripts.

Describe the execution

From the 3,500 scripts received, an eminent jury (consisting of the who's who of India's marketing and advertising fraternity) shortlisted 16 scripts. We shot and produced these scripts and the finished films were launched at a glittering event attended hundreds of influential invitees from the marketing world. The films were then shared on Facebook, thereby creating a whole new path for short story telling on Facebook. Exploring this telegraphic short format in the mobile medium is important because of decreasing attention spans and growing impatience. Through these films we demonstrated 10 seconds can be enough. Each of these films tells a story that has some underlying purpose or human truth in it. Much like advertising for brands, these films also use drama, emotion, suspense and humour to tug at your heart strings.

List the results

The films caught the imagination of social media users and went viral immediately. Without being actively promoted, they were viewed millions of times within the first month. Though they had been made for the Facebook platform, they quickly found their way into WhatsApp groups too and were shared extensively on WA groups around the country. Over a year later, the films are still being liked and shared. People have made memes from them, and you can even find several 'compilation videos' of them on YouTube! Since the launch, many brands have used the 10-second Thumbstopper format to create their own advertisements for Facebook.