SINGAPORE: Brands can extract extra mileage from television commercials by adapting them to mobile video formats but should be aware the two formats require different creative strategies, a senior marketer at Facebook has said.

In an exclusive article for WARC, Reynold D'Silva, Head of Marketing, Brands & E-Commerce for Facebook in APAC, asserts that, despite people spending more time on mobile screens and more time watching videos, attention spans continue to shrink.

At the same time, television remains the dominant advertising channel despite the booming mobile video usage in South East Asia's emerging markets in particular.

D'Silva argues that marketers should have the best of both worlds by adapting their TVC creative into effective mobile videos. (Read more in WARC's exclusive article: From TVC to Pocket TVC: Translating TVCs into mobile video content.)

But, he cautions, marketers can't take a one-size-fits-all approach: the brain processes visual cues differently on mobile versus other platforms.

"Human-computer interaction research shows that mobile audiences respond better to immediate disclosure, which signals importance and relevance to attention-deficit users," he writes.

"Instead of keeping your brand under wraps until the last few seconds of your TVC, place it upfront right at the start of your mobile ad – that means starting with symbols or images that immediately cue the brand."

Screen orientation is one key difference between TVCs and mobile videos that marketers should be aware of.

"Even though mobile is a vertical screen, the majority of video ads on mobile are designed to be horizontal. Designing for a vertical, full-screen format can significantly increase the impact of mobile ads," D'Silva advises.

Data sourced from WARC