In 1963, a newspaper ad for the Rolls-Royce brand of cars appeared. It had a photo of a car, and the headline: “At 60 Miles Per Hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

The guy who wrote that headline went on to be an advertising legend. His name was David Oglivy. In one of his books, he said that headline was the best he'd ever written.

More notable, I've always thought, was the enormous dump of body copy in the ad — 15 paragraphs worth. 719 words. 

Oglivy became known for long-form copy. He once said:

Factual advertising like this outsells flatulent puffery. The more you tell, the more you sell.

It's interesting to look back at his campaigns today, where the going wisdom is to keep it short, capture attention in the first two seconds, have a brand mention in the first four seconds, and consider ending it after six seconds.

But is it possible we're starting to see a return to the long-form ads?

🏨 Hilton's Ad Breaks Barriers

The Hilton hotel chain recently challenged the norm of TikTok marketing with a 10-minute video ad. They weren't hiding it either. Pop culture celebrity Paris Hilton even said it would be right at the start. 

That exceeded the platform’s recommended video length of under 34 seconds – and it's a hit. 

I implore you to watch at least the first minute.

So far, it has more than 35 million views and half a million likes. 

The virality of campaigns like this, despite their length, is sparking the industry to rethink TikTok brand marketing conventions. Is there a place for long-form advertising on TikTok? 

A great piece from QuickFrame looks at the ad's success, and what long-form videos mean for brands' future social strategies. 

💡 Why Did It Succeed?

According to the piece, the ad's success was partly because of its entertaining and self-referential nature — a concept that kept the audience's attention from start to finish. This suggests that regardless of video length or platform, a strong concept and script are critical.

It's also important to understand the platform and create content that feels “native” to it while providing an angle that sets it apart from the competition. 

⏪ Pivot (Back) To Long-Form? 

But before you supersize all of your ads, it would be a mistake to assume that long-form video is the future of TikTok ad campaigns. 

As the article notes, it's risky to make a 10-minute spot your core video strategy. Instead, a different approach is to create long-form TikTok creative spots that can be easily re-edited into shorter ones. This gives maximum flexibility and an array of spots that can live on several platforms and target different audiences.

The piece is at Quickframe.com/blog —”From Short-Form to Long-Form: What We Can Learn From a 10-Minute TikTok Ad”