Time to adopt storytelling in mobile/online ads more closely

Most online and mobile ads, specially the mobile ads are quite invasive in nature where an ad interferes in the space where we are playing a game or browsing through some interesting content. As I watched the television tonight I realized that traditional advertisements are invasive in nature too. Advertisement is inherently invasive in nature, what matters is how you strategize to design the ad to engage your users. Sometimes, I think it is a bigger challenge to direct an ad which engages users within 10-30 secs rather than other content in the television space which last from 20 mins to more. What makes commercial ads on TV stand out is the story-telling technique which involves good ideas being churned out by creative teams and then translated into video by involving matured film producers. An example is the latest ad by ICICI bank called "Love Surprises?".

The story behind the ad or the concept is seriously awesome and it has been executed very well. The settings, characters and the background score actually captures the joy of surprises and rewards. Its a simple story, told very well. Vodafone had also captured the surprise concept very well through a series of ads called "Vodafone Delights".

From a consumer point of view, when such ads interfere your movie or tv-series watching, the irritation of having been intervened is far lesser than a poorly conceptualised or executed ad.

My opinion, if we are able to adopt such innovative ways of storytelling on the mobile and online space then the ads would not appear so invasive and may have higher returns as well. This however does not mean hosting video content in the ad space. The online/mobile advertisement players have to innovate to think of ways to tell their brand-stories in an interesting manner without making their content too heavy. Technology has a big role to play in the online/mobile advertisement segment and it needs to be integrated more closely.