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15 seconds is still 15 seconds.

15 seconds is still 15 seconds.

Writing tip #10.

Jess Wheeler
August 09, 2024

I haven’t done a practical writing tip in a while, so figured it was time.

With the increasing focus on quantity of creative and the media push for repetition and low-cost impressions, advertising outputs have become shorter and shorter, with 15s and 6s now commonplace.

There’s a myriad of reasons why this has been detrimental to brand building and quality of creative, but that’s not what this is about. This is about writing to what you’ve been told to write to. And, when done properly, I actually love a tight 15 anyway.

But here’s the big, uncomfortable truth for BOTH creatives and clients.

As Kevin Mulroy put it in his own ‘20 WRITING TIPS YOU CAN TOTALLY IGNORE BUT PLEASE FOR THE REST OF US, DONT’, ‘You have time for one thing to happen in 15 seconds. No more.’

In the past, we used to come up with ideas and then figure out the best media to bring them to life. Often, for a film, that would be a 30/45/60. But, sometimes, an idea just works better as a 15.

Here’s one Kevin referenced.

This ad does not need to be longer than a 15. You don’t need a ‘director’s cut’. The abruptness of it is actually what makes it work.

The issue with the modern advertising landscape is that media now often dictates creative. Brands are being sold media packages 12 months in advance and then creatives are forced to use that media, whether it actually solves the brief or not.

The adjustment that both creatives and clients need to make is to openly acknowledge what you can and can’t do in 15 seconds. You can’t expect the same amount of information and mandatories in a 15 as you do a 30. Creatives are pretty amazing, and there’s a lot of cool shit we can do, but unfortunately we are yet to learn how to bend the fabric of space and time. And even though inflation has impacted every other touchpoint of existence, 15 seconds is still 15 seconds. When you take into account endframes and CTAs, often a 15 is really more like an 11 or 12. And that’s only enough time TO DO ONE THING.

But that’s also the superpower of a 15. Being forced to only do one thing is what makes them so great.

I love these Take 5 ads. There’s a whole bunch of them. They’re well branded, they repeat the same takeout, ‘At Take 5, you stay in your car because we’re faster than you think’, and then they do one very funny skit that embeds that message. They even manage to get the message in again at the very end. Incredibly economical writing and a series that I regularly refer back to when writing 15s.

And even though they get a lot done, they don’t try to do too much. This is the biggest obstacle with 15s in the modern era. Creatives have always been guilty of overwriting 15s, so this is a constant learning process for all of us. But also, brands are being told to buy more and more 15s, and are then expecting agencies to meet the same expectations of a 30. We all collectively need to acknowledge that this is impossible. Neither marketers, nor creatives, can rip a tear in the space-time continuum. You can only do one thing in a 15.

Uber Reserve’s 15 second spots are another nice example.

This goes beyond just film as well, here’s some radio spots I wrote many years ago. (Scroll down to radio. Or watch the TV as well first, it’s pretty weird.)

Words are more memorable than numbers.

We actually had to fight relentlessly for these to be 15s. Client and media wanted 30s and to include a whole bunch of ‘product callouts and features’. But, luckily, we got our 15s. The idea is so much tighter in a 15. The one take out is that ‘words are more memorable than numbers’, so get a Telstra Phoneword for your business. Anything else is a distraction. If customers learn just that one thing, we’ve won. And win, we did. The campaign did really well and won a bunch of local and global awards, including almost taking out the Grand Siren (Best radio campaign in Australia.)

Earlier this year, we released a campaign for Worksafe. The brief was to talk to young workers about sensitive issues like bullying, sexual harassment, being overworked, workplace aggression, all in the one campaign, without gender bias, with huge creative cut through, and all in 15 seconds. That’s a hell of a brief.

Here’s what we did. (And are very proud of.)

Worksafe Umm

vimeo.com/996917529

Again, this is the power of a 15. Being forced to only do one thing can actually save us from ourselves. You don’t have room to put in more ‘stuff’ that distracts from your core message. It forces you to be singular, and to do it with clarity.

So, this writing tip is not just for ‘writers’, but for everybody. Creatives, suits, planners, clients, media, anyone and everyone.

15 seconds is still 15 seconds. And that’s only enough time to do one thing.

Which is actually bloody awesome if you do it well.

So don’t overwrite the brief, and don’t overwrite the script.

Writing tip #1

DON’T CHAIN YOURSELF TO A WHEEL -

deathtoshitads.beehiiv.com/p/no-one-is-a-writer

Writing tip #2

READ YOUR SHIT OUT LOUD -

deathtoshitads.beehiiv.com/p/read-out-loud

Writing tip #3

WRITERS DON’T NEED TO READ -