Attention NFL fans with short attention spans: You can now add “guinea pig” to your résumé.
According to The New York Times, Fox Sports will be testing out hyper-short six-second commercials for its upcoming 2017 pro-football telecasts. The shorter ads will run in tandem with the more traditional 15- and 30-second spots.
The micro ads were first tested during the Teen Choice Awards, which aired earlier this month.
It’s not a novel concept; many of the YouTube videos you’ve watched on RealClearLife recently have started off with a short ad just like the ones Fox Sports is planning.
The new ad units will attempt not only to bring an old idea to a new medium, but also, as Fox is hoping, make for a new go-to industry standard. “When the six-second ads are placed in unique positions, it has the potential to gain even more attention than a traditional unit,” predicted Eric Shanks, president of Fox Sports, in an interview with the Times.
The six-second ad spots will first appear before Fox Sports’ NFL games on Sept. 10, and also have been floated as possibilities for the World Series and other major events.
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