Dive Brief:

• A Facebook blog post published Wednesday detailed how to best improve mobile video, with an emphasis on the value in short form video ads that are 15 seconds rather than the typical 60- and 120-second spots.
• The post also explicitly outlined how marketers can migrate existing TV creative to mobile, citing tests it ran with major ad agencies, including BBDO and Wieden + Kennedy. The social network also explained how marketers can buy mobile ads using familiar TV methods including target rating points and Nielsen’s designated market areas.
• In making the case for moving TV ads to mobile, Facebook cited research that found between 2010 and 2015, 15-second TV ads grew 3.4% year over year, while 60- and 120-second spots declined, meaning TV creative is already moving toward a more mobile-like user experience geared toward shorter attention spans.

Dive Insight:

According to Facebook, each day 100 million hours of video are watched on the social platform, and predictions point to mobile video making up 75% of total mobile data traffic by 2020.

"As people watch more video on mobile devices, advertisers have a huge opportunity to use video to connect with their audience where they are spending their time: on mobile and in feed," the Facebook blog post read.

At Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has preached a mobile-first strategy for some time, so these tests seem like a natural extension in the practices that the social network already has in place internally.

Julian Cole, head of communications planning at BBDO New York, made it clear that agencies are taking mobile video serious as a competitor, or at least adjunct, to TV in the post, "We recognize that context is key. So in our latest experiment, we partnered with Facebook to see how we might be able to rework existing ads for mobile newsfeed environments. What we discovered is that there are ways to optimize existing assets to deliver increases in ad recall and message association."

Cole added that what they learned reinforced their stance on considering mobile options from the outset. For its part, Faceobook provided four quick tips for marketers looking to transition their creatives from big screen to small screen: capture attention quickly, design for sound off, frame your visual story and play more.

Although the post didn’t mention Facebook Live, its live streaming video feature, recent moves have made it clear that Facebook is looking to entice traditional TV content to its platform. Most notably, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company recently added capabilities to live stream video using professional audio and visual equipment.

The social network said it would continue sharing examples of what has worked as they continue to test on the medium.