Moments where time stands still have become one of the hottest areas in the media industry.
Most consumers tend to dislike the interruptions that TV commercials bring, which is why many are ditching traditional boob tubes in favor of streaming outlets. But major streamers like Amazon’s Prime Video, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max, NBCU’s Peacock, and Disney’s Hulu and Disney+ are working to monetize the decisions of millions of viewers every day to “pause” their choices, causing ads of various sizes and shapes to appear on their screens just seconds after the action stops. After all, pauses aren’t forced on viewers like traditional commercial breaks, and media companies are hoping consumers will be more willing to consider ads that only appear on screen if they choose to stop the video.
Their efforts have intensified. Disney first experimented with “pause ads” on Hulu in 2018, trying to prevent ads from taking up too much screen space or blocking subscribers from watching paused programming. Many streamers have moved beyond this cautious experimentation phase and are now running or testing ads that take up the entire screen and have many interactive bells and whistles.
“This is a commercial,” Tanner Elton, vice president of U.S. advertising sales for Amazon Ads, said in a recent interview. “I want you to see what’s going on here.”
Amazon’s pause ads are often full-screen and include a way for viewers to click a button on their remote control to go shopping for the item in question. One recent ad encouraged viewers to order candy. The other, for Berkshire Hathaway’s Duracell, offered Prime Video subscribers the opportunity to add batteries to their Amazon carts. The company found that after Duracell ran both pause ads and regular spot ads, purchase rates increased by 12%, and that pause ads drove more work from regular video commercials. Netflix found that 77% of ad tier members keep a paused ad on screen for more than 15 seconds.
No wonder pause ads are on the move.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock has offered full-screen pause ads since its launch, and Netflix now offers post-pause commercials that take up either the entire screen or half of the screen, with the other half sometimes devoted to graphics that remind you of the show you’re watching. Warner Bros. Discovery, which previously offered only pause ads that took up a quarter of the screen and didn’t interrupt the show you were watching, is testing full-screen ads around the world to gauge how subscribers respond. The company is also considering whether it can find a way to open more pause inventory, even for content rated TV-MA, while still preventing advertisers from having their ads floating on screen next to scenes featuring violence or nudity.
Even Disney, which has severely curtailed pause ads, is considering whether to allow them to do more. The company began running pause ads that would expand to fill the entire screen only if the viewer decided to do so by clicking on the remote. The new commercial format, which Disney is calling “Pause+,” will allow subscribers to “telescope” a new full-screen experience, and may offer trivia games and the opportunity to have coupons sent to their email addresses.
“This is something we’re treating as a viewer choice,” Jamie Power, senior vice president of addressable sales at Disney Advertising, said in a recent interview. “Clicking pause doesn’t immediately take over the screen. It’s up to you to opt in to the experience.”
The stakes are high. Even though subscribers despise watching commercials, more streamers are implementing ads, recognizing the need for the revenue that comes with ads. Media companies are betting that consumers will take advantage of ad-supported services at lower monthly prices, especially as prices continue to rise for companies like Peacock and Netflix. This is partly due to the dramatically higher cost of sports television broadcasting. Sports television broadcasts are one of the few programming formats that continues to attract the large live audiences that television once regularly generated.
Media companies are trying to make pause ads more useful than typical video commercials. 30-second TV ads are typically used to increase product awareness and help customers remember the product when shopping. But now, pause ads display QR codes that viewers can click to see more information about what’s on sale. Most executives believe that soon more pause ads will become “shoppable,” bringing viewers closer to actual purchases. This works better in full screen mode.
Christina Shepard, executive vice president of streaming and performance sales and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said “having a beautiful image with a very clear brand front and center” is key to getting noticed. It is also of utmost importance to have a clear way to make a purchase, such as a QR code that is easy to find, especially on a smartphone screen.
When it comes to pausing ads, many companies believe they need to take immediate action. The companies are preparing for an influx of live viewing, especially as more sports move to streaming venues like ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service and Fox One. Many are also testing other live formats, such as streaming the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Disney+ this weekend and a special 50th anniversary “Saturday Night Live” concert on Peacock earlier this year.
If companies can make pause ads more engaging, Power says, “we can truly prove that good ads don’t distract viewers or take people away from the storytelling.” The best pause ads are “more thoughtful, more relevant” and give streaming viewers a choice whether to watch or not, she says.
Meanwhile, other experiments are already in full swing. Amazon has begun offering the format to local and regional advertisers, said Jen Donahue, director of local ad sales for Amazon Ads. Commercials for local banks and local grocery stores are often very meaningful to viewers, and “there’s nothing more important than making it very relevant to my experience as a viewer,” she says. Donahue added that streaming services give advertisers the opportunity to understand “where their audience is” at the time of viewing, “all the way down to the state level and zip code.”
More streamers will start leveraging digital technology and AI to find ways to create pause ads that replicate the actions viewers were watching. Is someone having an intense phone conversation about an episode of Prime Video’s “Beautiful Summer”? You might see an ad for your mobile service while it’s paused, Elton says. Meanwhile, NBCU will be running pause ads from various sponsors in conjunction with the upcoming BravoCon event.
Pausing ads can also extend beyond stopping action. NBCU plans to run an ad asking for a pause in Peacock’s actual commercial time, Shepherd said. These spots, which the company calls “Mindful Moments,” will use “the same pause ad experience” and ask viewers if they “choose to take a beat.” These are similar to popular commercials for the Calm meditation app that feature nature sounds, or the “Enjoy the Zen” interstitial on YouTube TV, which shows a few seconds of nature images.
If streamers want to be successful with advertising, they may need to focus more on breaks than commercials.
