GEICO | Unskippable | 2016
It's Already Over, So You Can't Skip It / GEICO "Unskippable"
YouTube ads get skipped after five seconds. 96% of people hit that button. But when a voice tells you "This ad has already ended, so it can't be skipped," your finger stops.
The problem
The car insurance industry was losing its grip on TV viewers, and reaching younger people meant going through YouTube. But pre-roll ads were a format everyone hated, and most agencies just ran the same TV commercials there without changing a thing.
The insight
Nobody had really tried to fix a format that everyone hated. So why not show the ending of the ad right at the start, and wrap the whole thing up in a few seconds? It's a simple idea, but nobody had done it.
The idea
A narrator announces, "This ad has already ended, so it can't be skipped" — and then the actors just freeze in place. In the best-known spot, "Family," a family sits frozen mid-dinner while the dog jumps onto the table and keeps eating spaghetti for the full 45 seconds. The GEICO logo stays put, right in the center of the screen the whole time. Director Terri Timely shot four spots in two days.
What happened
Within three weeks of release the campaign passed 10 million views. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in Film, two Gold Clios, and was also named one of Adweek's best ads.
Afterthought
The jury chair reportedly said it "breaks every rule of filmmaking." Instead of asking you to watch, it dares you not to look away. That dog just eating spaghetti forever, and the urge to see it through to the end — yeah, I get it.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix
