TrueView ads on Youtube can be annoying. But they are potentially powerful if you can make people chose to watch more than the unavoidable first 5 sec. We set out to try some reverse psychology to get past the click of death.

In these up to 8 minutes long films the actors beg the viewer to skip the ad since the content is so everyday boring and private. We meet a guy doing the dishes, a bored gang of friends killing off time arm wrestling and a young couple trying to make out on the sofa. There’s absolutely no reward in watching the films, except some occasional product info.

We realized that watching other peoples’ lives is interesting when it rings true. And when the people you watch begs you not to because it makes them feel awkward, watching becomes irresistible.

The ads ran on Youtube, from September 2017- January 2018 targeting the Swedish market. We had different versions and optimized them during the campaign based on performance. The total media spend where 21 000 USD and it got over 12 million unpaid impressions.

With the background in mind, we understood that we needed new creative content and a storytelling technique adapted for the specific format. We produced these TrueView ads that are endlessly long and everyday-like where the characters are so perceptive that they actually beg you to skip them. - Hey, here´s nothing to see!, - Hello, let go, why are you still here?

By using reversed psychology we successfully triggered peoples curiosity. We live in a noisy multimessage world where these spots came out as unexpected downtime. The idea also blended nicely with IKEAs overall concept Where Life Happens.

The average view times were stunning: over 3 minutes plus per spot. 39% of the viewers even watch the whole ad – that is 18% higher than the industry average. And the message stuck, according to the Google Brand Lift Study, the results for ad recall and product consideration score ”best in class”, compared to other brands within retail.

The preference increased for those who had been exposed to the ad 65% vs those who not had seen the ad 52%.

The videos had over 12 million unpaid impressions since they where shared and loved by everything from journalists to Ikea frenetics and ordinary people.