We used the Allstate character Mayhem and the skip button on a pre-roll ad to illustrate a simple fact: if you try to skip Mayhem, you get more mayhem.

Our Mayhem ad ran as pre-roll; trying to skip it started an interactive experience. Every skip led the viewer to relentless punishments, such as nails on a chalkboard or a baby crying. The only escape was to acknowledge that mayhem can’t be avoided and watch the ad. Then Mayhem went away.

The unit ran nationally across a variety of online content providers.

The ad generated a 32% lift in brand favorability across 2.2 MM people. Engagement rate was 16%, more than five times the industry benchmark.

In addition to engagement, the pre-roll exceeded benchmarks in four more critical performance metrics — sharing, average time spent, viewability rate, and cost-per-engagement — making it the strongest-performing Q2 campaign on the TubeMogul platform globally.