Over the past eight years, the average duration of television commercials has dropped to 20 per cent.
In comparison, ad sizes in magazines have shrunk by a whopping 30 per cent and newspapers have witnessed a weight loss of 21 per cent, says TAM media research.
While the average duration of a TV commercial in 1994 and 1995 was around 25 second, it has slimmed down to around 20 per cent in 2002.
According to TAM, the trend is so pronounced that in 2002 TV commercials below 20 seconds in duration (the 5 seconders, 10 seconders, 15 seconders and 20 seconders) accounted for around 70 per cent of all commercials aired on TV.
Also, the growth in the number of short duration TV commercials is much higher than for ads with a longer durations.
Says Arvind Sharma, chairman & CEO of Leo Burnett:
