AdStand: Looking back at 2015. Episode 4 – the long format

2015 has been the year when technology became mainstream. The fourth trend can be called the deluge of 'long format content'

Delhi | January 4, 2016

Sujay Ghosh, Sudhir Mishra, Anurag Kashyap and many more of their kind are filmmakers who know how to tell compelling stories on the large screen. They are also consummate storytellers for the small screen. Not for TV, but for a computer screen or a mobile screen. They are now spawning a new category of content. Sujay Ghosh's 'Ahilya' is now topping 5.5 million views and there are short stories across languages getting critical accolade and multiple views.

2015 has been the year when technology became mainstream. Apps were not outliers, they are now mainstream. The second trend of last year was the absolute death of privacy in connected world. And the third was the rise of live entertainment events as a category.

The fourth trend can be called the deluge of 'Long format content'.

Long format films have been popular this year with many brands experimenting with long formats. Long format is much larger than just what the brands have been experimenting with. There are long format films made by the most prominent filmmakers, they have the cast that has both new comers and established artists. Some long format films have become so popular that people seek them out, download them on their phones and watch them many times. There have been hundreds of mainstream short films that have been made across many languages. This deluge of short films has been turned into long format content by the brands.

Royal Stag was early in this game. They created the platform largeshortfilm.com that showcases the craft of short films. Some of the landmark short films made for this platform include 'Ahilya' and Sudhir Mishra's 'Khirchiyaan'.  Royal Stag has found a winner.

Largeshortfilms.com, later in 2015, partnered with Talent House to launch India Mobile Film Festival, where aspiring filmmakers were asked to make films using just their mobiles. The response and quality of films were a clear indicator that more brands can use this platform for push messages.

Brands have used long format films in multiple ways. Some brands have left the films to be standalone pieces with just the final branding, and some have used them to tell brand stories in branded manner.

Oyo Rooms lent their name to the Independence Day short film featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Raveena Tandon, garnering 1.6 million views and a very large social conversation. Though bulk of the social conversation was not on their hashtag #Azadi4me, Urban Ladder did the latter with a long format film about parents visiting their son's family in a large city and feeling out of place. The son and daughter-in-law redo parent's room using Urban Ladder furniture to make them feel at home. The film garnered close to a million views.

The stand-up comedians entered the fray and created a series of content for brands that were lapped up by consumers. Creepy Qawalli from Truly Madly became a viral hit, even bigger than the boy browsing TVC. The stuff the stand-ups produced for FlipKart too were very well received.

Long fomat ads are a new trend and brands have used them in multiple ways. 2016 will see this trend gain momentum, more so because this allows viewers to see the content across devices.

I am sure 2016 will pose more challenges than we can imagine.

Here's wishing everyone a very happy New Year.

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