When using DVRs to watch television, we've gotten used to zipping through commercial breaks. We've been also spoiled by limited interruptions at online services like Hulu, where ads rarely last for more than 30 seconds. In such an environment, sitting through five-minute advertising blocks on live television seems downright onerous.

FedEx recently riffed on our contracting attention spans with an inventive spot that takes brevity to the fast-forward extreme by mimicking what we often see on the screen: a high-speed blur, lasting for a matter of seconds, as we race past commercials.

"[W]e decided to try something different with our latest round of online ads," explains Steve Pacheco at the FedEx Citizenship Blog. "We went to a 10 second format which sped up one of our standard 30 second TV commercials and fast forwarded through it so that people could get to the content they wanted even faster. After all, FedEx = fast."

We were unable to locate a link to the video itself, but we can say Pacheco's description is accurate—and the commercial itself a delightfully clever nod at the way its customers often watch advertisements.

FedEx achieves a high level of Marketing Inspiration by showing it has a sense of humor and understands its customers, and by demonstrating, quite literally, the speed of its service.

More Inspiration:
Matthew Grant: Social Media Success 201: Get a Personality
Beth Harte: The Value of a Marketer
Ted Mininni: Of Rethinking & New Possibilities: 'Co-opetition'

→ end article preview
Read the Full Article