Facebook India's Thumbstoppers initiative redefines video storytelling in less than 10 seconds

MUMBAI: As mobile continues to reshape the consumer behaviour with people consuming content much faster, Facebook feels the time has come for the creative industry to create short form mobile-first ads of less than 10 seconds.

Facebook India on Wednesday launched ‘Thumbstoppers’, a new initiative to redefine mobile video creativity. Facebook has partnered with leading creative agencies - Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, McCann and Mullen Lintas.

Facebook feels that in today’s age, one has just a few precious seconds to get the consumer's attention as traditional advertising formats of 60 and 30 seconds don't work well on mobile. As mobile becomes pervasive there has emerged an ardent need for marketers and creative agencies to create mobile-first ads. The industry needs to embrace the possibility that stories that stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and change human behavior can be told in under ten seconds. That is the premise of 'Thumbstoppers - Short stories move hearts.'


“Advertising on Facebook has driven significant business results for all our advertisers - large and small. The opportunity now is to drive the impact even harder with storytelling built for mobile. Facebook's Thumbstoppers is our partnership with the creative agencies to inspire and showcase short stories that evoke emotions in under ten seconds,” said Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head of Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), at Facebook India.



Facebook has got Sukesh Nayak, chief creative officer at Ogilvy India, Senthil Kumar, chief creative officer Wunderman Thompson India, Rajdeepak Das, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett India, Garima Khandelwal, chief creative officer, Mullen Lintas, and Ashish Chakravarty, executive director, and Head of Creative at McCann Worldgroup (India) to spearhead change at their agencies, and eventually for the industry.

In partnership with Facebook, theses leaders will support skilling of their teams, helping them understand and think mobile-first, and execute short-form videos more seamlessly.

Thumbstoppers will see experts from Facebook visiting top agency offices in the country to empower them with the required skills and education to create effective short-form video campaigns for their clients.

As a follow up to the campaign launch, Facebook is also throwing open a 'Thumbstopper Challenge' - an invitation to all creative minds to submit their short stories on the brief of driving behaviour change in less than ten seconds by July 12th. The winners of the Thumbstopper Challenge will be announced in August, and the top winners will get to travel to Cannes next year. Facebook will also produce the top 20 films. The key partners on this initiative will serve on the eminent jury for the challenge along with Gaurav Jeet Singh, General Manager, Media, South Asia at Unilever India, and Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications, Media, and CRM at Nestle.

Thumbstoppers is the first initiative to be rolled-out as part of Facebook Creative Playground, an industry-wide capability-enhancing program led by Facebook that is geared towards building the advertising ecosystem in India in partnership with leading creative agencies.

Facebook said it will work closely with these partners to collaborate on a range of initiatives and skilling programs that will enable the agencies to explore a wide range of cutting-edge digital brand solutions.