In short-form video, don’t mistake efficiency for effectiveness
An overreliance on short-form video and quick-win marketing means efficiency is increasingly mistaken for effectiveness.
Leo Australia CEO, Clare Pickens, argues that what we need to focus on is creating emotionally resonant content to build memorable brands and deliver commercial success.
Not everything that’s efficient is effective. And yet, much of today’s marketing acts like the two are synonymous.
We’re caught in a headlong sprint toward fast, undistinguishable, lower-funnel content – particularly short-form video – as if the sheer volume of output will somehow compensate for its diminishing impact.
It won’t.
Having sat through several recent industry events, I’ve been struck by how deeply entrenched this thinking has become. The obsession with quick wins, driven by short-term reporting cycles, has led to what I can only describe as a race to the bottom in parts of our industry. What’s being lost in the process is creative effectiveness, connection and craft, all of which deliver commercial value.
Short-form videos have their place. A well-timed Tiktok can be magic. But when these formats become the default setting, attempting to drive the entire funnel, we’re not building memorable brands – we’re making wallpaper at best, advertising landfill at worst. Frequency without meaning? That’s just noise. And noise wears thin fast.
Formulaic, paint-by-numbers ads made to fit algorithmic norms rather than disrupt them – the result is a sea of sameness, fuelled by tools that, by their nature, only remix what’s already out there. Originality is not the outcome of recombination.
Reports suggest that roughly 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. And that’s only one platform in our arsenal. We need to stop feeding the beast with bland. We’ve become reactive, fixated on immediate feedback loops and dopamine-driven data points. And yet, we act surprised when audiences disengage.
Take System1’s now infamous “cow test”. Their research found that a video of a cow chewing grass evoked more emotion than 50% of professionally produced TV advertising. That’s not just a creative issue – that’s a commercial crisis. Emotion and connection drive effectiveness and dullness costs money. Brands spend an average of 7.3% more on media to achieve the same result with dull as they can with an emotionally resonant campaign.
In a world where data privacy concerns, misinformation, and corporate scepticism are on the rise, brand trust has never mattered more. Trust is earned through transparency and consistency, not just frequency. To everyone lamenting stricter rules of implied consent, take it as a challenge to be more interesting and find a way to connect with your customer in a more meaningful way. We can’t expect data consent without first earning emotional connection. Yuval Noah Harari, author of Nexus, A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, warns of the lack of trust in society and relying on tech innovation to rebuild this. How can we trust a brand when we don’t trust the people and tech behind it?
The truth is, we’re solving the wrong problem. The question isn’t whether short-form or performance media are valid – of course they are. The question is balance. Why pit brand versus performance when the real power lies in their integration?
Performance marketing encourages people to act. Brand marketing encourages people to care. One without the other is unsustainable. Just look at the swathe of failed direct-to-consumer brands who mastered conversion tactics but never built equity in their brand. Speed without substance collapses in on itself.
And let’s not ignore the structural pressures. With CMO tenures still averaging less than three years, long-term thinking is increasingly rare. But that doesn’t make it less necessary. In fact, it makes it more vital. We need leaders and agencies willing to think beyond short-term challenges and advocate for ideas that last, and make marketing efforts a sustainable, long-term growth engine for the business.
So no, short-form isn’t the villain, though I would happily heckle every panellist who stands up and touts hyper-targeted and hyper-personalised as the silver bullet. And just because we can make more faster – doesn’t necessarily mean we should.
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Let’s get one thing straight: short-form video isn’t the problem. Nor is efficiency. The problem is marketers confusing tactical execution with strategic thinking. Chasing clicks and likes because your CMO wants a quarterly win is not a media format issue – it’s a leadership failure.
Romanticising emotionally resonant, long-form creativity is a lovely bedtime story. But unless you’re also investing in media distribution, distinctiveness, and brand codes, your “resonance” is just another echo chamber sob story. Emotion alone doesn’t drive effectiveness – fame, fluency, and reach do.
I agree, the obsession with short-termism is killing brands. But again, this isn’t about video length. It’s about brands ignoring Byron Sharp and The Long and the Short of It. You can do TikTok and still build long-term brand memory – just ask Duolingo or Ryanair. You just have to know what you’re doing.
So, stop blaming short-form. Stop moaning about efficiency. And start admitting that the rot lies not in formats, but in the strategic laziness that’s pervading modern marketing. Efficiency without strategy is chaos. Emotion without scale is theatre. And creativity without commercial outcomes is art school, not advertising.
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Thanks for vehemently agreeing. It’s very clear that this isn’t about a single format nor bemoaning necessary efficiency driving. However, as stated, it’s about balance and the endemic of poor strategic advice being given in the industry.
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