Situation- IKEA has a range of organising products that are popular around the world for their time-saving powers. However, being a new entrant in the Indian market, the brand is still in the early stages of educating people about the real benefits of organising with IKEA.

Brief- An ad that finishes before the skip ad button appears on YouTube.

Objective- To shock the viewer by completing the story and skipping them, before they can skip the ad.

Beating YouTube’s ‘Skip Ad’ button (which appears in 5 seconds) meant this film had to be 4.5 seconds. And it takes about 2 seconds for the character to physically skip the ad.

Leaving 2.5 seconds for the story to set context, characters, conflict and resolve with the product. Given the premise that IKEA’s organising helps find things easily, the characters needed to look unhurried, in control and finding what they need at arms length. This choreography had to be on time, but invisible. The performances needed to be matter of fact, almost indicating a certain habitual cadence.

Direction was about simplifying the staging, palettes, production design and character placement down to the bare minimum so the image is easy on the eye and the mind is ready for what follows.

So when the character nonchalantly hits the ‘Skip Ad’ button, storytelling has 'skipped' Youtube with ‘time’ to spare.