“People don’t want to watch ads online, so they don’t… they skip them”

– Captain Obvious

Ignoring a commercial online has never been easier. All the viewer has to do is press ‘skip ad’. But Hotels.com wanted to make sure people weren’t going to skip Captain Obvious’ big UK introduction, so with the help of All4 (Channel 4 On Demand, the UK's largest VOD platform) we got Captain Obvious to skip the ad instead… literally… using a skipping-rope.

We filmed our launch commercial twice. One version like normal, with no skipping-rope in sight. And another in which everyone is skipping. So when the viewer was served our ad on Channel 4’s VOD platform and pressed ‘skip ad’, the video switched seamlessly to our skipping version of the ad. They could also un-skip too. Turning the button you press to ignore an ad, into the button you press to engage.

In the first week, the ‘Skip Ad’ collected more than 400 thousand impressions on the Channel 4 video-on-demand channel and reached an engagement rate of 34%. Today, almost a year on the ad has been viewed over 4 million times, with half of those viewers clicking the ‘Skip’ button. That’s an eye-popping 50% engagement rate, and one that continues to grow. Importantly, more than half of all viewers to hit the Skip button also then hit the Un-Skip button, or toggled between the two - a clear sign that the surprise was indeed appreciated.