POV: Adverts are about to get longer

In the 1950s and 1960s, one minute was the perfect length for an advert in America. It was the ideal duration for those watching at home (mainly women) to become familiar with a product and (hopefully) become convinced of its benefits. Sixty seconds was chopped to thirty in the 1970s – not because of changing attention spans, but because of cigarettes. To make up for revenue losses following the ban on cigarette adverts, television networks started shaving down ad lengths, and this shaving continued into the 1980s, when 15-second commercials were introduced. Soon, a range of lengths became available. Like marketing pick n mix.

It’s still not clear which option – short and snappy 15”, or maybe even flashier 5” – goes down the sweetest. Though, even in the 20th century, there was a recurring narrative in advertising: our changing “attention spans” means ads need to be shorter. Interestingly, this is still a dialogue at play. In 2022, a Forbes article stated: “TikTok has met the consumer with the perfect delivery length for our narrowing attention spans”; the short-form format was declared king. Yet, in 2025, some brands continue to go the long way around.

Brands like Rapha and Patagonia often utilise long-form formats to tell stories. The Patagonia website features a range of long-form documentaries. One of the top results, Seeking South, clocks in at just shy of 55 minutes long. Meanwhile through Rapha’s YouTube channel, you can find short films such as Migration, a 20-minute documentary about the Migration Gravel Race, a four-day offroad bike race in the Maasai Mara.

While these two brands have invested in long-form storytelling for years, others are placing fresh focus in this area. Just eight months ago, Adidas released a feature-length documentary about the Predator football boot, featuring voices like David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Jude Bellingham. More recently, Nike launched an official account on Substack, the publishing platform known for long-form, editorialised pieces, typically published by independent writers or creators.

Called In The Margins, the account refers to itself as “a new home for sports writing”. The content is highly personal to each writer, with pieces about the endurance of motherhood (from journalist Sarah Cristobal), to the repetition of sporting routines (from writer and researcher Kennedy Jones).

“People are increasingly craving depth and intentionality,” says Matthew Kneller, global senior director of storytelling communications at Nike. “Newsletters, podcasts and long-form writing offer a pause from the scroll, a chance to reflect instead of react.” Nike’s move to Substack is the brand’s opportunity to (hopefully) offer this moment of pause in the sporting world.

It feels an obvious point that the slowness of Substack feels directly at odds with the ferocity Nike embodies. But Matthew says the project is intentionally “reflective”. “These stories unfold with contemplation rather than immediacy. We’re not chasing news cycles. We’re exploring how sport shapes people and culture over time.” This is mirrored in the editorial process for each piece, where a spectrum of more nuanced themes like “faith, fandom and triumph” take focus, rather than just a singular goal to win and succeed.

While Nike is enabling longer storytelling on Substack, other brands are reflecting this spirit for the screen. Cash App’s latest spot with Timothée Chalamet, directed and written by Aidan Zamiri and Elijah Bynum, isn’t feature-length by any stretch of the imagination (although, at two minutes, it’s longer than a typical spot in the 1950s), but it is slow paced.

It takes a whole 28 seconds (a lifetime in advertising) for anyone in the advert to speak – or for much action to unfold at all. There are several establishing shots of “rare vegetables”, and of paper blowing against a steadily rotating table fan. The scripted conversation between actors revolves around money, but it purposefully meanders.

On social media, many noted the surprisingly cinematic approach of the ad. “We didn’t want this to look like any other financial services ad,” says Zack Ashley, global head of brand partnerships at Cash App. “We felt it was important to create a piece of work that sparked conversations about money while also keeping viewers engaged and entertained. Hence why we started with movie theatres first.”

The spot was rolled out exclusively in cinemas, appearing before screenings of Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. All this goes to increase the feeling among audiences that Cash App is relishing the chance to tell a good story, as well as promote a product. It’s an aim shared by Nike’s Matthew Kneller. “We knew, through conversations with authors, that there was a lack of support for inventive sports writing. In The Margins exists for that reason. This isn’t a space for promotion, but for new voices and perspectives within sports storytelling. Nike’s role is to enable, not direct.”

It’s obvious why a brand would want to align themselves with telling great, even addictive, stories. You see it even in TikTok content. The jewellery brand Alexis Bittar, for example, has been in the headlines this year for creating its own version of Keeping up with the Kardashians on TikTok – a serialised stream of short-form videos, featuring a cast of returning characters and storylines, much like a sitcom. It’s this type of content that keeps a brand at the top of the feed for viewers, but also solidifies them in the mind of audiences as fun and clever.

For Cash App’s Zack Ashley, experimenting with long-form content is just sensible strategy. “It allows us to build immersive worlds that add levels of depth and relatability to our brand that aren’t always possible with static or short-form mediums. Cash App’s mission is to redefine the world’s relationship with money, and long-form storytelling gives us creative freedom to explore a number of different themes connected to that mission. We see long-form content as an investment that drives equity and brings us closer to our customers.”

There’s also a simpler way of looking at this. Let’s not forget: in-house brand teams are just a group of people behind their own laptops, wanting to push the most interesting projects through their companies too. While short-form is exciting and maybe even be the preferred way of working for many, a certain amount of romanticism exists around projects that are seen as a “labour of love”, that take a lot of effort, time or investment to get off the ground. A particularly commendable mission in advertising, when time is, quite literally, money.