Video viral of the week: Medibank stops pre-roll ad-skipping with clever YouTube ad

YouTube’s video ads often fail to capture viewers attention, leading to people clicking the skip ad button before absorbing the marketing message. With this in mind, Australian health insurer Medibank created the first pre-roll ad that actually played more, the more it was “skipped”… with amazing results.

Medibank, a health insurer, promotes better health through exercise. They wanted young people to take out Private Health Insurance before the end of financial year, when premiums increase for those without cover.

YouTube was the perfect environment to target our young audience, but 94% of people skip ads there, so how could Whybin TBWA Melbourne communicate Medibank’s message about better health?

We saw a link between skipping, an exercise behaviour connected to Medibank’s philosophy of better health, and skipping ads, a behaviour popular on YouTube. And created the first pre-roll ad that actually played more, the more it was “skipped

The results? Medibank saw a 583% increase in people choosing now to press the skip button, compared to YouTube averages.