It might be the Golden Age of television, but it’s also the Wild West of TV promos.

From five-second brand shorts in which ADD-addled audiences get a quick taste of a new television show, leaving them hungry for another bite, to three-and-a-half minute trailers that fills viewers with hearty characters, a carefully curated soundtrack, and dazzling cinematography — it’s anyone’s game when it comes to the ideal trailer length.

“Branding an promotion are heading in two very different directions,” Brett Karley, a writer and director for 99 Tigers, said at the PromaxBDA: The Conference 2016 in New York on Wednesday. “Longer and shorter.”

Executive creative director John Jamilkowski, who has worked with networks including USA, SyFy, and most recently, Turner, agreed: “Everything has changed.”

But we all know that timing is everything. So when it comes to trailers, what’s more effective?

In Praise of Shorts

Karley, who has won several Promax Gold awards and has worked with ABC, CBS, Bravo, and Sundance (to name a few), is an advocate for the short-form ad.

In an era when networks are cutting down on promo time to retain viewers, Karley said that creatives shouldn’t worry: “You don’t need a lot of content. You just need to make people smile.”

Like in this 10-second teaser for ABC’s The Real O’Neal’s:

Or this 15-second trailer for Esquire Network:

Of course drama has its place in the short-form promo world as well, Karley said, using this ad for Fox’s Scream Queens as an example:

“Fifteen seconds is perfect for pre-roll content,” Karley said. But how short can shorts be while remaining effective? “More and more networks are experimenting with five seconds,” which means fitting a compelling moment into about 127 frames.

In the era of DVR, a five-second clip is perfect for the Z-section so that viewers can get a positive dose of branded content right before their show returns from the (often fast forwarded) commercial break.

Rather than limiting creativity, some networks found that a condensed ad actually gives them more license for experimentation. TBS, for example, working with 99 Tigers, did a massive rebrand almost entirely through ten-second shorts. Agencies were given free reign to create scenes that ranged from psychedelic illustrations to character-driven shorts.

“They all fit with the TBS world, and some characters became resonant with the network and became recurring throughout the year,” Karley said.

RELATED: 99 Tigers Ushers in TBS Logo With Memorable Idents

But short ads aren’t the only effective advertising platform.

The Case for Long Form

“Shorts are great we all know shorts are wonderful. But we also know size matters, nothing gets around it,” said Peabody-award winner Jamilkowski. “It gives you a sense of place, characters, story, and a sense of context.”

Jamilkowski pointed out a long-form trailer he collaborated on for Mob City, the spot for which Adweek dubbed one of the 10 Most Epic TV Show Promos of 2013. (“The writer then went on to trash the show but let’s not talk about that,” Jamilkowski joked.)

Online platforms allow viewers to dive deeply into shows through their trailers. And the length isn’t deterring views.

“NBC had a big success with This Is Us,” Jamilkowski said. “They posted the 2:34 trailer and in five days it hit 30 million views. In 11 days it was well over 50 million views. This is a show with no stars, and no major ad campaigns.”

RELATED: Open Road’s Prolific Path Through Pilot Season

Jamilkowski continued that Prison Break’s two-minute trailer accumulated 22 million views in only four days.

“We live and we work at the cross section of art and commerce,” he said. “Often times commerce wins at the hands of a faceless executive.”

But in some longer trailers, art is allowed to triumph:

“Clearly shorts can be dramatic, but a trailer has the time to do more,” Jamilkowski said. “You can add all the audio, the single most important tool we have to work with, to paint a picture.”

So What’s Better?

Although size clearly matters when deciding on a promotion strategy, it’s not clear whether one trumps the other.

“We all need to start thinking not in terms of timing, but in content,” Jamilkowski argued.

And Karley agreed. “It’s all about how you use it.”

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