Watch: Will Trustpower's new 3-minute ad strike a chord?

Energy company Trustpower has released a three-minute advertisement that shows a group of Kiwi musicians collaborating to produce an original song.

Playing out as a 'behind the scenes' music clip, the ad, developed by agency Gunroom, features no hard sell throughout as it runs into the 'Take it Easy' tagline right at the end. For the majority of the clip, viewers have no idea of what's being sold or if they are even watching an ad.

It's more of an entertainment piece than a conventional commercial.

Trustpower isn't the only company to employ this approach in recent weeks, with Lotto NZ's new heist-themed ad also focusing on a story rather than a hard sell.

Jodi O'Donnell, associate commercial director at TVNZ, told the Herald she's noticed a trend since the latter part of last year of local companies returning to brand storytelling.

"We've seen a resurgence of long ad durations this year, and at the back end of last year we saw a similar resurgence, particularly out of the retailers," O'Donnell said.

Both Lotto and Trustpower booked out full two-minute slots to tell their stories, while Farmers and The Warehouse ran 90-second ads at the end of last year. Trustpower's online version is three minutes long.

At the time of the release of the Lotto advert, the executive behind the ad, DDB's Damon Stapleton, called the 15, 30 and 60-second blocks advertising is normally sold in arbitrary timeframes, which were not always conducive to telling a well-rounded story.

As advertising has moved online, brands have started to take advantage of the freedom from time limits, releasing longer epic ads that often feel more like short films.

Guinness, Johnny Walker and Lincoln are just some of the brands to have experimented with the form in recent years.

While two minutes of uninterrupted advertising on television could risk annoying viewers eager to watch their shows, the social media response from consumers to the Lotto ad has been overwhelmingly positive.

O'Donnell said the use of storytelling to develop a connection with consumers played an important role in brand building.

"There's a real return to that focus on long-term brand building rather than the short-term retail stuff," O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell attributed this return to brand-building to the growing prominence of advertising analysts such as professors Peter Field and Mark Ritson, both of whom recently presented talks in New Zealand.

Field, in particular, has been influential in providing empirical research and evidence of the impact of brand advertising on business performance over an extended period.

Field's research shows that while a price-focused retail push might lead to short-term gains, businesses also need brand advertising to grow over time. According to Field's research, an optimal marketing budget should have a 60-40 blend of brand and retail advertising, respectively.

O'Donnell said that since Field's appearance in New Zealand, a number of local marketers had told her that they used Field's research to encourage executives to sign off on brand advertising ideas.

"To be able to demonstrate an investment in marketing, which is essentially an investment in your brand, helps marketers, particularly with the more number-focused members around the table. It helps to show marketing as investment rather than a cost."

O'Donnell also stressed that advertisers who were worried about exceeding their budget did not have to purchase a series of four 30-second slots to air a two-minute ad.

"Even if a slot isn't available at a certain time, we can make it available for an advertiser. We can always move slots around," O'Donnell said.