Syfy's reverse psychology "Don't skip the ad" campaign proves a success

Syfy have taken an interesting approach to try and encourage viewers to watch their adverts by using reverse psychology. Using YouTube's TrueView skippable ad format, which allows users to clickthrough after five seconds, Syfy created three ads and then requested that viewers, "Don't skip the ad." Syfy worked with YouTube to make sure that only a certain group of viewers were able to see the promos rather than using a blanket approach to disseminate the ads and found that people were less likely to skip ads that contained a clever message. 

You know how the old psychological theory goes: Someone tells you not to think of a white bear, and then that's all you can think about.

To help promote its miniseries, Childhood's End, which premieres Monday night, Syfy is testing the phenomenon in the hopes it's all wrong. Using YouTube's TrueView skippable ad format—which allows viewers to clickthrough after five seconds—Syfy created three custom spots that implore viewers to watch the ads in full, telling them, "Don't skip the ad."