In the nearly two years since we launched six-second bumper ads, we’ve seen that big creative ideas can come to life in the smallest of spaces. The world’s most creative minds have tested the limits of building evocative work in six seconds—and the ad community’s enthusiasm has spread beyond YouTube, as bumpers now regularly appear on TV and other digital platforms.

At Sundance this week, we’ll continue spurring on this creative revolution and unveil this year’s six-second challenge. We enlisted some of the brightest minds in creativity, film, and storytelling to draw inspiration from a timeless story, like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, or Snow White. These tales have survived as fables, story books, animated movies, live-action films based on animated movies, and hit songs. Will they survive as six-second stories?

Amid the indie films, documentaries, and star sightings, there will be a handful of top creative agencies from all over the world contributing to this year’s six-second challenge—showing how the way we tell stories continues to evolve through different themes, voices, and media.

The agency interpretations of these stories cover a broad range of imagination and creativity, and demonstrate how much focus, emotion, and complexity can fit into a six-second format. They also show how just six seconds can trigger the desire to see much more. The following short films showcase the diversity of storytelling on display at Sundance, and we hope they inspire you to explore the power, possibility, and impact of short-form storytelling.


Posted by Sadie Thoma, Head of Creative Agency Development, Google