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As the global brand performance marketing lead at global delivery platform Wolt, Anna-Maria Moira is responsible for helping new customers find the service, and encouraging existing customers to keep coming back.
In a world where users scroll through content at lightning speed, I’ve often asked myself: What makes someone stop and watch?
And more than just stop. At Wolt, a Helsinki-based technology company with a global presence, we knew we had to diversify our video playbook.
After all, in some of our countries, like Denmark, consumers would already be aware of our brand and we had to move beyond basic brand awareness. We did just that by using video to boost consideration and drive meaningful purchase intent.
While we had been investing in YouTube for some time, we recognised that we hadn’t yet mastered the Shorts recipe.
The answer turned out to be more authentic; featuring platform-native creators, and relatable humour.
Building a creative experiment for Shorts
We knew from speaking with Google that taking a high-gloss brand film, and adjusting the format to fit placements it wasn’t designed for might not work on YouTube Shorts.
The platform’s DNA is different. It thrives on authenticity, upbeat pacing, and relatable, peer-to-peer connection. When viewers encounter an ad that feels like a corporate interruption rather than a native piece of entertainment, they tune out.
We wanted to build Shorts from scratch, leaning into the “ABCDs” of effective YouTube creative — Attention, Branding, Connection, and Direction — tailored explicitly for the Shorts environment.
To understand what truly drives consideration in a Video View Campaign (VVC), we designed an experiment aimed at audiences in Denmark. The variations tested different elements of the Shorts ABCDs:
- Early branding: Introduced the Wolt driver organically as a character at the 4-second mark, using highly relatable humour.
- Delayed branding: Pushed the brand introduction to the 9-second mark, relying on the same relatable humour to sustain attention.
- Quirky humour: Delayed the branding to 12 seconds and employed a more eccentric, quirky comedic style to hook the viewer.
We used a story arc that paces the content with multiple peaks and unexpected frames in order to sustain attention.
The test-and-learn culture: Pivoting on a frying pan
One of the most valuable aspects of this journey was our iterative process. We didn’t stick to a static plan; we prototyped and pivoted based on what felt authentic to the platform and the local culture.
For example, we originally scripted a scene where the creator featured in the video, was very hungry and began frantically “frying” an empty pan. On paper, it was a funny scene. However, once we saw the edit, it didn’t land.
Our Danish team identified that the humour and tone of voice would not resonate with the local audience. Instead of forcing it, we leaned into more relatable hunger moments that felt genuine to a creator’s life.
This willingness to try, learn, and adapt was what allowed our final assets to feel native to the Shorts feed.
This project also featured close collaboration from the performance team and global brand team. This cross-functional kitchen allowed us to prototype rapidly and lean into a scrappier, more authentic aesthetic that feels at home on a vertical feed.
A full plate of performance results
Each of the experiments helped us learn different things that we can use in future campaigns.
- Early branding stole the show. By introducing the Wolt driver character just 4 seconds in, we exposed 75% more unique users to our brand message.
- Casting our brand as a character drove consideration 3-5X above our high-average benchmarks. Specifically, the early branding arm delivered a 5.86% consideration lift.
- Relatable humour held attention longer, resulting in an 18% boost in ad recall. It also proved more efficient, with our delayed branding arm achieving a 15% lower cost-per-view (CPV) than the early branding version.
How to ‘Shorts-proof’ your strategy
Our success with this experiment has fundamentally changed how we view vertical video. You need to integrate your product naturally into the narrative, focus on the hook, fast pacing, and a visually supported call to action.
You simply cannot go with a “master” film adapted into a vertical format and expect the same impact. It requires a different mindset.YouTube Shorts-first creative and a clear test-and-learn approach have unlocked a playbook we’re now ready to scale across our other markets.
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