Help Save The Forests With Busch's 'Tree-Roll' Ads

While most viewers regard pre-roll ads are a necessary evil -  a quid pro quo for getting to watch the content they actually want to watch, for free - the space has proved a creative playground for inventive marketers.

Who could forget Geico's multiple Lion-winning campaigns Unskippable or Fast Forward? More recently, Extra Gum turned pre-roll ads into a virtual stage for new talent with Extra Support Acts. 

Now, beer brand Busch and Deutsch New York have come up with their own spin on pre-roll with the launch of Tree-Roll, an ad which supports Busch’s partnership with the National Forest Foundation (NFF), a non-profit organization that works to protect and sustain 193 million acres of national forests in the States. 

When the ad pops up on YouTube, viewers can decide whether or not to skip it after the obligatory first four seconds; those who opt to watch it through until the end will have a tree planted in their honour. Well, sort of. For every unskipped ad from now until the end of the year, AB InBev will donate $1 to the National Forest Foundation, with a tree planted for every dollar.  

“Pre-roll ads have kind of become a necessary evil. We all want to skip them to get to the good stuff. But what if not skipping the ad resulted in something good too? Like planting trees in our National Forests? Would you skip?” says Dan Kelleher, CCO, Deutsch New York. “As the first pre-roll ad that donates to a good cause upon completion, we’re confident that people’s natural inclination to help will be stronger than the inclination to skip.”