-By Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

NEW YORK Gas Station TV is hitting the road with a new study to encourage advertisers to switch from 30-second spots, a standard TV unit, to shorter lengths. Conducted by Nielsen for GSTV, the study's results, to be released today, showed recall for 15-second commercials, and even 10-second spots, was superior.

For example, a 15-second ad for Werther's candy was 7 percent more effective than its 30-second counterpart, according to the study. Return on investment for the 15-second ad was 108 percent greater. A 10-second ad for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts had 2 percent higher recall and generated 156 percent greater ROI.

Advertising at the gas pump has taken off, but marketers tend to place standard TV ads on the new platform. So far, about half of GSTV's ads were 30 seconds, not much shorter than the 30-45 seconds of content running next to them.

As it did on the Internet, getting advertisers to cut ads tailored to the new medium will take time. "No one has paid attention to how to make this a great advertiser experience," said David Leider, CEO of GSTV, which sells ads across 5,600 screens in 19 top markets. "We can show advertisers they can get the same or greater effectiveness at the pump with fewer out-of-pocket costs."