Video-hook Format for Cyber Week: cold opens, no overlapping runs

When to reach for it

Use sume-video-hook when the first seconds are the thing you are testing. The catalog describes it as "a finished Fastlane video-hook Blitz from brand DNA", for a hook, cold open or Fastlane video-hook ad. Cyber Monday 2026 is Monday, November 30, 58 days from October 3, so there is time to find a cold open in October and November before the spend peaks.

Like the other Fastlane Formats it is not meant for custom generated scenes, social posting or the editor. Describe the hook you want in instruction; the brand context goes in input.

Control overlap with on_active_run

A hook test is easy to over-fire: a script that retries on timeout can start a second run while the first is still working. The run body has an on_active_run field that decides what to do when a run of the same Format is already in flight.

A single-flight hook call

For a one-at-a-time loop that tests a new cold open each pass, send reject and treat the 409 as "wait". Scheduled Actions default to skip, so do not copy those bodies into API calls without reading the field.

curl -sS -X POST "https://api.sume.com/v1/formats/sume/sume-video-hook/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: cyber-hook-07" \
  -d '{
    "instruction": "Cold open: a hand pushes a stack of boxes off screen, then the offer line. 9:16.",
    "input": { "offer": "Cyber Monday, 30% off sitewide" },
    "on_active_run": "reject",
    "generation_spend_cap_usd": 30
  }'

What a good cold-open test looks like

Pick three hook shapes and hold the offer constant: a motion hook (an object moves into frame), a text hook (the offer in the first second) and a question hook (a line spoken to camera). Run each as its own item so you can compare them. Keep a note of the Idempotency-Key for each run, since the receipt and the media are what you get back and the labels are yours.

The Format description names the output as a hook or cold open, so ask for the first few seconds and the offer line, not a long explainer. If a run fails, a continuation with previous_run_id can retry the part that failed without paying for the whole run again.

Judge the result on the platform's terms

A short vertical hook has to satisfy the placement. On TikTok's in-feed page a non-Spark vertical ad is 9:16 at 540 x 960 px or larger, up to 10 minutes and 500 MB or less (read 2026-10-03). Read the file back before you upload; the Format run receipt gives you primary_output_url and artifacts[] with the duration.