The Medium Matters
Facebook, TV, Instagram, or your home page, WHERE YOUR VIDEO PLAYS SHOULD CHANGE WHAT’S IN IT
No photographer could create an image that worked within all these parameters at once. It’s even more important for video. Image: Mary from our Hayabusa Color Push campaign. Stills and video, shot separately.
There’s can be no doubt that video (or film for the Artiste’s out there) is the most powerful method of mass communication in existance. Pictures can be more striking, podcasts can be more convenient, the written word is more nuanced, music is more immediately emotional, but the combination of moving images, sounds, words, and music is just so influential.
It’s as if it has a direct line to your head and heart at the same time. A potent elixir of thinking and feeling. That’s why the form is so ubiquitous in advertising today.
“If it works as a six, there is something fundamentally wrong with your 30.”
But all movies are not alike. That’s were you’re screwing up. Tell me if this gameplan sounds familiar: Make a 30, and then cut it down to a 15, and then cut it down to 6? Breathtaking efficiency on the surface, but I am here to tell you that if it works as a 6, there is something fundamentally wrong with your 30. A thirty second TVC, a five minute brand film, an instagram story, and 6 second Youtube ad have as little in common as a picture and podcast. Despite the fact that they may have been captured on the same camera, they are inherently different mediums and need to planned and deployed differently.
What you need to consider, when designing for these mediums, is WHERE the media is being consumed.
If you are making a :30 sec TVC…
This is going to be watched (or fast forwarded through) sandwiched between 4 other ads, while people aren’t really paying attention. Established thought says you need the 3 P’s (product, price, place) to be loud and upfront to cut through the noise. You also need to memorable, so that later, after their show is over, people will come back to you. Also, you’ll need a time machine because people don’t watch live TV anymore.
If you are making content for Social…
This is going to be watched on a computer, phone, or tablet. There is probably a link at the end, or above, or below. Don’t worry about any P’s, just make something good. Capture their interest, engage them emotionally. If what you are saying resonates, they can click on the link and learn more. People trust what they discover themselves far more than anything you shout at them.
If you are making a brand film…
A film like this lives on your site, so you hardly need any branding at all. Because they are already on your site! This is the destination, now you need to make it worth the trip. Put logos, product shots, demos, fourth, fifth, and sixth, and just make it GREAT.
If you are making an In-Stream add for Youtube or Facebook…
Are you trying to annoy your audience? Your brand should make their day better, not worse.
A straight cutdown feels efficient, but cutting a great car in half longways will not get you two (or even one) motorbike. And if you design a car to be seperate-able, (while that would be a cool trick) it probably won’t be a very good car. It’s not any different for ads.
And don’t even get me started about pulling stills from video footage…