Two Videos, Same Business. But Only One Intrigues
It’s not often we get a chance to compare two videos purporting to do the same thing for the same business, but thanks to my friend Andy Goodman, we can. Andy publishes a great bloggy-kind-of-newsletter for non-profits, and has kindly given me permission to steal some of this month’s cover story.
Lifelines for Youth is a non-profit that helps formerly-incarcerated youth. Naturally they are interested, as are all non-profits, in raising money. They commissioned a video to help. When it didn’t help enough, they commissioned another one. Take a look at the videos below– you only need about 30 seconds of each.
Here’s the game: Figure out which video worked better:
Same kids, same need. One pulls you right in, one makes your eyes glaze right over. As I hoped you’ve guessed, video 2 worked better. It helped Lifelines for Youth meet its annual fundraising goal in just four months. (Note to Marketers: Show these videos to the next person in your company who says that video is a commodity, and anyone can do it.)
The secret to their success? Intrigue.
The first video lays a simple problem in a linear fashion. These kids are in trouble, so give money. It stars from the first second giving you information, with all the emotional heft of a do-it-yourself tutorial.
In the second video we have no idea what’s going on for the first 3o seconds. It’s all questions: Whose voice are we hearing? What does the reading mean? Why are these people smiling? What about those tattoos? Rather than being confused, we’re intrigued. We’re propelled forward through the video by the spoken word and we pay rapt attention– because we want the answers.
There are other reasons this video works, of course. Andy has more background on the hows and whys of developing it here. But if you remember only one lesson from this great piece, let it be this: To get people involved in your video, don’t give answers. Raise questions.
Intrigue us.
The second video was produced by a company called The Department of Expansion. As it turns out, the quality of this video was not an accident.
