A while back, a couple had booked us to capture their wedding so we were getting to know them better. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with the groom after asking him about proposing to his fiance. He told me he had created a video to use during the proposal. The moment he asked his girlfriend to watch it (who of course didn’t know he was about to propose to her), she told him she would only watch it because it was short.
I share this story because even though these two were in love, the girlfriend would have refused to watch a long video in which her boyfriend would be sharing his love and asking her to marry him, simply because it was too long…
I’m not sure if it’s an epidemic we should be concerned about, but there’s no doubt that our attention spans are decreasing. A couple months ago, statisticbrain.com published research that shows in the year 2000, adults had an average attention span of 12 seconds. In 2015, the average adult had an attention span of only 8.25 seconds!
I know for myself, I typically don’t click play on a video that is longer than a few minutes. And more often than not, I rarely watch an entire video all the way through. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone…
At Sula Studios, we believe videos are the most effective way to capture your audience. But not obnoxiously long, data-filled, boring videos. I’m talking about engaging videos that capture your audience’s attention so well they don’t ever consider clicking away. The video below is an example of a short, engaging video we produced as a promotional piece for an upcoming conference:
There’s not necessarily a magic formula to creating captivating videos, but I would say the length of a video is often a large part to its success. Just as the quote below states:
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
It takes hard work to create a concise video that communicates a clear message. And we are always up for the challenge.
We’d love partner with you to create captivating and engaging videos. Connect with us any time: hello@sulastudios.com
– Krisanna Mowen
Side note: As with anything else, there are always exceptions. Sometimes a project may call for a documentary style video, where 5-10 minutes, or even 20 minutes is perfectly fine. A great example of this would be “The Spring” produced by Charity Water (if you haven’t watched it yet you absolutely should). The film is just over 20 minutes and every second is so well done it grabs the viewer’s attention and doesn’t let go.