We All Have Attention Deficit Disorder
It appears we are all suffering from a form of ADD. How many hours do we spend scrolling down timelines on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Advertisers know where our eyes are, hence the explosion of sponsored content. As the number of advertisements grow how many actually catch your eye? It’s becoming more and more difficult and here’s why: you only have eight seconds before the average attention span wears off. That’s less than a goldfish! Research shows that the attention span of Internet video viewers is quickly shrinking! Your window of opportunity to make an impression is closing faster than ever.
Everyone with an iPhone can now post a video; 93% of marketers use video in their campaigns. There are more fish in the water. The question becomes how do you stand out?
Of course creativity plays a major role, but don’t discount time. I have been keeping track of this for the last few years. Often I’ll be sitting in front of potential clients showing examples of videos we’ve done for similar customers. Inevitably, at about 1:50 they feel the need to talk – they’re no longer engaged – they want to move on. We tell all of our clients – the new long format video should be as close to two minutes as possible.
Paying for a 4 or 5 minute corporate overview will not yield a high return on investment if it’s unable to capture and maintain viewer attention. Shorter, more concise media will give you a leg up on the competition. Give them spoonfuls of information. People who visit your website or click on a social media video are more likely to watch more if your message is short and compelling. For corporate videos, we set the benchmark at two minutes, max! – and that’s pushing it -anything longer should get cut.
Have questions about how to proceed with your next video project? Midland Video can help.
