The Mirage of SAMR
Being somebody that scrolls through social media and watches videos often, I feel like I have a lot of anecdotal experience and evidence as a viewer. In creating this video, I have used my personal viewing experiences as well as experts’ advice to create an advertisement video for my article, "SAMR: Seriously, Another Misguided Reform?"
"SAMR: Seriously, Another Misguided Reform?" article coming soon!
I created the video as an elevator pitch, a secret weapon that sparks someone’s interest in a short amount of time (Post, 2017). There are different types of elevator pitches that can reach the audience and be memorable. According to Pink (2017), there are six different types of elevator pitches.
One-Word – narrow it down to one important word
Question – ask a question
Rhyming – rhyme your words
Subject Line – like interesting subject lines of emails
Twitter – limit to 120 characters
Pixar –follows a story structure
Regardless of the type of elevator pitch, all experts agree that time is of the essence. A study of video analytics found that, essentially, shorter is better. If the video is 0-30 seconds, about 82% of viewers will watch the entire video. For a 30-60 second video, 75% of viewers watch the whole video, and for a 1-2 minute video that number drops to 70% (Guerin, 2012). The longer the video, the more viewership drops off.
Check out this short and catchy video, too.
From my own video watching experience (thanks, Facebook and Instagram), I concur that shorter videos are better because people don’t have time or make time to watch a longer video. Additionally, from my experience, it is critical to have subtitles. Not only does this widen the audience and include those with certain disabilities, but I often watch videos without sound. If I can’t understand the video without sound, I simply stop watching and forget about it. It is also important to know your audience, speak to the heart with your why, and keep your viewer wanting more. Don’t make it a “one hit wonder” when they could buy the whole album.
References
Guerin, E. (2012). How long should my business video be? Retrieved from http://www.adeliestudios.com/business-video-length/
Pink, D. (2017, January 24). 6 successors to the elevator pitch. Retrieved from https://www.danpink.com/pitch/
Post, J. (2017, January 30). What is an elevator pitch? Retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3937-elevator-pitch.html
