Hooking Your Audience in 60 Seconds: Crushing Short-Form Video Content
When creating different marketing strategies, it is important that you think of the audience. The key point is to grab their attention and make them interested in what you are trying to sell or advertise. However, today that might be a bit more difficult. The average attention span for Generation Z (Gen Z) is eight seconds – contrasting 20 seconds with the baby boomer generation. With Gen Z being raised around technology from a young age and being introduced to short-form video content like TikToks or Instagram Reels, the attention span has become worse, even concerning. It is so easy to scroll past a video that didn’t grab your attention right away. As marketers, it is key to keep this in mind. Previously mentioned in the last blog, we will dive deeper into different ways to grab your audience’s attention in an efficient way!
The Hook
Since the attention span of Gen Z is eight seconds, you want to make sure the beginning of your ad is interesting right from the start! This way, the audience is engaged right from the beginning so it’s hard to just scroll past from. One thing to keep in mind is making this hook a bit less than eight seconds – around five. It may seem a bit difficult to do, but there are many ways to approach this! First off, you can intrigue your audience by starting with an interesting fact or question that makes the audience wonder and grow curious. Secondly, appeal to the audience! Start with something surprising or that catches them off guard. For example, an advertisement similar to Sour Patch Kids – they start off doing something a bit crazy, then end up doing something sweet in return which is unexpected. Lastly, make sure the ad has good visuals from the start! Make it colorful, unique, and appealing. This will especially be helpful when creating an animated commercial. All in all, grabbing the audience’s attention right from the start is the beginning of creating a lasting impression.
Creating it in 60 Seconds
In any advertisement, you want to tell a story or message. What is your product or service? What is the message behind it? How would you like this to resonate with your audience? These are all important questions to think about in general, but especially when creating your ad. Make sure you break everything down – your hook initially, the problem you want to solve or the message you are trying to say, the benefits or statistics behind your product or service, and what viewers can do next. Each set of these should take around 10 seconds other than the hook which should be shorter. Now, these all seem straightforward or a bit uninteresting when listed. However, it is up to you on how you creatively approach it! Make it unique to your product and service. Make these important factors in your ad creative enough to stick to the audience and draw them in for more.
Making it Creative
As stated, before and keeping everything in mind, it is vital that you are still creative! Especially in a generation like this, drawing the audience in will only take you so far. Having the audience keep engaging and getting more and more interested in the ad will make them more interested in your product and service. A great illustration of this will be making it trendy! Recently, companies have been picking up on certain memes or trends that have been surfacing on the internet a lot. Some companies will post a TikTok or Instagram reel mimicking a trend or meme but making it unique to their company. This is smart as it adds a bit of humor and connection to the audience, making them step back and question if the company really posted that. This can cause them to watch more (and longer) ads of the company as they are now drawn in and engaged.
Overall, it can be a bit difficult trying to accommodate to an audience with a shorter attention span. Making sure they are engaged from the start, throughout, and that the ad is creative enough to stick with them are the key points to getting the audience to move on to longer forms of content. It may take a bit of time, but it is possible. The first step is with new creative, engaging, and unique marketing techniques!
