Mastering the Art of Short-Form Video Content
Mastering short-form video content: creation tips, platform optimization, and audience engagement in today's digital age.
Ever wondered why more people aren’t connecting with your ads? The surprising reality may be that you’re not trying to sell to humans – you are selling to goldfish!
Human attention spans have taken quite a hit in the past twenty years, dropping from 12 seconds to a mere 8.25 seconds, with the goldfish outperforming us here with an average attention span of 9 seconds!
Understanding that your carefully crafted ad only has an 8.25-second lifespan to impress can be a tough pill to swallow. But with the right mix of elements, 8.25 seconds is enough for the ads to leave an impact for a long time.
This is where humans differ from goldfish – we are visual creatures ever since the dawn of time. In the digital advertising landscape, visual storytelling can transmit complex messages and spark emotions with a staying power far beyond the story’s telling.
In this article, let’s delve into the compelling world of visual storytelling within ad creatives and how it can be utilised to resonate long-term with your viewers.
Mastering the art of visual storytelling
The well-known saying “a picture speaks louder than words” could have real roots in how our brains work. Basically, our minds grasp pictures and visual cues way quicker than just regular words. Here’s a fun fact: Scientists studied this and found that our brains gobble up visuals a whopping 60,000 times faster than text. Quite impressive, isn’t it?
In order to make the most out of your visuals to attract viewers, it’s important to master the art of visual storytelling in your marketing efforts. Here are some essential tips to get you started:
- Know Your Audience: Understand audiences’ needs and preferences through demographic studies and analytics. Use this knowledge for creating ad creatives that captivate and resonate with potential customers.
- Create a Visual Identity: Establish a signature colour scheme, typography style, and overall aesthetic tied closely to your brand. A compelling visual identity can increase your ad campaigns’ effectiveness by stirring better brand recognition and recall.
- Use High-Quality Visuals: Quality visuals not only demonstrate professionalism and reliability but also enhance viewers’ perception of your brand. Avoid using blurry or pixelated images, as they could negatively impact your brand’s reputation.
- Be Creative: Extraordinary visuals can catch viewers’ eyes and drive increased engagement. This can involve exploring new formats, integrating animations, or designing interactive content.
- Be Authentic: Rather than hopping on the latest trends, unravel what sets your brand apart. Authentic visuals foster a sense of trust and understanding with your audience, promoting enduring brand loyalty.
How to craft a compelling visual story?
In the realm of advertising, a well-crafted visual story can serve as a powerful tool to capture attention and evoke emotions. To create compelling narratives, it’s essential to learn the art and science of storytelling.
Here are some practical tips to help you in crafting an engaging visual story from scratch:
- Identify Your Brand Story: Before you start crafting visuals, you need to understand your brand’s story. Ask yourself: What message am I trying to deliver? What values represent my brand? Once you have answered these questions, you can then proceed to represent these aspects visually, making your story more engaging and relatable.
- Keep It Simple: A compelling visual story doesn’t need to be complex. In fact, simple visuals are often more engaging and easy to understand. Use clear, simple imagery or graphics to convey your brand’s values or product features. Minimalism in design helps viewers focus on the key message without distractions.
- Be Consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to visual storytelling. Maintain a consistent colour palette, font, and style to ensure your story is cohesive and accurately represents your brand.Remember, 59% of senior executives prefer watching a video over reading text, showing the power of visual consistency in delivering a memorable brand story.
- Use Real People: Including real people in your visuals adds a touch of authenticity and relatability to your story. Real human experiences can evoke emotions, driving a stronger connection between your brand and viewers.
- Use Different Visual Formats: Different visual formats can add depth to your story. Use images, infographics, animations, or videos to convey your brand’s message effectively. A diverse range of visuals can cater to various consumer preferences, making your ad creatives more engaging and impactful.
Examples of brands on successful visual storytelling
Videos: Petronas
Petronas, Malaysia’s national oil company, masterfully uses video for visual storytelling. They create commercials, especially for significant cultural and religious festivals like Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, and Merdeka.
These videos predominantly feature storylines centred around unity, tradition, family, and national pride, deeply resonating with the Malaysian audience. Crafted with high-quality visuals and soundtracks, Petronas subtly asserts their brand values rather than heavily promoting their offerings in these ads.
As a result, their commercials have not only become highly anticipated events, but also strengthen the emotional connection with their audience and highlight their commitment to Malaysian society, ultimately enhancing their brand image.
Images: Nike
Source: Daily Commercials
Nike presents one of the best examples of successful visual storytelling through images. The brand skillfully uses high-quality, empowering imagery to craft a narrative around athleticism, motivation, and resilience. Nike’s images, whether featured in their advertisements, social media posts, or on their website, often depict diverse athletes – both professionals and everyday people – in various stages of their sport or workout, showcasing both the struggle and the triumph.
Nike’s tagline, “Just Do It,” goes hand in hand with the visual messaging in their images, further propelling the narrative of challenging oneself and pushing beyond one’s limits. It’s more than just selling sportswear; their images tell inspiring stories, convincing viewers that with determination (and Nike products), they too can reach their fitness goals. The brand’s successful storytelling through images has greatly contributed to Nike’s iconic status in sportswear.
Animation or motion graphic: Slack
Slack, a widely-used communication and collaboration platform, excels at using animation and motion graphics for visual storytelling. The brand skillfully employs bright, engaging animations to simplify and demonstrate its platform’s features and functionalities. These animations are often featured on Slack’s website and YouTube channel.
By transforming potentially complex explanations about the application’s usage into relatable and entertaining animations, Slack enhances user understanding and engagement. Rather than providing pages of textual instructions, they use clear, dynamic animations to visually guide users. This positively impacts user experience, facilitating easier navigation and use of their platform.
Furthermore, the brand’s characteristic colourful and friendly style of animation helps in forming a recognizable and relatable brand identity. Slack’s strategic use of animation and motion graphics as a storytelling tool contributes significantly to their reputation as a user-friendly, modern, and innovative tech company.
Social Media Posts/Stories: GSC
As we are premiering the film, we advise you use social media cautiously like treating a new born child. Better yet, STAY OFF IT.
My boss won’t like this advice but ✌🏻😂
Don’t spoil #SpiderManNoWayHome!Happy watching! 🕷🕸 pic.twitter.com/C0tfRnSk0n
— GSC (@GSCinemas) December 14, 2021
Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC), one of Malaysia’s leading cinema chains, is an excellent example of a brand that has effectively leveraged social media posts and stories to engage audiences through visual storytelling.
An iconic instance was their “Hello, cannot!” campaign, where GSC posted a series of visual content on their social media platforms subtly reminding customers about the Do’s and Don’ts in a cinema. The messaging was packaged in a humorous and light-hearted tone, which was balanced with bright, captivating visuals.
The visual content featured catchy taglines and quirky visuals that stayed true to the brand’s tone of voice, while addressing a serious concern—cinema etiquette. This clever approach managed to garner significant audience engagement, with thousands of likes, shares, and comments. Sensing an opportunity, GSC turned this into a fully-fledged campaign and started utilising it across their merchandise, making the phrase become synonymous with the brand.
Through the “Hello, cannot!” campaign, GSC demonstrated the power of smart visual storytelling in conveying critical messages, promoting brand values, and fostering audience interaction on social media.
Conclusion
Visual storytelling is the secret spice in ads these days. Why? Picture this – our attention span is now less than a goldfish’s! Yet, this tiny window is all we need to make an emotional impact through powerful visuals. Big names like Petronas, Nike, Slack, and GSC pull this off through cool videos, eye-catching images, fun animations, and engaging social media content. That’s why we’ve got your back with top-notch design and copywriting services to make your brand’s story cut through the noise.
At AdFortless, we help your brand to stop blending in and start standing out, effortlessly. Get in touch with us today to kickstart your unique visual storytelling journey immediately!
