We are often asked at Silverlinemedia.tv, what makes an engaging video. Many of our clients initially want a ‘funny video’ or a ‘viral video’.  There certainly have been some terrific ‘funny online videos’ but the key questions we work through with our customers at the start of a brief include :

1. What is the role / objective of the video.
2. What’s our success measurement / KPI.
3. What longevity do we need.
4. Does our brand / service best suited by a funny creative.
5. What is our customers expectation of our brand message.

Most importantly to the question ‘does the video have to be funny?’.  My personal view is funny videos / viral videos are the exception, terrific when they come off, which is rare, but in most cases are risky ground for brands and business.

More interestingly is to review factual data on what actually makes video engaging.

Encouragingly the recent Emarketer/Nielsen survey re-enforced our thinking that interest and purchase desire is driven by video that is informative and emotionally pulling. For our customers their video can hit these drivers.

Reviewing the table above, you will see that the segment that reacts best to informative video is the under 20 age group. Another blow to those media commentators pedlling the story that the youth of today are dumbing down, though apparently this has been a view through-out the history of man-kind.  Unders 20s react well to all styles of video but over half are engaged by information and educational content.

As we approach our 2000th video at Silverlinemedia.tv results from our customers prove that good informative and passionate website video improves conversions and through online video distribution and marketing is attracting quality customers at a fraction of other marketing channels. We had a client today, Sportaloosa.com, which after one day has received enough response to pay for the video four times over. A really informative video about the Spotted Horse Breed. Fascinating.