Anton Bollen - What Makes a Video Effective?; soap! 2015

Editor's Notes

1. Good morning Krakow! I hope you are as happy to be here as I am! Today, we will be talking about video – specificially, we will take a look at the expectations and behaviors of viewers. This allows us, as CC, to better understand the things required to create effective videos.
2. My name is Anton Bollen and I work for an american company called TechSmith. My background and my passion are instructional design – especially in regards to videos. Over the last 10 years, I‘ve created over 850 instructional vides in 5 languages. I currently live in the lovely city of Berlin.
3. Enough of about me! Let‘s talk about video!
4. It should be no surpise to most of you that the use of video is increasing. YouTube 2nd Search Engine. Hours 60% y/Y Trend not only applies to YouTube, it applies to all platforms, industries and purposes. The way people learn, and the way us CC teach, is being drawn more and more towards video. And the fact is: If you are currently not considering video as part of your portfolio, you are likely to fall behind very soon.
5. Creating – and understaning – video: it can be a very daunting task because a lot of factors go into a video. How can we create videos that are effective and will be understood by the audience? We tried to untangle it.
6. As I mentioned before, i work for a company called TechSmith. We make two software products, Camtasia and Snagit. This software is used extensively by users to create instructional and informational content.
7. We rely on our users creating videos – and being succesful with it. It is therefore critical for us as a company to understand the nature of video. So we can make better products, and so we can help our users be better at their job.
8. We ran a big survey and I am going to share the results with you today. Keep in mind: Audience is different! Results with precaution – evaluate them for you won need. (Keep in mind, that each of our audiences is different. My audience is different than yours. Or yours. So take these results with a bit precaution – and evaluate them for your own need. )
9. A little more than a year ago, we surveyed about 1900 people. We asked them a series of questions about video. „What types of videos do you watch“ „How long should videos be?“ „Why do you stop watching videos“ „How do you find your videos?“ And so on. Further, we asked the participants to submit examples of videos which they considered to be „great“ examples. More on that later.
10. 3 types of video ENT–Surprise, amuse or inspire the viewer. INST:–teach or educate. INF: – deliver facts, news, ideas or descriptions. # For us in the room, the instrucational and informational videos are probably the more relevant ones. The lines between these video types are often blurred. Elements of entertainmnet are found in instructional videos. Entertainment videos are still video – and there are many things we can learn from watching entertainment videos that we can then apply to our instructional and informational videos.
11. Regardless of industry, there is application for video! The participants of study came from practically all industries. We wanted to create a sample that wasn‘t specific to just one market the results need to be relevant for all.
12. About a third of the people in the survey came from large companies with over 1000 employees. Small and medium-sized businesses were also represented and we included freelancers as well. Again – Video applies to every business and industries – regardless of size.
13. As for the age breakdown, the majority of the people we interviewed are working age. This represents the people that you and I, as CC, are trying to reach.
14. We found out a lot and it was all interesting. Rather than simply showing you a lot of graphs, which would be boring for you as well as for me, I am going to do it a slightly different: I took the findings and I boiled them down to their main points and lessons– as they relate to the people that are creating videos. Basically: WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO IN ORDER TO CREATE EFFECTIVE VIDEOS
15. Here is the first thing: Instructional & Informational videos are watched most in the morning. What does that mean for us? Think about your audience. If they are watching the videos in the morning, they are likely doing it at work. And they are most likely doing it to prepare for a task or a meeting. Include the information that would be helpful for such a situation, such as step-by-step instructions or a quick summary of the most important points. Keep it efficient – these people want to get on with their day.
16. This is what people reported as their preferred length for videos. The entertainment category, the orange one, shouldn‘t be a surpise. People like these video to be short. Think about YouTube – most funny videos are less than 3 minutes, aren‘t they? Now onto the instrucational videos, the blue category. Users say they prefer these videos to be a bit longer because most instructional tasks need more time to be explained thorougly.. The same applies to informational videos.
17. As you might expect, these are some of the more popular answers to „How did you find your most recent video“? Think about it as a CC– what do you need to do to make sure your video can discover your video? People find videos by searching for them. YouTube: Descriptive Title, Good description, add captions and tags. This helps the google algorithm index your video and thus makes it easier for viewers to find it. I also found this one great „required to watch“ – it confirms that videos are becoming a norm within companies.
18. We also asked people if they ever postpone watching a video and 2/3 said yes. I do this all the time . . For us as CC, we need to think: If they postpone watching my video, how are they going to get back to it at a later point? Can they search for it? Does it have a unique titel? Is it posted in multiple places? Make it easy for viewers to find the videos again. This also means: We can‘t expect people to watch our videos right away. As videos get postponed – and time goes on, they are becoming less important to the viewer and they will eventually loose interest. Are there things you can do to increase their interest so they watch the video right away? If you are sending the video out in an email to your colleages – send more than a video link. Give them a teaser or add a screenshot.
19. Do viewer sometimes stop watching a video before the end? This graph tells us two things 18% are liars. Everybody has stopped watching a video before the end. So – that tells you a bit about the accuracy of self-reporting surveys. However- 82%, and more likely 100%, do not watch the whole videos. Again, think about it from a content creators perspective: Where in the video are you going to place the important information? When is your messaging? When is your call to action? Let me show you an example.
20. People stop watching – that‘s a fact. So we asked why the stop Biggest reason, especially for instrucional and information videos. The video was boring and not interesting. Even if the content is right, it was presented in a very boring and uninteresting way so people stopped. Another big reason: It wasn‘t the right information.
21. There are many things that people said are boring – and you, as CC need to avoid these as best as you can: It starts with the voice. If the voice is boring, the video is boring. Avoid having a dull & monotone speaker. Passion! IF there is just the content, but there is no context or no examples, it is hard to engage the viewers. They need to relate to it. Some topics are simply boring. Tax-video is hard to make engaging. But try. Maybe you can use very good visuals or a very good speaker to counteract the boredom of the topic. Videos that move too slow. If a topic can be explained in 2 minutes, but the video takes 5 minutes to do so, you are doing it wrong. Avoid unnecessary repeating.
22. People also stop watching because they were looking for different information. Often, they were looking for more detail. „How to fix a kitchen sink“ should show, how a think is being fixed and not just talk about it. For instructional videos, people are often looking fot step-by-step instrutions because they want to follow along. Description & title don‘t match. TITLE AND DESCRIPTION ARE VERY IMPORTANT. For Search, but also for viewer retention. Make sure you set the right expectations!
23. So what do people consider to be a „Great“ video? What attributes or features are important?
24. Do you remember the 1900 people we surveyed? We asked each person to send us one video that they consider to be great. My colleage Casey analyzed and categorized each video to identify common elements and themes.
25. A trusted brand or source is a common indication for a great video. Building up that brand as a creator can become very important Callouts – text overlays: Things that provide additional information in the video. This also adds to the overal professionalism of the video. Having a speaker in the video ads character and a personal bond. Good audio quality is very important. Bad Audio quality can really distract from the overall impression your video will make. Clear, pleasant & easy to understand.
26. Introductions & Outros reinforce some professionalism and help to build that brand. Animations help to engage people, especially when the screen content is rather blank. Hyperlinks provide additional information or can link to addtional videos. People appreciate that. In a lot of cases, music is attributed to great video. Audience Engagement: THINK: Any way you can directly interact with your audience? How did you like the video? What other topics are you interested in? The audience is engaged and feels validated – and you as a CC receive valuable feedback.
27. How long are the videos people sent us. The thing I want to point out is the length for instructional and informational videos: most are in the 1-10 minute range. You have some time to explain topic if you need it. You don‘t need to rush through the content. - but don‘t use this graph as an excuse to make unnecessarily long videos.
28. Keep in mind that time is valuable: Make your videos as short as possible, but as long as necessary. Get your point across in an effiicient manner – don‘t draw things out.
29. A trend that I personally quite like is the idea of bite-sized infomration. Knowledge Clips, Microclips, Knowledge Nuggets --- there are many names for it, but the idea is to serve up information in very small, easy to consume portion. A viewer might watch 2-3 of these clips, but it is easier to precisely choose the right ones and acquire the necessary information.
30. Visuals: strong element to engage the viewer and to provide additional information. They are very powerful. But choose your visuals very wisely – they should not distract from your message or your content. What is happening here? This bunny is intruiging, but not very helpful. You are all paying attention to this slide because it is so unique – but how effective is at communicating the point?
31. INST: People want/need step by step instructions. They want to follow along, they need to compare. Whenever possible, provide the instructions in such a way.
32. People also want content that is easy to follow – and that goes along with the step-by-step instructions I just mentioned. Can you watch a 10 minute video and then complete the task? Structure the content in such a way that it is clear and easy to follow.
33. Music is a great element to engage viewers, but especially for instructional and informational videos, it can sometimes be distracting. The brain can process a visual and an audio stream at a time. Once you add another audio stream, the brain has to do more processing and is less able to pay attention to what matters the most. If you use music, do it subtle. Or use it at the beginning or the end. Never use Dubstep.
34. Of the three categories for videos, quality was the most important for instructional videos. Make sure they look and sound good. ALSO: So make the information and the instructions you are putting in your video are correct. Double-check them. Ask a colleague to check them. Especially true for step-by-step instructions.
35. You have to engage the viewers, draw them into your subject. Make them feel interested, give them reasons to keep watching.
36. These are the two biggest factors we were able to identify for Engagement. Humor. Interest in the content. Think: Add or reinforce these in your videos? Try!
37. Things that keep viewers engaged.
38. Finally: Don‘t be afraid to create your own videos. Experiment. Always put yourself in the shoes of your audience. How are they going to be watching, finding and using your content? Learn and revise from that.
39. Thank you & Questions