Until now, a goldfish was always used to illustrate the shortest attention span in the animal kingdom. The good-luck fish can stay focused for approximately 9 seconds.
Last year, a new study published by Microsoft Corp. brought to light a terrifying fact – as a side effect of adapting to an increasingly digitalized lifestyle, our attention span has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds. People generally lose concentration after 8 seconds, so we officially have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. (I hope you’re still reading this)
It explains why capturing people’s attention is becoming so hard. Over the past few years, as a result of this increasing disengagement, content has become more visual. We see brands successfully juggling different visual assets, such as videos, images, infographics, or instructographics, to keep the customers immersed in the stories they’re telling.
One thing is clear now – entertaining millennials takes more than an informative blog post. The stuff has to resonate with their sense of worldview, style and preferences. And it has to be worthy of those 8 seconds.
So how do you get them to watch your videos?
Well, love at first sight is probably your best shot.
Riding the graphic design trends
Don’t get me wrong – the script and quality of the content is still the pinnacle of a video-led strategy. However, dressing up your video in trendy graphics like an eye-catching thumbnail or crispy animations and choosing the right visual style, can give it a more contemporary feel. The more appealing to the eye your video is, the better chances you have to lock your viewer’s attention from the very start.
Don’t follow the graphic design trends? That’s okay. Here’s what’s making the top lists this year.
Vibrant, bright colours. You may have noticed this trend growing in popularity last year, as many businesses have adopted a more colourful, bolder palette for their website designs, social media images and videos.
According to Pantone’s Spring 2016 colour report, this season the colours should transport us to a happier place.
You will notice how well Airbnb executes the visual strategy in its recent set of how-to videos geared towards the Asia-Pacific travelers and hosts. (Click here to read more about the power of how-to videos.) The brand is notoriously good at connecting with its customers all over the world as well as establishing a distinct and memorable brand image.
Video still from Airbnb’s latest How-To Series of five videos. Source: Airbnb
Contemporary retro style. Vinyl is back in fashion, Adidas Originals are as hot as ever, pixel art is booming and just look at all the geeky t-shirts celebrating early technology (like old Nokias and Tetris) and some of the iconic PC games. The trend manifests itself through icons and retro style cut-outs as well as some distinctly 80s style patterns.
It’s very much alive in the video world, too. Here’s how The School of Life, a popular London-born brand devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture, is utilizing the contemporary retro style trend.
Video still from The School of Life’s video on The Meaning of Life. Source: The School of Life
Video still from Tony Miotto’s video on Pixel Fashion People. Source: Tony Miotto
Dramatic typography. Video is all about communicating the information visually, and that certainly includes typography. No Times New Roman, please! If you’re using text in your videos, make sure you choose a font that also helps you to make a statement. Typography is such a flexible design element – you can manipulate it in many different ways: size, colour, texture, and even arrangement can help you hold the viewer’s attention as well as give your video that extra bit of soul.
Here are a few examples of how brands benefit from bold typography choices.
Video still from Nike’s video on The Meaning of Life. Source: The School of Life
Video still from ASOS’s weekly video series. Source: ASOS
Distinct video visual styles you need to explore
Imagine that your video’s style is an extension of your brand. How would you like to be perceived? What do you want to be associated with? What emotions or thoughts do you want to provoke? You need to be able to answer these questions before you get to the production stage. The aesthetic feel of your video can have a huge impact on people’s perception towards your business values and personality. Here are the 4 most popular video visual styles.
Bold. This style is mostly expressed through vibrant, flashy colours, dramatic typography (big, bold and attention-grabbing), in-your-face kind of animations and graphics. Businesses that opt for this style seek to be visible and usually have a strong message to deliver. If you’re going for a bold video style, doesn’t mean you are shouting. Make sure the style extends your brand’s aesthetics and you’re in a safe place. This style is trendy among contemporary fashion labels, hot new consumer technology and lifestyle products, cutting-edge restaurants and pop-up shops, cool games, apps and even charities. It’s all about breaking into the centre of attention.
Video still from Movember Foundation’s video on World Cancer Day. Source: Movember Foundation
Clean minimalistic. As the name suggests, this visual style adheres to minimalistic design guidelines, keeping the balance of typography, colours and visuals in check. It uses modern, stylish fonts to send the message and often employs rather neutral background colours. In this type of videos, you can expect to find a lot of “white or empty” space as well as articulate, clear voice-overs.
Clean video style is exceptionally versatile, so a huge variety of businesses from tech companies to accounting firms choose to execute their video content using minimalistic design. Brands often embrace this style when they want to produce explainer videos or business trailers to explain what they do and why it is important. Clean visual style creates a sense of simplicity, ease of use, trustworthiness and efficacy. No wonder it’s the most popular kid in school.
Video still from Wix’s video. Source: Wix.com
Artsy. Think bold, vibrant colours, crazy patterns, funky fonts and creative idea executions. The artsy visual style is definitely a statement-making design solution. Businesses that specialize in creative services – designers, makers, photographers, fashion labels, creatives – are committed to pursuing a unique, distinctive brand, so it’s only natural that they use video to build on those concepts. It’s a friendly, hip style that helps to enhance the already thriving soul of a business. Execute with caution if you’re not a natural born creative.
Video still from D&G’s video. Source: Dolce & Gabbana
Elegant. If you’re after a timeless, classy video, elegant visual style is your best option. By using a lot of traditional design elements, such as thin, elegant fonts, neutral colours and a lot of slow-motion intervals, this style evokes a sense of luxury and tradition. Brands that represent high-quality or premium products (think expensive jewellery, 5-star hotels, top-tier restaurants or designer clothes) strive to tailor their videos to customers that appreciate high-end products and services and are used to this kind of treatment. On the other hand, companies that seek to inject some elegance and style into their brand communications pursue this style to form new associations with their brand. If elegance is one of your brand’s values, this style is for you.
Video still from River Island’s video by Tony Hope. Source: Ryan Hope
Need more inspiration? See how these entrepreneurs built their video subscription businesses online.