In 1941 watchmaker Bulova paid $9 to become the first company to use TV advertising to market its watches. In the years that followed, marketers promoting consumer products became increasingly successful in engaging consumers in heartfelt stories. These stories were so touching that it goaded the consumers to go out and buy the products then and there.
In the era of digital experience, where vi



eo-based content is not just for mass market delivery but can instead be targeted, optimized and distributed online, many budding marketers are learning, for the first time, the art of storytelling with online video.

So while the topic is as old as TV, the context has changed drastically. To succeed at capturing attention and get the required eyeballs and clearly articulating your vision and value through video, you need to do three things well:

1) Consider the story. As with all marketing, the best stories will connect with the largest audience. So more than anything else, your video needs to have the basic dramatic structure that lends itself to powerful storytelling. You need a clear theme, an engaging plot, distinct language and identifiable characters. Outline the structure of your story and tune it so that it strikes the right balance between the emotional and the intellectual. So story is king.

2) Create a spectacle. Production costs may not need to be high, but the fidelity does. If you want to carry your audience along to the end, you need a good story and you need it executed with a visual tone and style that both capture attention and hold it. It always pays off to be creative and starkly different. Everybody would want to a buy a product that has been marketed in a unique and charming way.

3) Cut it short. Always sacrifice length for quality. Nowhere can the value of brevity be more significant than in online video. Not only does every second of video increase production costs but, added up, those seconds quickly begin to decrease the value of your video. After about 2.5 minutes, people stop watching. Think in 30-second increments,




been marketed in a unique and charming way.

3) Cut it short. Always sacrifice length for quality. Nowhere can the value of brevity be more significant than in online video. Not only does every second of video increase production costs but, added up, those seconds quickly begin to decrease the value of your video. After about 2.5 minutes, people stop watching. Think in 30-second increments, and decide how many of them you want people to stick around for. Not only are lengthy videos tiring to watch but they also run the risk of losing people’s attention.