If you want something short and sweet, a 30 second explainer video may be the ticket. Here’s some useful background information on 30 seconds explainer videos along with a few examples.
30 second explainer videos
How many words are in a 30 second explainer video?
Many clients who contact us often grossly underestimate the length of their scripts. For example, they might send us a dense, one-page Word document that they consider their script draft and estimate it to be around 30 seconds. Not even close. Keep in mind that the typical word count for a 30 second explainer video is around 75-80 words max.
Strengths
30 second explainer videos are all about brevity. This is where these videos excel vs. 60 second and 90 second explainers. They’re very concise. Short and sweet and to the point. Shakespeare wrote that brevity is the soul of wit and this applies to 30 second explainer. There’s simply not enough time to include a lot of “fat” in videos of this length so you must be extremely succinct with your messaging. With attention spans getting shorter and shorter, 30 second explainer videos can be excellent bite-size snacks for your viewers. Plus, they can also serve as animated TV commercials if you decide to use traditional media (most TV slots are 30 seconds).
Weaknesses
It’s settled then. People have attention spans less than those of goldfish, so that means we should all just always do 30 second videos max, right? Not so fast. This whole attention span thing is complex, heavily nuanced topic that we’ve discussed before. Just take a look at some of the viral explainer video hits out there like these two for Dollar Shave Club and PooPourri. Both videos have millions upon millions of views on Youtube to date and both are actually over 90 seconds. The Dollar Shave Club video was wildly successful and an important factor to establishing the brand, which was eventually purchased by Unilever for $1 Billion. PooPourri has also become a runaway hit with sales off the charts. It’s safe to say that the 8 second attention span thing doesn’t apply in those cases, right?
Examples
Below are just a few of the 30 second animated explainer videos that we’ve done over the years here at Gisteo. Make sure you check out of Portfolio page for a more comprehensive review our work across different style, sectors, uses and lengths. If you’re curious about pricing, we’ve got you covered there too. Just visit our Transparent Pricing page for our straightforward, all-included fixed fees.
