Looking to pitch your business, product or service in 60 seconds? Here’s some useful background information on 60 seconds explainer videos along with a few examples.
60 second explainer videos
Why 60 second explainer videos are effective
60 second explainer videos need to be concise. Assuming you’re including a voice over, you only have about 150 words to tell your story. There’s simply not enough time to add in extraneous details or expound on topics when you’re only got 60 seconds…and that’s not a bad thing.
Kissmetrics partnered with Wistia to uncover some interesting insights about length and basically concluded that the real drop-off for video attention span occurs after the 60 second mark. People love being spoon-fed content in the form of an explainer video and 60 seconds is an excellent length to give them a taste of what your product, service or business is all about…without forcing too many details on them. 60-second explainer videos essentially lie at the golden mean between short commercials and longer educational videos.
3 keys to creating compelling 60 second explainer videos
Here are three keys to keep in mind when creating a compelling 60 second explainer video:
1. Be concise
Here’s a dirty little explainer video industry secret: it’s actually easier to create a script for a longer, say 2 minute video, than for a shorter one like a 60 second video. It’s like the famed French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal once said, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” The same is true when writing scripts for these videos. Revise, revise, revise. Eliminate the extraneous details and unnecessary elements from the video script. Trimming the fat from your messaging is hard work, but ultimately critical if you want to create something compelling and succinct.
2. Prioritize your messaging
Even if you’ve got a talented animated explainer video company like Gisteo creating your video, viewers are bound to start to drop off as the video progresses. It’s just a fact that has more to do with attention spans and multi-tasking more than anything. That’s why, especially when creating a 60 second explainer video, you need to really prioritize your messaging- in addition to simply being concise with your verbiage. It’s a good idea to “front load” these videos and get the vital information out there early on. Quickly state the challenge your target is facing, jump into the solution and then wrap up with the end benefits of your offering. If you fail to prioritize like this and take too long to reveal your solution in the first part of the video, you risk losing your viewer before they can properly understand your Unique Selling Proposition.
3. Never forget the “what’s in it for me?” factor
Far too often, explainer videos digress into a laundry list of features and granular detail about a product, service, app or whatever. In a 60 second explainer video, there’s just no room for that. Try to limit the takeaways that you’re trying to communicate and focus on the “what’s in it for me?” factor (WIIFM) in your script. It’s great that XYZ software platform aggregates data with a hyper-fast, superior Big Data algorithm powered by IBM Watson technology (just made that up!) but don’t lose track on the fact that the end benefit of “impressing your CEO and getting a huge bonus” is probably a lot more interesting to most people out there so skip the WIIFM at your own risk!
Bonus
Don’t forget to add a powerful call to action at the end of the video. It’s the perfect time to let your viewers know what the next steps are and what opportunities they will access when choosing your brand.
Examples
Below are just a few of the 60 second animated explainer videos that we’ve created 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 interested in our explainer video production rates, we’ve got you covered there too. Just visit our Pricing page for our straightforward, all-included packages and fixed rates.
