Hooks and Video

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was an annual event that invited entrants to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. For example:

"She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck."

Frankly, I’d like to read more of that story. It's a great hook – something we use in storytelling to hook people in, to get them intrigued enough to stop scrolling or looking elsewhere and pay attention.

Or how about this recent news item:

In France, some crows have been trained to pick up cigarette butts on the street. The crows pick up cigarette butts and put them into a machine, where they receive food as a reward.

Also a very intriguing story. I just want to know more.

When we are creating a video for a client, it is common for us to start with an intriguing quote that grabs potential viewers and gets them to pay attention to the rest of the video. Or an image that is engaging and interesting.

Why do we do this?

Because we are competing with the world of things that want peoples' attention. And we only have a few seconds to pull people in. And if you want video to work, you need to have ALL of someone's attention.

Sometimes it requires a ham hock slap, sometimes a shiny object (or a cigarette butt) that might attract a crow. But if you don't get people's attention, they can't hear your message, they can't be converted to your cause or to make a purchase.

The video above is our "sizzle reel" – a compilation of some of our favorite moving images captured for clients in the past year or two. Take a look, see if you like our style. If so, drop us an email or give us a call and let's see if it would be fun to work together.