What are some tips for making video stories more engaging?

For making videos more engaging, the genre and structure of the video is important. In our animated explainer videos we tend to usually choose more comedic approach. This is because when we make the viewer smile, it makes the first impression towards your brand more positive. This leads to more views, better engagement and in the end, more sales/clients.

Selecting a captivating genre and structure is crucial for engaging video stories. Opt for a genre that resonates with your audience, and employ a compelling structure, such as a well-paced narrative arc or an unexpected twist. Keep viewers hooked by maintaining a balance between suspense and resolution, and ensure that the chosen genre aligns with the story's core themes for a more immersive experience.

Early on in my journalism education a professor stopped a video story I produced with just 10 seconds to the end. "Mary Cate! You have just committed a cardinal news sin, any guess what is is?" The answer: I buried the lede, a compelling and emotional sound bite about 1 minute into a 1:30 piece. I have never forgotten this moment when shooting or editing, that you should always begin with a burst. This burst can be a dramatic video shot, a jarring sound, or a compelling emotional statement. It might be tempting to start with a company logo or voice over but as that same professor told me "skip the fluff, get to the good stuff".

Creating hook in video is necessary if we want viewer to do some kind of call-to-action. Conflict is something we use often in our animated explainer videos. Making the main characters problem relatable to audience is great way to make connection to audience. Usually here, we could maybe use less colors and annoyed/sad character. Later when the service/product has fixed the problem and conflict is gone, the main character is happy and colors are more vibrant, etc. Simple, but effective.

Solve a problem for the audience. Make sure while they're learning something they're also entertained. This tend to work for short video specially since you don't have to much time.

For engaging video, its important that the character is relatable. If the target audience is mainly 40-60 year old men, its wise to make the main character 50 year old man in video. Same goes for the voice. In most cases voice over should be here man, and if possible, also sound like 40-60 year old.

Take your viewers to the scene! You do this by including NAT (natural) sound. For example, if you're telling a story by the beach, we need to see and hear some waves crashing, seagulls squawking and flying, fishermen casting lines and the little "plunk" noise the lure makes when it hits the water. Those little elements make a drastic difference in storytelling - as you're transporting the viewer to the place, taking them along for the ride.

In my experience creating characters and staging scenes that feel genuine, real, and relatable to the target audience is a critical key for keeping a video story engaging. Also, a solid hook at the start the video story to engage and draw a viewer in is important.

When making good and engaging animation video, we love to improvise and experiment different things. We always say to our customers that we may possibly improvise new great ideas that we havent talked before. We are confident in our storytelling skills and 90% of the time our clients love the improvs we have made.

Think hard about how you can use nat-sound. Let the sound breath a little where it fits. You can also use sound-ups to transition from one part to another.