By now, you’re probably intimately familiar with most of the industry’s guidelines on how to create a perfect online video that drives sales and raises conversions. The two we keep seeing over and over are “keep it short (anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on your platform and audience)” and “tell a story.” And this is perhaps the biggest conundrum producers face during ecommerce video production:
How can you tell a story in just 30 seconds?
Believe us; it’s doable. Granted, it’s not easy, but you can always draw inspiration from some of the industry’s best pieces that managed to pull it off. We gathered 3 of the best ecommerce videos we’ve seen so far. These videos are creative, beautifully produced, expertly pulled off, and tell a highly compelling story—all in sixty seconds or less.
Points of Interest: narrator’s voice, video lighting, opened with a pain point
Night Cable’s 42-second product video draws the viewer in right away by depicting scenes that look and feel homey. The lighting throughout the video is muted, soft, and subtle. They people are all wearing light, comfortable-looking clothes—the kind we all use when we stay at home. The sets are simply a living room, a reading room, or a bed with warm, squashy blankets. The entire ecommerce video production is set up to make the viewer relate via a level of comfort one only gets at home.
And then the narration starts, and you’re even more drawn in. The speaker’s voice is smooth as velvet. The script is short, concise, and easy to understand. By opening with a pain point that every modern technology customer (pretty much all of us, at this point) can relate to, the viewer is now compelled to finish the video so that he/she can hear the solution. They are successfully hooked five, ten seconds in.
Points of Interest: full product description, product demonstration
What we love about this video is that it managed to pull off a full product description and demonstration in under a minute. It’s an online user manual that’s short, succinct, and sufficiently engaging. In fact, it’s crazy how such a simple ecommerce video production scope can be so compelling—in less than a minute, they managed to include everything a buyer would need to know and consider in order to make an informed purchase. Now that’s effective script writing!
STOUT HOODIE from NINE LINE APPAREL
Points of interest: humorous storytelling, great soundtrack
Unlike the other two, stout hoodie doesn’t have a narrative or monologue to explain what’s going on. (It’s also the shortest yet, at 29 seconds!) All it shows is a guy, a crate of beer, and a standard hoodie. They spend the first 13 seconds or so focused on a (very) specific pain point before throwing in their product and demonstrating how it’s the (only) unique solution.
Aside from the distinct humor, we give this video major props for its music. By changing the soundtrack the moment the Stout Hoodie is introduced, they effectively grab the viewer’s attention without needing to say anything. The audio change is more than enough to tell the person watching, “Hey, pay attention—something different is about to happen.” The next ten seconds are an accurate and effective demonstration of the product in action.
To sum it up, effective ecommerce video production is more than just following tried-and-tested guidelines to the letter. It’s about more than just professional-grade production equipment and A-list actors. It’s about testing the borders, thinking outside the box, and playing around with concepts that have never been used before. Your takeaway? Don’t be afraid to have a little fun with your ecommerce video.
