Rucinski & Reetz Blog

I recently read that on average Americans are watching 100 minutes of video a month. In just the last week I watched a sleeping kitten, Marcel the Shell, various political rants, exercise and music videos, and a Great White being hand fed by a lady who actually believed she had made some kind of cosmic “connection” with the beast!

If you’re working on a web marketing video do you make it message driven or lean to the fun side? Message or entertain that is the question! It’s a tough call sometimes, but there are guidelines you can apply to make the decision.

• Know your audience. Rule of thumb is, the wider the audience you’re trying to reach the higher the degree of entertainment required. If the audience is narrower – opt for a well delivered message with a clear call to action.
• Apply the “entertainment” test to your product or service. For example, an aluminum drink can producer most likely has a narrow market. They want specific info on their ability to make the product on time and to the customer’s specifications.

On the other hand, if you’re the company selling the drink – most likely the audience is huge and competition high. Attention grabber required! Watch Coca Cola’s Happiness Machine. http://mashable.com/2010/07/21/coke-happiness-machine/

Then again, you may want to split the difference and create a web video that is both creative and message driven. Our company recently produced a United Way video for the Central Wisconsin area. It required a no-nonsense, straightforward message directed to a wide audience of potential donors. The directive was to show why United Way was “different” than other organizations looking for donations. We hit “different” head-on! Take a look.

http://steveoakley.net/uw/United_Way_V2CC2_h264.mov

Also, here’s a great link to an article that gives the positives and negatives of message vs. high entertainment. Note some of the comments at the end. Good stuff! http://www.reelseo.com/entertainment-message/