Get More Views by Serving Up the Right Video Length

Video Length: Entrée, Appetizer, or Snack?

The unspoken rule in today’s fast changing video landscape is that shorter videos are the best investment, since they work best on mobile and tablets where 50% of all videos are being watched.

Yet I’ve watched 40 min long Vice documentaries from start to finish and truly questioned the information yield of shorter videos. Unfortunately long form documentaries take days if not weeks to shoot, and heavy artillery of manpower both in and out of the editing room. In other words, documentaries can be very expensive to produce and in the end are consumed similarly to their cheaper and shorter counterparts.

Over the last year, the team behind 20to30 seems to have come up with a video menu which appeals to today’s millennial viewers and remains “cheap and cheerful.“ Credit given to one of my mentors for the nifty menu metaphor.

1. The Entrée: this is the filmmaker’s video which runs about 5–10 min long. It is meant for one in ten viewers, the person who holds a particular interest in the subject, or whose attention span has not been corrupted by the internet. I would make this video the exception, not the rule.

2. The Appetizer: 1–2 min videos, which provides the trailer to the long form video/entrée. We’re essentially creating a 30 second trailer for a 10 min long video, as opposed to a one minute trailer for a two hour long movie. Appetizer videos are the bulk of the videos in our 20to30 library, they’re easy to edit, disseminate and multiply.

3. The Snack: Vine and Instagram videos. The grand master of this medium seems to be NowThisnews. Snack size videos are highly consumable, sharable, and mobile friendly. They are also incredibly millennial and mobile friendly.

I spend most of my days consuming appetizers and snacks, right on trend with most millennials. But hey not everyone needs to be on the same diet or the same budget!

By Laura Lehmann Founder of 20to30 (and 818 Video Content partner)

You can also read her column in the Huffington Post

Like This? Then You’ll Love This Article on How Nokia uses long and short form video – and you can too.

And This. An article on predictive video analytics.

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