6 Qualities Of Creative Video Ideas That Stick
Whenever we start a new project with a client, there is always a lot of energy and hope to create a video that has an enormous impact. Everyone wants to create an amazing and memorable video, but with the massive amount of media that is consumed each day, coming up with creative video ideas that stick is a very difficult challenge.
Another problem is that you may have 10 different ideas for your video. How do you know which one will work best?
The answer is a process. To make videos with a clear message that impact the most people, you need a tried and true process that can evaluate creative video ideas and help you determine a winner.
Ideas That Are Made To Stick
Everybody has ideas they are trying to communicate, whether it's your new product coming to market or a brand explainer video. However, it's extremely difficult to transform the way people think and act. So, how do you approach creating a video that will motivate your audience to action?
At Drive Media House, we believe there are tested methods to evaluate creative video ideas and lead to a successful video. With our clients, we implement the SUCCESs Model from Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.
Made to Stick is a book and philosophy about why some ideas survive and others die.
Ideas that survive are "sticky". Ideas that aren't memorable, die.
We've adapted these principles into a process to help your video be "sticky" and make an impact.
The SUCCESs Model's 6 Qualities Of A Sticky Idea
Let's look at what makes an idea sticky through the SUCCESs acronym:
SIMPLE - Discovering and sharing the core message in a compact way. Simplicity isn't about dumbing it down, it's about prioritizing.
UNEXPECTED - Grabbing people's attention by violating their expectations and holding their attention by using curiosity gaps. Before your message can stick, your audience has to want it.
CONCRETE - Expressed in sensory language. (Think Aesop's fables.) Ideas you can picture in your head ("A man on the moon...") Try to hook into multiple types of memory.
CREDIBLE - Is the idea believable? Sticky ideas must carry their own set of credentials so people can test them. Ideas can get credibility from outside or within. Let people "try before they buy." (Where's the Beef?)
EMOTIONAL - Shaping ideas so they make people feel and therefore, care. People care about people, not numbers. Don't forget the "What's In It For You", but identity appeals can often trump self-interest.
STORIES - Using stories to motivate and inspire people to act on an idea. Stories drive action through simulation (what to do) and inspiration (the motivation to do it). Springboard stories help people see how an existing problem can change.
Evaluating Creative Video Ideas
The authors of Made to Stick have adapted their learnings into a model. We've adapted that model into a checklist.
Here's a look at a simple postcard tool we've created (front and back) to help us evaluate creative video ideas:
As we work through our creative process with our clients, we can run all creative video ideas through the checklist and see which one emerges. While working through the process, ideas can get beat up pretty good, but the gauntlet of the evaluation process only makes the end product better.
The beauty of this framework is that it helps get emotion that may be linked to certain ideas out of the way and will usually deliver a clear winner. And, even with our favorite ideas, the scorecard will show us weak areas we can improve on to make the idea even more sticky.
We love making creative videos. And, we love crafting messages that stick. If you have a message that the world needs to know, we would love to help you turn it into a sticky idea and a memorable video.