Cover your ears, the majority of your viewers on social media can’t hear you. Are you optimised for no audio video production?
We spend a lot of time perfecting our sound design as part of our video productions at Even. After all, where the visuals inspire, it is the sound that often delights.
So what if we were to tell you that 85% of video consumed on social media is watched on mute. That’s right, all that time and effort you put into perfecting that audio track is wasted on the vast majority of your audience on social media.
How is this the case, I imagine you’re asking. Since social platforms began adopting video formats in their ongoing war for your attention, they’ve needed to find ways to integrate these motion formats within your feeds. More often than not, these require users to opt-in to the sound by hitting that mute button by default.
Integrating video into social platforms this way is leading to a phenomenon seen by many brands and digital publishers of 50-85% of users consuming the video, but not the sound. So what does this mean for your productions on social media?
There’s a few simple tricks you can adopt to ensure that you’re still able to get your message across on social media. After all, video still remains the top driver of attention and conversions – so you’ll want to get these tactics right.
Capture your audience’s attention in three seconds.
Platforms like Facebook only count a view on a video after 3 seconds have elapsed. Now that might not sound like a lot of time, but think about it. When scrolling through feeds how often do you stop for a full three seconds to consider the content you have been served before swiping onto the next thing?
Three seconds is longer than you think. So, if you’re going to grab your audience’s attention, you’re going to need to give them a good reason, and fast.
- Go big with a clear explainer about what the content is from the off.
- Follow up with text-based explainers throughout the content.
Include subtitles to communicate when there is no audio.
Introducing subtitles to your videos will not only ensure your message gets across when people don’t un-mute, but it will also make your content much more accessible. Including closed captions makes your message more accessible to those that might be deaf or hard of hearing, also on-screen text is likely to increase the time someone views your video by 40%.
As this recent research from Tubular Insights highlights, the presence of subtitles on your videos is likely to increase the number of people watching a video to completion by 80%.
Cut to the chase, and show your audience the goods.
Your audience will be more willing to invest in the story you’re trying to tell them if you actually show them what it is you want them to pay attention to. So cut to the chase. Remember, you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of those watching your video.
In addition to framing what it is you want your audience to learn about front-and-centre, make sure you are leveraging captions and on screen animations to bring that to life for the viewer. Remember, when you can’t rely on your audio track, you need to ensure your visuals work twice as hard to keep your viewer engaged.
What does no audio video production look like in practice?
We’ve rounded up a number of examples of brands nailing their no audio video production strategy. Some of these you’ll have no doubt already seen. In the context of these insights, however, you might be encouraged to think about them differently. We’d encourage you to think about the elements of these videos that could work for the content your brand is producing.
Stunned into silence?
No audio video production can be a tough one to get your head around in principle, good thing we are here to help. Want to understand how your business can start leveraging no audio video production? Then drop us a note. We’d love to chat about how it can benefit your brand.
We Are Even is a specialist in creating engaging small screen video productions. Since 2017, we have been working alongside global brands, ensuring their message is communicated loud and clear – or should that be silent and clear?
Interested in learning more? Get in touch with us. We look forward to hearing from you.
