Presenting Information Through Video

28th March 2019 by CH

There are plenty of ways to present information and messages – written, verbal, or perhaps interpretive dance? But sometimes it’s easier said than done. To help you know what’s what when using video, we’ve picked out a few things that you should be doing.

Why use video in the first place?

People are far more responsive if you’re trying to educate, inform, influence or engage them using video because our brains are much better at retaining visual information and moving images, compared to just reading text.

Video also combines visual and auditory, meaning the tone and vibe of the information can be quickly established. It’s also much easier to inject character, humour and emotion with visual prompts.

More on how to choose the right emotional tone for your video here

So how should information be presented via video?

Sticking to a few solid principles can help you get things right.

One of the most important things is video length. This is dependent on subject and context, but you should aim for less than 2 minutes. Stray too far over this and you risk viewers losing interest. Of course, video content on social somewhat shifts the goalposts. Facebook videos shouldn’t stray past 1 minute, and on Instagram you could reasonably post a video of just seconds in length.

If you need to deliver a lot of information, it can be advantageous to split this into shorter videos which helps viewers stay engaged.

More about getting the duration of your video right here

Either way, the initial few seconds of your video need to be really engaging. Use simple language with a hook or call to action so the audience are intrigued and continue watching.

Don’t confuse, perplex, bewilder and put off your audience through impenetrable, labyrinthine language (see what we did there – not great is it?).

From a visual perspective, keep things clear, eye-catching and easy to read. Use colours and fonts that are easy to digest and size things correctly.

This depends on the subject matter and audience but whatever is in your video, it needs to be understandable so avoid overloading with jargon or unnecessary words or visuals. Make it punchy and watchable.

Before you even share your video brief with anyone, lay everything out and only keep what you definitely need to include, not what you want to include.

Break down the information into chunks – leave it for a few hours and re-read it. Ask yourself if it makes sense. Is it clear enough? Does it cover all the points you need to?

Some videos end up being way too boring or too long because the pre-production stage has been rushed through, without thorough scripting and storyboard development to ensure the content is ‘video friendly’.

If done properly, these things will make the content more interesting, an appropriate length and will be much easier for the audience to digest. Happy days.

If you need more guidance to get it right, contact our team and take a look at some of the information videos we’ve created for Thames Water , King’s College London and Bupa Cromwell Hospital .