In the current online marketing environment, the video ad is truly the leviathan of content, both in prevalence and effectiveness. Research shows that 50% of executives look for more info after seeing a product video, Youtube’s mobile video consumption is increasing at a rate of 100% per year, and 87% of all online marketers use video content.
As far as conversion rates go, a landing page with a video can increase conversion by 80%, 64% of users are more likely to buy something online after seeing a video ad, and the combo of video and full page ads can increase product engagement up to 22%.
However, to reap these benefits, the content of the marketing campaign has to be actually good! The internet is flooded with cheesy, mediocre ads. There are countless aspects of an effective video ad campaign, but the focus in the post is on the importance of excellent plot development in your video marketing.
All Stories can be broken down into six basic classifications
In 1965, Kurt Vonnegut, the famous author of Slaughterhouse V and many other books, theorized that every story ever written was but one of a very few shared, classic shapes. This year, the University of Vermont tested this theory and ran a huge sampling of English literature through a computer program for analysis.
The results showed that every story falls into one of the following categories:
- Rags to riches (a person becomes happier)
- Riches to rags (a person becomes less happy)
- Tragedy
- “Icarus”: a person rises then falls
- “Man in a hole: a person falls then rises
- “Cinderella”: rise, fall, then rise
- “Oedipus”: fall, rise, then fall
More importantly, they also ran a data analysis to find which plot trajectories were most effective, by seeing which types landed most often on the NY Times Bestsellers List. Interestingly, the most sellable plot types were the Cinderella plot, rags to riches, and, surprisingly, Oedipus plots. Readers are most engaged by plots where a person’s position eventually improves, but also the Oedipal fake-out, where he improves but ultimately fails.
So What does this have to do with video marketing?
These same plot rules of engagement can be applied to online video ads! The types of plots people enjoy have been consistent over centuries of human storytelling, and the most engaging stories make the most engaging ads. This is where is might be useful to have a creative English major in your start-up. The Cinderella and rags to riches plot types are great for demonstrating how a product can solve a problem faced by the viewer. The Oedipus plot type is better saved for comedic ads: this is video advertising, not Dostoyevsky, so you still have to keep things light.
Conclusion
Advertising is not just getting people to buy your product. It is honing in on the human condition and using a knowledge of human knowledge to cultivate a sense of solidarity with viewers’ desires and emotional needs. If you can incorporate time-tested plot trajectories like the ones above, your advertisement plots will be more engaging and ultimately lead to increased conversion rates.
