Minjeong Kim

Patterns in Persuasive Video

for Persuasive Online Video

1.Video as a rhythmic composition. -structure the video around a song or a rhythm to make it easy for viewers to flow from beginning, middle, to conclusion.

2. Video kills the radio. - Communicate with visuals, rather than literal explanations, to create an immediate emotional response.

3. Make them wait. - Build up a mystery for viewers, and make them anticipate the resolution. The conclusion should be funny (like Comcast's pun on the word "buck"), touching (like Lance Armstrong cycling without stopping, when a smaller bike joins; the last clicker being a non-celebrity child implies that could have been one of the rescued children), or optimistic (showing the impact of the cause, as in the bracelet campaign)

4. Simply exaggerate.- Show just one specific problem, then exaggerate it through theatrical means. (e.g. Apple Computer's 1984 commercial, Apple Computer's Think Different Snail)

5. Step by step by step by step - until you're way up high - Build up a case incrementally, until it becomes larger than life. Do this visually.

6. Before and after - Show the positive effects of an action in order to gain credibility.