How To Stand Out (Without Making Any Noise): A Foolproof Guide To Using Soundless Video The absence of sound can add to a campaign video as it presents opportunity for many other techniques that could not be used otherwise.
By Zina Seibert
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When it comes to digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising campaigns, a concern for many advertisers and content creators is consumer engagement. After all, an advertisement isn't doing its job unless people are looking at it, absorbing it and remembering it.
What makes digital signage so effective is that it is in world, and thereby inherently engaged with by the people around it. Unlike other forms of advertising, it cannot be turned off, thrown away or muted. DOOH advertising campaigns have a presence, without being an annoyance to the consumers. Given all these factors, digital billboards have a recall rate ranging from 74% to 89%.
Nonetheless, the nature of DOOH -and all of what makes it effective- entails certain limitations. Video advertisements on digital billboards must be soundless. But a video does not need sound to effectively grasp attention. In fact, the absence of sound can add to a campaign video as it presents opportunity for many other techniques that could not be used otherwise. This article will lay out the best techniques to soundless video advertising campaigns and why they are effective.
MAKE YOUR VIDEO VISUALLY THEMATIC
A soundless video cannot grasp and hold attention with sound, so it relies entirely on its visuals. The visuals for such content must have concept. Narrowing that concept down can be done as follows:
1. Find out who your audience is and what appeals to them.
2. Based on this, narrow down what your thematic focus will be, ensuring that it reinforces your brand's concept, and your audience's interests.
Focusing on color, for instance, does not have to be limited to picking a color scheme. Hues, saturation and contrast can all effectively draw attention or elicit appeal.
Similarly, minimalism can be a powerful style as it is not overwhelming. It can be much easier to start watching something that is visually clean, particularly in passing as with digital signage. What matters here is less what you do, and more so that you stick with it.
TEXT AND VIDEO AS A DUO
While visuals are essential to an effective soundless advertising campaign, language is often still necessary to communicate a message. This is where captions come in.
Text overlays provide clarity to aid visual content. In addition to that, it is worth integrating captions into the theme whether it be through diction, animation and design or both. Captions can also aid in making a campaign more memorable through specific diction pertaining to your brand and message. Overall, they should consolidate and unify the scope of your campaign. Nonetheless, while captions can be used, they should not be relied on too heavily. The understanding of the campaign should not be dependent on captions.
THE CURIOSITY GAP
The curiosity gap is a theory often employed in marketing whereby an audience is compelled by a trigger, instigating their need to know more. If applied correctly to soundless video, it can be a powerful way to engage an audience.
What's crucial to the curiosity gap is making the audience aware of information -likely regarding your product- such that they then need to continue watching to learn more. There are several ways this can be done:
1. Eliciting curiosity through visuals
As aforementioned, visuals can be entirely responsible for making an advertisement campaign. Applying the curiosity gap to visuals entails showing fragmented sequences of video or enigmatic content that will urge the audience to continue watching, purely out of desire to make sense of the visuals.
2. Eliciting curiosity through captions
Although it is best not to use them in excess, words can also be trigger points. Diction that implies there is more to be revealed can achieve this effect.
A soundless advertisement campaign has incredible potential if executed correctly. However, this is by no means difficult to achieve. So long as the campaign is cohesively produced with its elements aligning with the brand and product message, the campaign should be a success.
Related: Eye On The Future: Top Five Digital Marketing Strategies Of 2019
