1/ This series by @wistia is one of the most interesting and effective pieces of media I’ve seen in some time. They hired video agency @sandwich to make 3 versions of the same video introducing their new product Soapbox: with budgets of $1k, $10k, & $100k wistia.com/series/one-ten…
2/ Is it a product launch? A promo for their existing products? An experiment in how constrains impact creativity? A tribute to creative professionals? A tutorial on how to make cheap DIY videos? A shoutout to Sandwich, Adobe, Lens Pro, and other complementary products?
Yes
Yes
3/ In old media having so many different goals and interests for a creative work would be deadly. In new media, it makes the whole thing richer and more interesting. You can watch it for just one of these purposes, or be entertained at the meta level by how they balance them
4/ This sheds light on education & entertainment (they’ll increasingly be the same), branding (your mistakes are assets), collaboration (how to leverage each others’ strengths), self-promotion (it can be honest & authentic), and talent (it’s the main thing worth investing in)
5/ It’s 4 videos w/ durations of 10m, 22m, 29m, 42m. Notice how they progressively draw you in, starting with first episode that is like a trailer. This is increasingly the structure that will make sense to enable efficient discovery, instead of uniform episodes or one big block
6/ And notice how they somehow got me to watch a feature-length film on their new product, which I definitely didn’t intend to do, am not in the market for, and am not interested in! And here I am sharing their commercial on social media
7/ What they did sell me on was their creative process and intellectual curiosity, and there’s no doubt my relationship with these companies has changed. I use Wistia in fact via its integration with Teachable, but hadn’t thought of them beyond video hosting
8/ What it took was quite a sizable financial investment, but more importantly, taking a risk on an innovative content experiment, being vulnerable about their past mistakes and limitations, and recruiting other companies to be part of a story, not just a commercial
9/ I learned a lot and was genuinely inspired. Bravo to everyone involved 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
