You’ve probably started hundreds of explainer videos that you didn’t stick around to watch. 

Why do most explainer videos fail to grab your attention? 

They are powerful tools when done right, but they can be challenging to pull off. 

What is an Explainer Video?

An explainer video is a short-form video mostly used by sales and marketing teams. They usually share a company’s service offering, product, or business idea. They’re meant to be compelling. Efficient. 

And this is what makes them so challenging. 

Since they usually need to be around 90 seconds long, it can be hard to distill your core message in the right way in such a short time. I think a lot of these videos fall short because they don’t lead with a specific problem their audience actually faces. 

Your explainer video needs laser-focused problem identification from frame one. Skip the company history. Forget the fancy logo animation. Start by naming the exact pain point your product solves or by finding a unique way to connect with your audience.

If it’s communicating a business idea or explaining something going on within the company, get to your why quickly. 

Example 1: Airbnb Uses Visuals To Tell The Story

Airbnb crushes its video production. 

Their corporate videography is consistently focused and tight, and they find unique ways to use it to connect with their base and acquire new users. The explainer video below is no exception. A little backstory: Six years ago, the company came up with a contest between 10 builders to see who could construct the most creative home for Airbnb users to stay in. 

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Creatives always use the phrase “show, don’t tell.” Airbnb is one of the best at this. They let the homes the builders came up with speak for themselves just by creating visual frames that draw the viewers attention to them. 

They don’t waste time explaining the details of the contest. The winner received $1 million dollars, but they didn’t lead with that.The whole video focuses on the imaginative genius of the makers who entered the contest and humanized the whole thing. 

Example 2: Google’s Executive Leadership In Explainer Videos

When I first watched this video, I was wondering if it was going to flop. I review so many of these explainer videos that they all kind of run together. The hook wasn’t stellar, honestly. Good. Not great. It’s a pretty generic way to kick things off. 

But they kept me around because they led with Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet. 

When you’re doing an explainer video, having your executive team on camera can work well. People are more likely to stick around because of that authority. (Which is what happened here). But what this explainer video does that many don’t is tell one clear story throughout even while sharing different use cases. Very tough to do.

We hear from the leaders that created Gemini and see it in action as software engineers and researchers take only seconds to explain the usefulness of the AI in powerful ways. The audience can’t help but start thinking “Wow. I can use that to …” 

That’s why explainer videos are powerful. They really have a unique way of creating marketing-qualified leads (MQLS) quickly if they’re done right. 

Example #3: Dollar Shave Club Shines With Its Scripts

“Do you like spending 20 bucks a month on brand-name razors? 19 of them go to Roger Federer,” asks former Dollar Shave Club CEO Michael Dubin in the explainer video below.

That’s excellent scriptwriting.

Dollar Shave Club, at one point, leaned into its irreverent humor and in-your-face brand style to produce engaging content. 

(You can read a bit more about their meteoric rise, fall, and potential rebound in this Forbes article.)

They knew their audience well, and their scriptwriting played a big part in helping them run their direct-to-consumer (DTC) market. 

Whether it’s your style or not, think about how well this script would land with their buyers. At the time, the company didn’t have the budget to pull off something like Gemini’s launch. But they created the video in one of their warehouses and doubled down on a script that kept people watching until the end. 

Make Explainer Videos Work For You

Explainer videos look a lot different from company to company. Some lean more heavily on visuals to do the lifting. Others pull in the gravitas of their executive team to keep viewers engaged. And some brands have such a unique flair that they can rely on that to get their message across. 

Either way, here’s a quick recap of everything I shared at a high level that makes these videos successful:

• Keep it brief, around 90 seconds
• Don’t stuff it with too many messages
• Make sure people feel the pain of not having your offering
• Know your audience and what will keep them watching

Doing explainer videos right is a tall order. If you need help to strategize one that will land for your brand, reach out. We’d love to chat about what you’re trying to accomplish.