While watching Game 6 of the NBA Finals, two commercials caught our eye: One showed a father and his newborn and demonstrated how when Dad dozed off and turned his head away, the smartphone was smart enough to pause the video he was watching on the screen. The second commercial showed a couple trying to decide how to spend their Friday night and demonstrated how the woman used her smartphone to change the TV channel to a movie she wanted to watch. We don’t know how well those smartphone features work, but they seem pretty cool.
We also watched two additional ads about tablet computers. Those ads took a different approach: They quickly delivered a laundry list of cool features. But we don’t remember those cool features.
Some businesses that ask us to produce videos feel obligated to stuff as much information into the videos as possible. Those companies try to include as many interviews with different people as possible. We advise against this.
When Keith reported on television, his best stories often focused on one person or one idea. He learned over the years that trying to include too many people or too much information into one story watered down the message. Instead of taking away a lot of information, viewers took away very little.
We understand the tendency to try to include as much as possible into a single video. Keith understood why people, seeing one of his TV stories as an important media moment, wanted to extract as much as possible from the opportunity. But we believe with video, less is often more.
In other words, don’t invite too many people into bed. You will be much more satisfied staying faithful to one awesome person, idea or story. You can always shoot another video another day.