Balancing the 3 E’s of Video Production

Whether we realize it or not, every piece of video content produced and consumed holds a collective value of what we fondly call the 3 E’s: Education, Entertainment, Engagement. Depending on how each of the E’s is represented in the videos we produce, dictates how it will be received by our intended audiences.

E + E + E

Perfect brand videos hit all three marks almost equally. They are entertaining. They provide some education to the viewer and they offer engagement on behalf of the brand and the viewer. That means they’re fun to watch and viewers learned something that also moved them to take action on; watching more, going to a website, buying a product, clicking the Like button, visiting a social channel, subscribing to_____, etc.

But, there’s a lot of less-than-perfect video content out there. One of the baselines we work with clients on at the “blank page” phase, is defining the ratio of the three Es in consideration of their individual video and/or video campaign.  Or in other words, how much Entertaining, Educating and Engagement are needed.  Leaning too heavily into Engaging means you’re asking too much from your audience without sugar coating the “why” with some sweet entertainment. Entertaining too much without the right doses of education and engagement means you made people laugh or smile or just plain feel good, but you didn’t leave them something to be educated on or reason to take action. If Education is weighted too much in the videos you’re producing, it’ll be tough to keep viewers coming back for more. Even tougher if you haven’t secured their attention with some entertainment and a clear path to engagement.

Superbowl ads are totally overemphasized with respect to their actual ROI for the brands and companies that produce them. However, they are the perfect litmus tests for reviewing the balance or imbalance of the 3 E’s.

A quick test: what’s your favorite superbowl commercial?

Is it hard to remember? If you do remember – what do you remember about it? Is your memory and/or appreciation based solely on the Entertainment value.? If so, did you learn anything about the product/service being shown to you? Did you know how to take action or engage based on what you saw?

This GM spot from 2021 is a near perfect example of the right balance for all the E’s:

Very fun and entertaining

Very informative and educational about both the product and state of EVs

Very engaging (find out more, go and get one)

This is GM. They have a lot of money, time and talent to throw at a commercial like this, but companies and brands working at much smaller scale should and can consider where their content needs to land as they sail through the tributaries of the 3 E’s. Postmodern Company knows these waters well. We sail, swim and anchor in them everyday on behalf of our clients and collaborators. Where does your current video productions and current video content live in the land of the 3 E’s. Hopefully we’ve helped you think about how to map and remap your video campaigns with E’s 😉