15 tips for creating good sports video content
Fresh from driving around France creating video content with the Lionesses during the Women’s World Cup, Multi-Platform Producer Joe Bennett shares his top tips to help towards creating good sports video content people want to watch.
- Steer clear of blatantly plonking your logo on any video. Instead, try and incorporate in a non-obtrusive way. Consumers can easily switch off if they think it’s an advert for a disingenuous message.
- Storytelling: consumers like a strong story that absorbs them and makes them want to know the next piece of information.
- Authentic. Try and keep the content genuine. Forcing your messaging or creating a story that isn’t there isn’t the way forward.
- Use clear, bold, simple but effective graphics. Anything too messy will result in people switching off. Vibrant colours with bold and clean-cut text works well.
- A large proportion of content is now viewed mute. It’s soul destroying for content creators, but it’s a fact that we have to live with, deal with and adapt to. If you watch your content with the sound off, does it still work? If the answer is no, you need to rectify this before posting. Again, simple imagery or graphics can help convey your message and tone.
- Subtitles – the bane of people’s lives. Yet this also helps pieces retain their story, and helps impaired hearing viewers still enjoy the content, as well as commuters not wanting to watch with sound.
- Try to make sure your content isn’t confusing. What message are you trying to get across during this video? Don’t try to cram too many objectives/messages into one video.
- Make sure the first three seconds of your content are WOW. Make sure people stop to watch the rest, if you’ve got a slow opening that’s not intriguing, people are going to be less inclined to stop and watch more.
- Try not to push people into clicking on links away from the video – if you can use your content to make people actively go and search for your company/sport/topic then you’ve succeeded. Forcing people turns people off.
- Brevity is key. Social media videos need to be vibrant, fast-paced and eye catching. If it’s a promo, keep lengths to 60 seconds – but only if it warrants it. If the promo only needs to be 15 seconds – make it 15 seconds. A powerful 15-scond video is better than a laboured 60-second one.
- As a rough general rule try to stick to 60 seconds for content but don’t completely rule out meatier longer content if you know the audience wants it, though this may be dictated to by which platform you’re posting on. YouTube and Facebook lend themselves to longer form (longer than 90 seconds), but if your content is longer than 90 seconds make sure it’s GOOD.
- Make sure you know the platform you’re producing content for. It’s not one size fits all. Depending on the platform, video length varies – as does the shape. With so much video content sitting on websites, Twitter, Instagram, IGTV, Tik-Tok – knowing your platform is vital. Over three quarters of content on social platforms is 1:1 opposed to traditional 16:9 (What you see on TV).
- Knowing the purpose of your video is key: are you entertaining? Educating? This will help dictate the tone and style that you create, as well as knowing which platform to distribute to.
- Finish with a strong call to action – make sure people follow up and want more.
- Make sure you know your target audience and create content that suits them. Sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many brands are winging it!
For more tips on creating good sports video and for careers advice and latest jobs in sports media visit our ‘Careers in Sport Media’ section.