AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS (Pt. II: The Dancing Mice)
You may have already jumped on the web video bandwagon. However, just because you have a web video doesn’t mean that people will watch it or listen to your message. So the question you may be asking yourself now is “If I build it, will they come and stay?” And the answer is probably no if your video only features talking heads or a slide show. If you want your audience to stay, then you have to meet their expectations or they will flee like mice during an earthquake.
Allow me share a story with you: When I took my first film class as an undergrad at Yale, we had to watch every genre of film (contrary to popular belief that all film students do is watch big box office hits and eat popcorn, that’s SO far from the truth). In fact, an elimination process similar to pre-meds is used to weed out the weak.
A screening of experimental shorts weeded out weak and strong alike because none of us had a clear idea of what to expect. The first “short” ended up being about two torturous hours long. During the course of the two hours, no one knew how to react. It was like the Milgram psychology experiment. At first people just looked at each other. Then people started to get up and stretch. Stretching became pacing. Pacing became storming in and out and cursing. Some people left and then came back about an hour into the ordeal and were beside themselves when they returned to see the same shot: a room with the white wall with one painting on it.
Finally after nearly two hours, a person enters the room in the film, screams, and then dies. Those of us who endured—and we numbered fewer than half of the original 100—looked around at each other in disbelief. What was that? And that was only the first “short” film. What have we gotten ourselves into?
So why am I sharing this story with you? To give you an example of how not meeting audience expectations can have negative consequences that include loss of audience retention and complaints: As a result of failed audience expectations, people left, dropped the class, complained to the professor/chair, and shared negative feedback with other students on campus. And we were motivated stakeholders with skin in the game—we had paid to be there and cared about our grades because they would influence our ability to graduate and get a degree.
What do you think would have happened if we didn’t have a stake or any skin in the game (similar to most Internet shoppers)? We would have left, probably without saying a word. The professor would have had no idea why his class had diminished. He would have been clueless- left in the dark with an empty room with only crickets chirping- “cheep- cheep- that film sucked!” [Picture of angry Jiminy Cricket]
I’m guessing that you don’t want your audience walking out on you or an angry Jiminy Cricket spreading negative word of mouth about your business. Remember: If you don’t take audience expectations seriously, you will lose your audience!