Captology Notebook

March 21, 2009

Stanford Persuasive Video Example: Thru-You

How are you persuading people through video? Learn more by joining the new Stanford Class
“Persuasive Online Video: Methods and Metrics for Changing Behaviors” this Spring.

As the course develops, I'll share updates and any findings. To get things started, how about we discuss Thru-You.

Aside from the amazing aesthetic appeal of Thru You, I think Kutiman successfully elicited 2 core motivators by selecting "unknown" individuals from YouTube:
-Hope/Fear: if you're featured in a video, chances are you're going to watch it out of hope and/or fear for how you're presented publicly

-Social Acceptance/Rejection: dovetailed with hope/fear is the fact that we all want to share the best face with our peers online and make sure we're presented in a video appropriately

In terms of executing the Thru-You campaign here are a few highlights:
-Small Town Newspaper effect: reporters know if they feature local individuals in the news more people in the community will tune in. Similarly, Kutiman had a "guaranteed" audience of all the people he featured in his mix. Another classic note is the free marketing in this strategy. Many of the people Kutiman used in Thru-You automatically received email notifications because of the video response/comments.

-2nd order effect: if someone featured me in a quality video, I'm likely to tell someone else. Once again, Kutiman received "free" word of mouth advertising.

Another successful persuasive video similar to Thru-You is Pork and Beans.

Now put yourself in Kutiman's shoes a few months ago... What were your persuasive goals when you started to conceptualize Thru-You?

Feel free to suggest more examples and get in touch to learn more about the course.

--Enrique Allen