The explainer video channel with 14 million subscribers: Video Marketing Examples #11

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To quote Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

As humans, we want to know things. We’re drawn to knowledge like moths to a flame. 

But, with less time than ever - plus access to more information (and distractions) - success is all about transferring knowledge quickly and concisely. 

We don’t need every detail. There isn’t time for every detail. We need to know what we need to know.

One brand you may have seen that does an amazing job of this is the brilliant (and very hard-to-pronounce) “Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell” channel on YouTube. (‘Kurzgesagt’ is actually the German word for ‘in a nutshell!’)

Their series of videos which explain a variety of interesting concepts, ideas and phenomenons has helped them amass 14m YouTube subscribers - and a combined 1.2 billion views!

The video lengths vary, but they’re very rarely longer than 15 minutes, with most clocking in between 5 and 10.

The channel’s most viewed video (with 28 million views alone) is a video guide to the coronavirus. It was published 10 months ago, during the early days of the pandemic. Check it out...

And it’s a perfect example of the informative power of video. In just 8 minutes and 34 seconds, the video explains:

• what a virus is

• how coronavirus spreads

• how it affects the body

• what people can do to stop the spread.

It accompanies all this with powerful animation to illustrate and reinforce key points.

And a quick scan through the comments section tells you how valuable people find this content…

“this video taught me more about covid than the government ever would”
“This is Kurzgesagt's most viewed video because science teachers are showing this video to so many students”
“Me: Overwhelmed by conflicting facts and opinions on the virus. 
Kurzgesagt: Makes video
Me: Finally someone I can trust.”
“Its almost hard to express just how great this video was. Y'all managed to go into detail and cover pretty much everything while also making it easy to understand.”

Their uploads cover everything from the big bang to universal basic income...

...always with a consistent, clearly identifiable style, and a commitment to brief, succinct storytelling.

These are the hallmarks that have made Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell one of the world’s most popular YouTube channels

The lesson for brands

We can take a number of tips away from the success of Kurzgesagt’s powerful, easily-digestible explainer videos...

Only tell the audience what they NEED to know. As modern-day marketers, we HAVE to train ourselves to tell the story our audience wants to hear. That means keeping it short, concise and powerful. Sure, it can be layered - with more behind the curtain to be explored - but the ‘front’ of your product, service or brand needs to be crystal clear with no wasted words. Essentially - say what you need to say: no more, no less. You can’t tell your audience every single thing in one go, so don’t try - you’ll lose them.

You can say a lot more than you think in a short video. Some of Kurzgesagt’s videos are longer than the ones we’d typically make for our customers (we typically aim for 1-2 minutes) but you’d be surprised how much you can fit into a short video. We generally say that around 130-150 words of voiceover make up a 1 minute video. As a useful exercise, try working within this word limit and write down what you do - if nothing else, it’ll increase your own sense of clarity and challenge you to make every word work as hard as possible, so when people ask in future, you’ll have a perfect elevator pitch ready to go.

Video is an amazing informative tool. There’s a reason we’re not talking about Kurzgesagt being an amazing educational blog or website. They’re living proof of the power of video as an educational tool. By accompanying a razor-sharp, brilliant script read by a voiceover artist, with accompanying illustration to help visualise difficult concepts, they create content that addresses numerous learning styles, while being universally easy and fun to watch. These are the same reasons you’ll often find people drawn to clicking that ‘play’ button if they see a video on the front page of your website.

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