We love shooting this show. The chance to create positive, feel-good stuff showing someone in a new light is always a win. The second win is to sift through the stats as we measure performance and engagement and get feedback from a very vocal audience.
This is the promo for Praating Season 2:
Here are some stats from the show and why we consider it.
1. VIEWS
We want to know how much engagement we have seen across different channels. The “view” is the brashest of all vanity metrics. Vanity metrics (views, likes, follows and shares) are suitable for benchmarking and tracking your engagement but beware of falling prey to thinking that 10 Views mean 10 viewers saw your content. Tracking views only – for any campaign – will inflate your perception of impact. It’s necessary to measure Views in conjunction with other metrics because Views only – will make you eat fairy dust.
2. Who are they?
You need to know who’s watching, no matter why you create content. For us, this has become crucial in building a new model where corporate sponsors piggyback off our band content. This graph shows why Jägermeister has partnered with PRAATING instead of Old Mutual. A shocking number of brands do not know who’s watching and why. This is an easy fix.
3. WHERE are they WATCHING?
The better the understanding of the viewer’s behaviour, the better you will be able to match your content with the ideal customer persona suited
for the content (and the sponsor to match). Since PRAATING is only
available through some kind of internet connectivity, we already know the
audience is digitally savvy. For this metric (for PRAATING), we want a healthy spread across mobile, desktop and smart-TV users.
4. WHERE ARE THEY ENGAGED?
Brand partners generally want to know if new audiences will be able to afford their products. Getting insight into device breakdowns tells us about the LSM and the level of affluence. Considering that almost 41% of the PRAATING audience watches the show on two or more devices, we can make assumptions about their income and social positioning.
5. WHAT HAPPENS WHILE THEY ARE WATCHING
The retention curve for any video shows: A. The Nose (the very first part of the curve with a lot of viewer loss and a sharp decrease in engagement) B. The Body where the audience settles in watchess the content, and C. the Tail where the viewers eventually abandons the content.
This brings us to watch time. For us, watch time is the holy grail of all video metrics. We value the Watch Time of video content above all other metrics, and here’s why:
Watch time is used to derive 3 key indicators:
1. The retention curve for any video which shows the rate of viewer fallout or engagement loss over time and;
2. The completion rate for a video: The percentage of viewers who ended up eating the whole thing.
3. The Average % Viewed for a video: The average time that viewers have spent watching the content.
THE RATE AT WHICH WE ARE LOSING THEM
It is crucial to consider the duration of the video content when examining these indicators. Obviously, shorter vids (30 sec – 60 sec) will have a higher completion rate than longer vids of 5 – 10 minutes.
The PRAATING show is longform. Almost all episodes are 60 minutes or longer. If one considers the views vs watch time of three platforms: YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram, it is crucial to know that 5,33% of all views are responsible for 52% of watch time (YouTube).
We use the promo content (short clips on Instagram and TikTok with a high completion rate) as handles for the brand and sponsors. We give the audience something they can accept or reject in 30 seconds, so they’ll understand what the content is about once they lean in to see more. We see the short-form content as promos and handles and someone tuning in for the whole thing as the conversion into the brand world.
Consider two scenario’s for a moment.
In scenario A, you have 20 viewers watching 50% of a 1-minute video.
In scenario B, you have 10 viewers watching 100% of the same video.
The watch time for both scenarios is 10 minutes. So effectively, the win is the same, right? Wrong! The difference between these two scenarios is that the viewers in scenario B, who have spent the time finishing the content, are “happier”. Wait, what? Yes, it might seem insignificant and “touchy-feely”, but if you are trying to build a strong brand. (or align with one) it is all about the “feely” and untouchables. Creating solid brands means killing off indifference. Indifference is the enemy of (brand, content, strategy, and visual – in fact, any) design. Designing your content to drive viewers forward on the timeline will mean that you are investing in your brand and betting on your future self for when they come back for more. Refocussing your brand’s crosshair on watch time rather than vanity metrics is the most important thing you can do if you are creating video content. Content marketing is all about getting them back for more. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Considering The Customer Life Time Value (CLTV) of happier audiences over a more extended period can be the difference between sinking, swimming or launching to the moon.
“Happier” viewers from scenario B will not only be more likely to return to your platform, perpetuating the flywheel of modern marketing, but they will also make the algorithms happier. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter all reward higher completion rates.
From 2013 to 2016, YouTube set itself the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) of reaching a daily watch time of 1 billion hours. At the time, it meant 10X’ing their current number. They altered their algorithm not to prioritise views but watch time. In the short term, it meant a loss of revenue because it was easier to bait someone into a new click (ad), but they knew that happier viewers would ultimately spend more time on the platform, meaning more revenue in the long run.
It is crucial to consider the duration of the video content when examining these indicators. Obviously, shorter vids (30 sec – 60 sec) will have a higher completion rate than longer vids of 5 – 10 minutes.
Below is a benchmark tool to compare your content with the industry. It shows the percentage of engagement loss for content over time for various lengths of video durations. It also breaks it down into The Nose, The Body and The Tail. Hide or unhide the sections by clicking on the legend and note what happens in (specifically) The Body when the content reaches more than 20 minutes – 30 minutes in length.
The PRAATING show is longform. Almost all episodes are 60 minutes or longer. Considering the views vs watch time of three platforms: YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram, it is crucial to know that 5,33% of all views are responsible for 52% of watch time (YouTube). If we did not use this metric, it would be easy to conclude that the content for YouTube is not worth producing. But by stepping back, we can see that 22% of viewers watch more than 100% of PRAATING videos that are 60 minutes or longer. The value for sponsors here is immense. We can assume that they will be back for more, and we can assume that they are fans of the brand.
We use the promo content (short clips on Instagram and TikTok with a high completion rate) as handles for the brand and sponsors. We give the audience something they can accept or reject in 30 seconds, so they’ll understand what the content is about once they lean in to see more. We see the short-form content as promos and handles and someone tuning in for the whole thing as the conversion into the brand world.
Immersing oneself in data often means losing touch with the human element of audiences. It is vital to emphasise that human behaviour is complicated to predict, and we can use these datasets to get better insight into the reaction to our work. But as creators, we should first understand the responsibility of being creative and creating new things.
If you are going to deep-dive into graphs and datasets, precede all of that with making something meaningful and remarkable.
Data is beautiful, but the human touch is incredible.
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Creative Director
John-Henry is the founder and owner of The Media Farm and has been creating television, films, music and digital content for more than 15 years.
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