What we can learn from Hollywood Trailers

How many times do you think the movie trailer for “Avengers: Endgame” was viewed in the first 24 hours?

A record smashing 289,000,000 times, according to Wikipedia!

Just a few years earlier, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” broke the record with “just” 34,300,000 million views in one day.

So how did Marvel do it?

Surprisingly, the creation of the trailer was not given to the directors, the Russo brothers. The Russo brothers are terrific at crafting a heroic story across an entire movie, but not a 2 minute teaser.

For creating short snapshots that make the heart race, Studios turn to specialists. Oftentimes, they will hire as many as 5 different teams to come up with different trailers, and pick the most effective ones.

Trailers have a different goal and required different skill sets than developing the movie itself.

According to research by Microsoft, our attention span has shrunk to less than that of a goldfish, a blistering 8 seconds. This was in 2013, when there were fewer distractions.

For Playful Tunes, a company I founded that created cutting-edge music and movement programs for preschools, our entire team focused on grabbing the kids attention right at the door, before they even walked into the room.  

We did this by delivering in-person teasers highlighting the 3 most exciting things they were going to do that day, plus a bonus surprise.

We found that delivering an exciting teaser pumped the kids up, got the teachers excited, and set the stage for a magical moment.

What are some of the best in-person teasers you’ve experienced at a meeting, presentation, or workshop?

What could you do to help your idea spread?

​Thanks for caring!

with gratitude,

Anwell Tsai