‘How can we make sure that a 60-second trailer speaks to everyone?’ is a question I get asked all too often. ‘How do we make sure that a short narrative strikes a chord with all?’ Let’s get one thing straight here — there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all short-form content. In today’s digital landscape (where consumers build and curate their own micro-communities and media ecosystems) powerful storytelling is all about precision. It’s about sharpening up and knowing how to connect with all the facets of your audience, and ensuring your content speaks authentically.
Understanding how to connect with your audience is key. A great example of this in action can be seen in the luxury fashion space, where more and more brands are dialling down the glitz and dialling up the power of the everyday.
Burberry’s most recent outerwear campaign — featuring familiar faces such as Lil Simz, Olivia Coleman, Barry Keoghan and more — does this beautifully through a series of authentic images and short films, in which these icons are simply going about their lives in quintessential British settings; from the city to the countryside — all adorned in Burberry’s iconic outerwear with the signature check pattern, of course.
Whilst the Burberry outerwear pieces are seemingly in the ‘background’ of these real and relatable settings, they remain the focus. Whether it’s Lil Simz having a wholesome moment enjoying music with her nephew on the train, or Olivia Coleman driving through the countryside sharing a childhood story before being intercepted by sheep, this campaign succeeds in making the luxury fashion brand feel attainable and practical — which is core to Burberry’s values of protection, functionality and the outdoors.
It’s on-the-go in a way that perfectly mirrors the busy professionals that make up Burberry’s audience, while at the same time reflecting the overall message that no matter the weather or situation, it’s always Burberry. And that’s the beauty of short-form content; in just 60 seconds, a whole sea of messages can be sent across to an audience.
By looking within, unveiling their archives and recognising that they originally built their success on being an emblem for ‘Britishness’, Burberry were able to build a campaign that was not only successful, but also truly authentic to the brand. The only way to truly assess all the facts of their audience was to first acknowledge the history of the Burberry itself. It’s by doing so that Burberry has been able to garner more than 18 million views on this video campaign across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to date.
Burberry’s use of transparent simplicity isn’t particularly revolutionary. But, that’s kind of the point. A recent survey conducted on 10,000 people from across the UK concluded that, above all else, viewers want brands to be able to speak to their interests and ‘represent who’ they are. It’s proof that creating impactful short-form content isn’t about reinventing the wheel; it’s about spinning it in the direction of your audience.
Whilst working with the British Film Institute on this year’s London Film Festival trailer, we kept this strategy front and centre
We were presented with hundreds of the most powerful narratives in cinema, but each film had a different audience in mind, a different voice. Creating a new narrative that merged these into one would be sacrilege. Instead, we wanted to communicate the power and joy of cinema itself — the strength of how it can make you feel.
Dr Kristin Thompson, an American film theorist, claims that — at the most basic level — the definition of ‘film’ is the ‘recording […] of a strip of images in real time.’ It is no surprise then that — at its most basic level — this year’s London Film Festival trailer is exactly that. It’s a strip of film (segments) playing out in front of the audience’s very eyes, a pacey compilation of the film’s most iconic moments, most striking shots, and sharpest lines.
It recreates the experience of watching a film in the cinema, speaking to film fanatics in a way that feels just as natural as Burberry’s campaign. It’s proof that short-form cinematic storytelling isn’t always about the bright colours, bold designs or grand narratives. As stated by Deloitte Insights, it’s not about ‘positioning your brand in the hero role’. It’s often the smallest, unconscious details that speak the loudest.
A powerful tool to achieve this is editing. In the London Film Festival trailer, the intense, fast-paced music is sometimes paused to highlight key quotes from the films. One example is when Thomasin McKenzie, who plays Jean Purdy in JOY – The Birth of IVF (2024), turns towards the camera and declares, ‘Without you, none of this works’.
Whilst she is, of course, directing this comment at another character in the film, the sudden quieting of the music emanates the feeling that she is speaking to the audience. In this way, the trailer does not only figuratively speak to its audience. It literally speaks to them, too. It reaches out through the screen and implores film lovers to consider their own role in filmmaking. It implores them to reach back out, too.
So again, let’s think about those two questions
‘How can we make sure that a 60-second trailer speaks to everyone?’ ‘How do we make sure that a short narrative strikes a chord with all?’ The first thing you’ve got to do is understand that if you’re speaking to everybody, you’re speaking to nobody. The second thing you’ve got to do is let your content do the talking. You’ve got to let it speak for itself.
Featured image: Kevin Ku / Unsplash
