It's Time to Stop Worrying About Video Length and Focus on Story

The other day I was on TikTok mindlessly scrolling cat video compilations and the twentieth living room recreation of Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra" when a New York Times video populated my feed. It was nearly ten minutes long and I watched the whole thing. Why? Because it was interesting.

The trend of videos getting shorter and shorter has ultimately culminated in this magic rule for video production companies, marketing teams, agencies, brands, and everyone else - only produce content up to two minutes. The thinking seems to be, if you cross that magically made-up threshold, users will leave the video in droves and your brand will go bankrupt and we'll all lose our jobs.

The problem is not length. It's content.

The New York Times video - albeit a political one relevant to my interests - was fascinating, thought-provoking, well produced, visually appealing, sounded great, and kept me engaged. These are the key points. Everything lined up as a viewer for me to watch the whole thing. A few more "Severance" related fan videos later and what pops up is a 7 minute video about how to make angel fruit cake. I watched the first 20 seconds but scrolled to the next - not because I didn't like the video, but because it wasn't relevant to my interest. The fact of the matter is that people will watch a lot of what they're interested in. Somewhere out there is a person who loves to bake and make cakes, they'll watch that whole video because that's a topic that they're passionate about. I won't. That person might scroll past the New York Times video I watched in full because maybe they're not into politics. Neither is wrong. If the angel fruit cake video got 150 likes while the New York Times video got 29,000 it's not a failure - it means people don't all have the same interests.

The Attention Economy: The Current Digital Landscape

Let's address the elephant in the room – people are busier than ever before. Our attention is being pulled in countless directions simultaneously, creating what feels like an insurmountable challenge for content creators. The average person checks their phone 96 times a day – that's once every 10 minutes. We're living in an era where notifications constantly bombard us, where the line between work and personal life has blurred beyond recognition.

Picture this: you're finally settling in to watch that documentary you've been meaning to see. Three minutes in, your phone lights up with an urgent email from your boss. You pause, respond, and try to refocus. Then your roommate walks in asking about dinner plans. Your partner texts about picking up groceries. A breaking news alert pops up. Your fitness app reminds you to stand. Before you know it, 30 minutes have passed, and you've forgotten all about the documentary.

This isn't just anecdotal – it's our shared reality. Studies show that the average attention span has decreased significantly over the past decade. But here's the crucial point: this isn't because people have lost the capacity to focus. Rather, we've developed a more sophisticated filtering system for what deserves our precious attention.

When someone abandons your video halfway through, it's not necessarily because it was "too long." Perhaps their child needed attention, their lunch break ended, or another piece of content simply seemed more immediately valuable in that moment. The competition isn't just between your video and other videos – it's between your content and every other demand on your viewer's time, both digital and physical.

This is precisely why compelling content matters more than ever. When something truly captivates us – whether it's a 20-minute deep dive into a fascinating topic or a three-hour podcast conversation – we find ways to make time for it. We listen while commuting, cooking, or exercising. We save longer videos for evening viewing. We come back to finish content that resonated with us, sometimes days later.

The key isn't tricking people into watching by making everything shorter. It's creating content so valuable that people willingly carve out space in their hectic lives to engage with it. They'll silence notifications, close other tabs, and give you their full attention – but only if you've earned it through quality, relevance, and thoughtful presentation.

Re-Framing the Human Aspect of Views

Unless you're running an ad, let's re-frame the way we look at views. Views are a terrible metric for niche or specific content. The fact that we judge content by views hurts more than it helps, putting undue stress on people who conceive of the idea and those that produce it. Let's say Brand "A" commissions a video about a new service they're offering, it only gets a few hundred views. Duolingo on the other hand throws up a video completely unrelated to it's business and it garners hundreds of thousands of views in a 24 hour period. Someone on the marketing team or a manager at Brand "A" might think the new service video failed, it only got that many views - they may even ask themselves or the team that made it - why it didn't get more reach? This is a false comparison and the wrong question to ask. The goal set out by Brand "A" should have never been about views, they probably don't have a large following of customers or frankly the audience for that brand and its services just isn't that big. The real metric to follow in this instance is how many people - who watched that video - signed up for or took advantage of that new service? That's the important metric.

Storytelling, not length, is King & Queen

If you're sacrificing storytelling to get views you're looking at video in the wrong way. Video has always been a medium to visually tell a story about something and get people interested in the thing you're talking about.

The Length Misconception

The obsession with short-form content has created a false narrative that audiences can't focus. But that's not true - they simply won't focus on content that doesn't resonate with them, regardless of length. When's the last time you binge-watched an entire season of a show in one sitting? That's hours of content consumed because it captivated you.

Quality Over Quantity

A well-crafted 8-minute video that tells a complete story will always outperform a rushed 90-second clip that feels incomplete. The key elements that make longer videos successful:

Clear narrative structure

Visual variety to maintain interest

Authenticity that connects with viewers

Content that truly speaks to your target audience's interests

Finding Your Audience vs. Chasing Vanity Metrics

Not every piece of content needs to go viral. In fact, a video that deeply resonates with your specific audience is infinitely more valuable than one that gets millions of empty views. What matters is reaching the right people who will actually engage with your brand.

The Takeaway

Stop letting arbitrary time limits dictate your content strategy. Instead, focus on telling compelling stories that matter to your audience. They'll stick around for quality content regardless of length. The question isn't "How short can we make this?" but rather "How engaging can we make this?" Answer the latter, and your audience will give you the time you need to tell your story properly.