Teaser

A teaser is in practice a question of editing and music. The footage usually comes from last year's edition or a product shoot; new filming happens only when you need to show something nobody has seen. The editor picks eight to twelve shots, lays them on music, adds the date and the venue. It is normally made six to eight weeks before the event so the ads have time to work.

Why it pays: ticket sales hinge on the moment somebody thinks this one goes in the calendar. A festival or a professional conference sells its first wave of tickets on the teaser, before the programme is finished. Without one you wait for the speaker list and sales start a month later. The same video serves as a paid ad and as a post on your profile.

How it is made: shots pulled from the archive, licensed music, the edit, a vertical and a square version and a version without text for partners. You supply the exact date, the venue, how tickets are sold and approved logos. Music licensing is what usually holds things up, so we settle it first. The edit itself takes a day or two, feedback another week.

When it makes no sense: a first edition with no archive. A teaser assembled from stock footage of smiling people in another country fools nobody and does the brand more harm than good. Put that money into a keyvisual and photography instead. The other trap is a teaser that ends up carrying the full programme, eight logos and three lines of text. That is no longer a teaser.

Our rule is that a teaser has to work with no sound and no text. We play it muted on a phone, and if it is not obvious that this is an event and when it happens, we recut it. Try it today on your latest video: mute it and watch the first three seconds.