For videos online and offline, the content of a video is more important than the quality.  This is something that, to me, seems intuitive, but is now supported with research from The Department of Psychology at Rice University.  

The study is titled “The Effect of Content Desirability on Subjective Video Quality Ratings” and was authored by Professor Philip Kortum of Rice University.  To collect data, they showed 100 participants videos of varying quality and content.  They found a strong correlation between the desirability of the video content and viewer’s subjective evaluation of the video’s quality.

I think it is phrased best by our friends over at ReelSEO who broke this story last week, “content trumps quality…High-definition video may well be on the list, but it’s not number one.”  

So what does this mean for creators and publishers of video content?  Spend more time and resources developing solid creative ideas that connect with your audience and less time fussing about lighting and mic levels.  This isn’t to say throw quality out the window, especially not for business videos.  There is a definite threshold of what viewers will put up with, but the bottom line is this: you can make a successful video with great creative content and DIY production quality, but if your content is dull it doesn’t matter how much money you spend making it top-of-the line production quality, it will still be a flop.

Tyler
Manager of Online Marketing
 

PS: If you have a good example of a video that demonstrates this point please add it to the Video Share Widget you see on the right.

WIDGET