Deconstructing hooks across different mediafrom @jason_swet

Transcript

The worst art of the hook. I wanna change the way you think about hooks, especially in social media content, because social media didn't invent hooks. It's not just the first three seconds of a video. In fact, the idea of a hook has existed in other creative disciplines and industries for a long time. What is a hook? Well, rather than define it for you, I want to broaden your vision of what a hook can be, and I'm gonna do that by showing you a bunch of examples of some great hooks. When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. This is the day of the reaping. The first page or on the first page of the hunger games, in my opinion, a great hook. An example of how hooks are in other mediums of storytelling. It was a bright good day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. That's the first line of 1984. And as you can already see, a hook is what grabs and holds your attention. It needs to hold your attention, and that's what differentiates it from gimmicks and clickbait. So let's keep going. More examples. The first scene of Breaking Bad. It's longer than three seconds. One of the first things you see are pants flying through the air. Instant questions going off in my head. Why are these pants flying? Where did they come from? Now we're in an RV. Why is he wearing a gas mask? Oh, no. Is that guy dead? You good hear all the questions going off in my head. This is a great hook. In a similar fashion, the first scene of The Dark Knight is one of the greatest hooks of all time. So many questions are flying off in my head. Is this guy Heath Ledger? Is that Joker Heath Ledger? And that's two different mediums. Music also uses the term hook. Most people think a hook is the chorus, but they're not synonymous, and I might have some music professionals coming after me for that. But what's fascinating here is it's not always the first three seconds of the song. It's whatever is attention grabbing or the most memorable part of the song, at least from my limited understanding. But what's also interesting is now that streaming is more popular, you'll notice that artists are putting the hook at the beginning of the song. Beyond just the storytelling of a novel, I think book covers can have great hooks. I actually haven't read this, but these are some of the books that were really grabbing my attention a couple years ago. Visuals that instantly made me think, oh, I wanna I wanna pick up that book. I wanna read more into this one. But probably where the term hook was most prevalent was in the newsroom. What is the headline that's gonna stop the scroll? And great advertising can have a hook. It's not just a video format. I remember early in my career better feedback from a creative director, and they asked, what's the hook? And I had no idea what they were talking about. So I don't think there's a formula to it, but if you think about your senses, and how you experience storytelling, it can be visual, audio, best, as in you're reading it, maybe rank experiential formats. It could be smell and touch. But what takes a hook beyond just being clickbait is when it can hold your attention, and that's why ideas need strong hooks as well. Some famous advertising campaigns with strong hooks even in just the title of the campaign. Dumb ways to die, hashtag like a girl shot on iPhone. The man your man could smell like. I said there's no formula, but there are some characteristics I look for in a hook. What is the thing that's sparking curiosity tier making me ask questions? Does it reframe something familiar? Ideally, it flips that thing that's familiar on its head, a completely counterintuitive angle. That's not necessary, but it's gonna spark curiosity. The hook needs to be instantly understandable. That doesn't mean you're not asking questions, but clarity is really important. And great hooks hit a nerve. That nerve can be an emotional nerve. It can be a humor nerve. It doesn't always have to be provocative or controversial. Now if you rewatch this and go through all of the examples I just shared, I bet they hit on each of these points. So I hope this helps widen your idea of what a hook can be. It truly is an art. I don't think there's an exact formula, but I think there's a lot of people that talk about it within a narrow definition of the first three seconds of a video. So if anything, I hope you're looking at storytelling in a new way if you're trying to create content that grabs and holds people's attention.