September 7, 2025  

Why Your Brand is Losing Attention in the First 3 Seconds (And How to Fix It)

Attention is the most valuable currency in modern media, and it’s depreciating faster than ever. On social platforms and digital feeds, viewers make a subconscious decision to stay or scroll in under three seconds. The stark reality is that most brands lose that battle before their core message even begins.

The issue, however, isn’t audience behaviour. It’s creative intent.

The issue, however, isn’t audience behaviour. It’s creative intent.

Too many campaigns still open with slow logo animations, atmospheric slow builds, or vague, abstract visuals that assume a level of patience audiences simply no longer possess. Today, viewers don’t wait for a payoff, they react instantly. At Soho Pixels, we design every piece of content with the opening moment as the strategic anchor of the entire piece, not a polite preamble.

The Three Common Pitfalls (And What to Do Instead)

If your content is haemorrhaging attention, it’s likely falling into one of these traps in the critical opening frames.

1. The Slow Reveal vs. Immediate Relevance

  • The Pitfall: Opening with a wide, establishing shot of an empty office or a slow pan across a landscape. The viewer is left asking, “What is this, and is it for me?”
  • The Fix: Signal Immediate Relevance. Your first visual or line of text must instantly answer the viewer’s subconscious question: “Is this for someone like me?” Show the subject’s face, the product in use, or use bold text overlay that names the audience or their problem directly. Example: Instead of a wide shot of a gym, open on a close-up of sweaty, determined hands on a barbell.

2. Polished Generality vs. Emotional Disruption

  • The Pitfall: Relying on glossy, generic stock-style imagery that blends into the feed. It’s professional but forgettable.
  • The Fix: Create an Emotional or Visual Disruption. A pattern break is more arresting than polish. This could be an unexpected visual (a surprising use of colour), a raw human moment (a genuine laugh), or a provocative question in text or voiceover. The goal is to trigger a micro-jolt of curiosity or recognition.

3. Atmospheric Ambiguity vs. Clarity of Tone

  • The Pitfall: Using ambiguous, moody visuals or cryptic copy that leaves the viewer confused about the emotional tone. Is this an inspirational piece? A funny one? A serious tutorial?
  • The Fix: Establish Clarity of Tone Instantly. Confusion kills retention faster than lower production value. Use music, facial expression, colour grade, and copy to establish the genre within the first second. A quick, upbeat sonic logo and a smile signal fun. A stark, silent title card signals serious drama.

Our Three-Framework Fix for the First Three Seconds

We structure these openings not as gimmicks, but as a disciplined creative framework.

  1. The “In Media Res” Opening: Start in the middle of the action. Begin with the most compelling moment of the story—the hands struggling with the knot, the chef tasting the dish, the sigh of relief—then loop back to explain how you got there.
  2. The “Text-First” Hook: Use bold, succinct text overlay as your primary hook. State a surprising statistic, ask a blunt question, or present a contrarian opinion. The eye is drawn to readable words, making this a failsafe for silent autoplay.
  3. The “Human-First” Close-Up: Lead with an expressive human face. Our brains are hardwired to focus on faces, especially those conveying relatable emotion, determination, surprise, joy. It creates an instant, subconscious connection.

Fixing the first three seconds isn’t about chasing viral gimmicks. It’s a fundamental sign of respect for your audience’s time and attention. It means designing for how people actually consume content today: with speed, selectivity, and an emotional filter.

Are your first three seconds working for you or against you?
Let Soho Pixels audit your content and craft hooks that hold attention.

June 16, 2025  

Why ‘Viral’ Is a Terrible Creative Brief (And What to Ask for Instead)

Chasing virality is a flawed strategy. We explain why a brief that demands “viral content” fails, and what you should focus on instead to build lasting connection and genuine reach.

“Make it go viral.”

It’s one of the most common, and most damaging requests in modern marketing. While the desire for massive reach is understandable, framing virality as the primary goal is a fundamental strategic error. Here’s why: virality is an unpredictable by-product, not a designable strategy.

A brief that starts and ends with “go viral” typically lacks clarity on the core essentials: Who is this for? What should they feel or do? What value does it provide? This vacuum leads to creative that chases algorithmic tricks and superficial trends at the expense of genuine connection, often resulting in a short-lived spike of attention with zero lasting impact for the brand.

The Problem with Chasing the Algorithm

When virality is the KPI, creativity becomes a slave to platform mechanics at the expense of brand identity. The work becomes disposable, designed for a momentary scroll-pause rather than building lasting memory or loyalty. It’s the difference between setting off a firework and building a lighthouse; one is briefly dazzling, the other provides a steady, reliable signal that guides people back.

What You Can and Should Design For

Instead of the hollow goal of “viral,” a powerful brief focuses on crafting content with inherent qualities that make widespread sharing a natural possibility. These are elements we can intentionally design and engineer:

1. Shareability

This is about utility or social capital. Are you giving the audience something they want to pass on? That could be:

  • Practical Value: A genuinely useful tip, hack, or insight.

  • Identity Expression: Content that allows someone to say, “This is so me,” or “This is what I believe.”

  • Social Connection: Something that feels like an inside joke or a shared experience they want to discuss with friends.

2. Emotional Resonance

Does it make people feel something strongly? Joy, surprise, nostalgia, inspiration, or even righteous indignation? Emotion is the engine of sharing. We can craft narratives, humour, and visuals that target specific emotional responses aligned with the brand’s character.

3. Cultural Relevance

Is it tapping into a real conversation, community, or shared experience with authenticity (not as a tacked-on trend)? As explored in our previous piece, relevance is a requirement. Content that reflects or thoughtfully comments on the audience’s lived reality has a far greater chance of being adopted and shared within communities.

4. Consistent Engagement

This shifts the focus from a one-hit wonder to a sustainable model. Can you create a series, a character, or a format that people look forward to and return to? Building a habit is more valuable than a single burst of attention.

The New Brief: Connection Over Contagion

The paradigm needs to shift. The question is not “Will this go viral?” but “Who will want to share this, and why?”

When content is meaningful, valuable, and resonant, reach becomes a likely outcome. The algorithms themselves are designed to promote content that generates meaningful engagement, comments, saves, shares, and watch time, all signals that the content is connecting on a human level.

When content lacks these foundational qualities, no amount of optimisation, hashtags, or paid promotion can manufacture true viral success. It’s putting a megaphone to a message nobody cares about.

Focus on building a real, human connection first. The reach will follow.

Ready to brief for impact, not just impressions?
Let Soho Pixels help you build a creative strategy for genuine connection.

May 5, 2025  

How to Know When Your Brand Is Ready for Video (And When It’s Not)

Is video the right next step for your brand? We share the three foundational questions to ask before investing, ensuring your video amplifies clarity, not confusion.

Video is often seen as the ultimate proof point of a modern brand, a signal that you’ve arrived, that you’re dynamic, that you’re ready to connect. But launching into production without the right foundations is a costly mistake.

Here’s the essential truth: video is an amplifier. It doesn’t create your brand message or audience understanding; it magnifies whatever already exists. That means it can spectacularly amplify clarity, personality, and value. But it can just as powerfully amplify confusion, inconsistency, and strategic gaps.

Before you allocate budget and creative energy, ask yourself these three non-negotiable questions. Your honest answers will tell you if you’re ready for a powerful tool, or if you need to lay more groundwork first.

1. Is Our Core Message Crystal Clear?

Video is a narrative medium. If you can’t succinctly articulate who you are, what you do, and why it matters in a single sentence, a video will struggle to communicate it.

  • You’re NOT ready if: Your value proposition is still vague or you’re trying to say everything to everyone. A video that attempts to cover multiple, complex messages will feel scattered and forgettable.
  • You ARE ready if: You have a sharp, focused core message, a “North Star” that guides all your communications. You can clearly state the one thing you want the viewer to think, feel, or remember.

2. Do We Truly Understand Our Audience?

Great video speaks to someone, not at everyone. It uses their language, taps into their motivations, and appears in the spaces they trust.

  • You’re NOT ready if: Your audience definition is broad demographics (e.g., “women 25-40”). You don’t know their specific pain points, what media they consume, or what tone of voice resonates with them.
  • You ARE ready if: You have detailed audience personas. You understand their psychographics, their aspirations, frustrations, and sense of humour. You know where they spend time online and what kind of content they choose to engage with.

3. Do We Know Where This Content Will Live and What It Must Do?

A video without a strategic home is a ship without a port. Its format, length, and style are dictated by its destination and purpose.

  • You’re NOT ready if: The goal is simply “to have a video.” You haven’t defined if it’s for top-of-funnel awareness on social media, mid-funnel explanation on your website, or bottom-of-funnel conversion in an email.
  • You ARE ready if: You have a clear channel and role for the asset. You know if it’s a 15-second TikTok hook, a 2-minute website explainer, or a 30-second YouTube ad. You’ve defined the specific action it should drive (brand recall, website visit, sign-up).

The Cost of Getting It Wrong vs. The Power of Getting It Right

Investing in video without these foundations creates expensive noise. It’s content that fails to connect, confuses potential customers, and drains resources that could be used to solidify your brand basics.

When these pillars are firmly in place, however, video becomes one of your most potent assets. It can:

  • Humanise your brand with authentic storytelling.
  • Simplify complex ideas with visual demonstration.
  • Build emotional equity faster than any other medium.
  • Drive measurable action with compelling calls-to-action.

The decision isn’t if you should use video, but when. By doing the strategic work first, you ensure that when you press record, you’re amplifying a message that is clear, targeted, and destined for impact.

Unsure if your foundations are solid, or ready to amplify a clear message?
Soho Pixels can help you audit your readiness or craft your first strategic video.