You Have Three Seconds To Get My Attention!
Authored by: Ben Hemmings
I have seen $50,000 brand films die in under three seconds. For years we’ve been told and told again about how important the first few seconds of any video are, but I still see endless examples of companies, influencers, and institutions uploading content that will never stop the scroll, and never retain viewers past the few first seconds.
You Have To Stop The Scroll
You have three seconds to get my attention – how are you going to do it?
Think about it for a second now, something you could do for your business that will gerab your viewer and make them watch your video.
It could be directly related to something you sell or some service you provide, or it could be a completely random act or action that shocks me or makes me curious where the video is going. It could be a particularly powerful line that you say, or an editing quirk that snaps my brain to attention.
The Hook is Everything in Video Production
At our video agency, Mainspring Agency, we spend around 50% of our time in pre-production developing the opening shots and concept for the hook. If the hook isn’t hooking, your video isn’t going to get results.
When you develop your own marketing videos, make sure you dedicate time to making the opening moments as quirky and attention grabbing as possible. Beyond that – flesh out the video with some more context, and have a clear call-to-action at the end. That’s the recipe for modern video marketing that will drive growth at your company.
Modern Examples of an Effective Hook
There are so many examples I can think of, but here are a few that grabbed my attention recently:
Hook: Man smashes a phone screen with a nail.
Company: Phone screen protectors.
Hook: Offensive joke within three seconds, cuts to business owner dismissing it.
Company: Sign Company.
Hook: Woman leaves and elevator and walks through her office with whacky
things going on around her.
Company: Environmental nonprofit.
The Death of the “Logo Intro”
The fastest way to kill your video’s ROI is a five-second animated logo and a slow intro sequence.
In the corporate world, there’s a lingering belief that you need to establish “brand identity” immediately. But every second of a spinning logo is a second you are asking the viewer to wait for the value. In 2026, nobody waits. If you haven’t delivered a promise of entertainment, usefulness, or emotion in the first few seconds, you’ve already lost the viewer.
Modify Your Hook Based on Your Industry
At Mainspring Agency, for the kinds of companies we partner with, we’ve found that the most effective hooks are ones that favour authenticity and emotion.
For high-trust sectors like non-profits and government agencies, trust is an absolute requirement. If the content feels fake, misleading or prescriptive, the audience disconnects. To close this trust gap, the hook needs to be human and it needs to reflect the rest of the video.
I recently wrote in the Ottawa Business Journal about how trust and authenticity matter now more than ever. This means your hook shouldn’t be a clever trick; it should be a promise of truth. You could smash a phone screen, and it will get attention, but you have to think if that’s something that reflects your brand image and your company values.
Our Experience Creating Video Marketing Campaigns
One of our most successful video marketing campaigns was our Andes Project for One Tree Planted.
We worked with One Tree Planted for 5 years, helping them grow from a startup nonprofit with $300k revenue to a mature international organization with $50m revenue.
One film we produced, for the Andes Project, didn’t start with a high-gloss graphics package. It started with the raw, documentary-style reality of the work on the ground – emotive statements from our partner in Peru, and stunning visuals of the communities that are being impacted by donations.
That single video influenced over $4M in donations, including a $1M gift from a first-time donor who cited the video’s honesty as the reason they chose to trust the organization. The “unpolished” hook didn’t just grab attention – it justified a massive investment.
The Takeaway
If you don’t have the budget to hire a corporate video production company, but you want your sales or fundraising teams to actually use your video in live conversations, the video must talk to your specific audience. Your hook should reflect the medium, the message, and the values of your organization.
You have three seconds to grab my attention – Now go make them count!
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Author bio: Ben Hemmings is the Founder of Mainspring Agency. He treats video as a strategic business asset rather than a creative luxury, focusing exclusively on the metrics that move the needle. He specializes in human-led storytelling that has driven $4M+ in single-campaign donations and 100x social engagement for his clients by identifying exactly what it takes to close the trust gap.