The Two-Sentence Social Video Test
Every piece of short-form marketing must produce exactly two thoughts: I see what they're experiencing, and I want that.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Elan says it took him forever to arrive at two sentences, and that everything before them was wrong. Their most effective piece of media ever, with tens of millions of views, is a Poetry for Neanderthals clip where a player must get a teammate to say the word garage while speaking only in single syllables — and viewers can see the secret word on screen. He says 'car go here, car hole, car hole, this car hole, big car hole' while everyone loses it and the guesser demands to know what a car hole is. It works because you understand the rules immediately, you see the experience they are having, and you think you could do better.
Origin
Elan arrived at the formulation after a period of building videos around gameplay, setup, memorable moments and people screaming with laughter, none of which worked. The shift is recent enough that he notes the marketing section of a retail pitch was still about websites, TV commercials and billboards three years ago, and that showing social metrics in a buyer meeting is a brand new phenomenon.
Core principles
- 01For casual games, social is now the only form of marketing that works — websites, TV, billboards and product placement no longer move the needle.
- 02Short-form video and casual games are unusually well matched, and every major platform now pushes and rewards the format.
- 03An effective clip must inspire exactly two thoughts: I understand what those people are experiencing right now, and I would like to experience that.
- 04Everything else you instinctively want to show — gameplay, setup, a memorable moment, people screaming with laughter — does not work on its own.
- 05The viewer must understand the rules immediately, which usually means putting the hidden information on screen for them.
- 06A powerful corollary of the second thought is 'I could do better than that', which converts watching into wanting to play.
- 07The frame is what people are experiencing, not what the product does — the product should be almost incidental to the emotion.
- 08This is now roughly half of a retail pitch, so the brief has to be as developed as the product design.
How to run it
- 1
Write the two sentences first
Start the brief with the two thoughts the viewer must have: I understand what those people are experiencing right now, and I would like to experience that. Elan couches every game's plan in exactly these.
Pro tip If a proposed shot does not serve one of the two sentences, it is decoration.
- 2
Make the rules legible in seconds
Give the viewer the information the players have. In the garage clip they put the secret word on screen, so the audience is inside the puzzle rather than watching strangers laugh at something private.
Pro tip Tim's read on the effective clips he was sent: one person playing, another struggling to guess, and someone losing it with laughter.
Watch out A clip of people enjoying something you cannot decode is a clip about them, not about you.
- 3
Cut the product explanation
Elan lists what he tried and abandoned — show gameplay, show setup, show a memorable moment, show people screaming and yelling because they are having so much fun. None of that matters, none of that works.
Pro tip The whole target is: that looks like fun, I could have that much fun.
Watch out Enthusiasm on camera is not transferable; comprehension plus envy is.
- 4
Engineer the I-could-do-better corollary
The second thought's strongest form is competitive. Watching someone fail to say garage using only single syllables makes the viewer certain they would have got there faster.
Pro tip This links back to the mastery ladder — the viewer's first thought must still be 'I can do that'.
Watch out Showing flawless expert play removes the opening the viewer needs.
- 5
Bring the evidence into the sales meeting
Elan shows buyers how many views, likes, shares and subscriptions the last round of videos got, then presents the type of video planned for the new game, couched in the two sentences: here's how we'll explain the fun people are having, and here's how we'll make the audience want that much fun.
Pro tip This is now about half the meeting, split evenly with the game demo itself.
Watch out Elan is explicit that they never had to do this before; a pitch without it is running on an outdated playbook.
In the wild
Poetry for Neanderthals gives a player a secret word which they must get a teammate to say, while speaking only in single-syllable words; a mistake earns a bonk on the head from a giant inflatable Neanderthal club. In the best video Exploding Kittens has ever had, the secret word is garage and it is shown on screen to the viewer. The player says car go here, car hole, car hole, this car hole, big car hole, everyone is losing it, and the guesser is demanding to know what a car hole is — glove compartment? — before finally using a multi-syllable word and getting bonked.
→ Tens of millions of views and, by Elan's account, the single most effective piece of media the company has ever used.
When Tim could not attend the first Coyote line review because of an immovable scheduling conflict, Elan feared they were sunk — he did not know how to sell the game without Tim in the room showing his passion. Tim's solve was to sit in front of a camera and riff: here's why I love this, here's why this is important to me, here's why I made this game, first time I've put my name on a thing. Elan played it immediately after the buyers finished laughing their way through the demo.
→ The video supplied the second sentence — the desire — where the demo had supplied the first, and the meeting closed a full-line purchase.
Common mistakes
Filming the product instead of the experience
Elan tried gameplay, setup, memorable moments and people screaming with laughter, and reports flatly that none of it works. Each shows what the product does rather than producing the two thoughts that make a viewer want it.
Withholding the information that makes the clip legible
The garage video works because the audience is told the secret word. Without that, the same footage is people laughing at an in-joke, and the viewer cannot form the first thought at all.
Bringing a three-year-old marketing plan to a buyer
Elan says that today buyers care only about social, and that websites, TV commercials, billboards and product placement no longer matter for games. Presenting the older mix signals to the buyer that you do not know how the category currently sells.
Is it for you?
Best for
Consumer products with an observable social experience — games, group activities, anything filmable in use.
Not ideal for
Complex or technical purchases where comprehension requires explanation rather than observation.
From the transcript
“today, none of that matters. all they care about is social media because that's the only form of marketing for games that works anymore”
“that looks like fun. i could have that much fun. that's it. that's what you're trying to show”
“i see the experience they're having. i get that. and the secondary sort of corlary is i could do better than that”
“i understand the experience they're having. i would like to have that experience”
From the episode
#821: My Two-Year Secret Project, COYOTE — The Strategies and Tactics for Building a Bestseller from Nothing with Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens