Video packaging: how titles and thumbnails work as one unit
Video packaging is the title and thumbnail working as one promise. What each half should say, how to package before filming, and how to test the pair.
Topic
Titles & Packaging
Title and thumbnail as one unit: promise alignment, the division of labour between them, and packaging an idea before you film it.
5 articles
Should thumbnail text repeat the title?
No. Thumbnail text should add what the title leaves out: a detail, the stakes or the contradiction. When repeating is fine, and three ways to split the job.
The packaging brief: a one-page template for title and thumbnail
A nine-field packaging brief you can copy and fill in before you film, with a worked example and the render prompt the finished brief turns into.
Title formulas that pair with a thumbnail (and the ones that fight it)
Six YouTube title formulas (outcome, contradiction, question, number, I tried, why), the cover pattern each one needs, and the cover pattern each one fights.
YouTube title length: the three limits people confuse
YouTube titles are limited to 100 characters. Display can cut them shorter, and viewers read only the first words. How to write for all three limits at once.
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