How Long Should a Demo Reel Be?
Producing a demo reel that highlights your key accomplishments or underlying benefits of your business or brand is something that will likely come up early in a marketing campaign. Before production begins, you’re probably going to have questions, particularly regarding total length. Exactly how long should a demo reel be? And more importantly, what is the ideal video demo reel length based on?
What is a Demo Reel?
A demo reel, sometimes referred to as a sizzle reel, is a short, fast-paced and ultra-engaging video that highlights top accomplishments or features and was once prominently used in show business to highlight the best performances of an actor or actress. Today, demo reels are frequently produced for a variety of purposes, to showcase a business or brand, to introduce products or services, and to highlight key performances or accomplishments.
A great demo reel has the power to convince and convert an audience, but it must keep the audience engaged and entertained from the very beginning until the absolute end. How long is this and just how long should a demo reel be? That depends largely on the contents of the reel.
Average Demo Reel Length
The average demo reel is between 1 and 2 minutes. The sweet spot for a demo reel is just shy of two minutes in total length, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t find instances of demo reels that are 3 minutes or even 4 minutes long. The total length of your demo reel depends mostly on the target audience and the message that is being delivered.
As a good rule of thumb, if you can deliver your pitch or key details with just 1 minute, then your demo reel should be just one minute long. Likewise, if you need 3 minutes to deliver the pitch, then your demo reel really should be about three minutes long! The idea here is that your demo reel should be exactly as long as it needs to be in order to deliver the details of the pitch or demo accurately.
Keep it Short
Generally, a great demo reel will contain about 3-5 clips of your best work or the most engaging content you have to share. Keeping the demo reel short and engaging rather than long and drawn out is key. The idea behind a demo reel is to get your audience pumped up and excited about the business, brand, or products or services being offered. You want to generate some buzz, and build hype, but you don’t want to push so far that you face losing the interest of your audience.
Keeping your demo reel short, with just 3-5 clips and 1-2 total minutes of total content is key. This is how long your demo reel should be in order to grab the attention of your target audience and engage them without pushing past the point of being exciting and fun and potentially risk being boring! So, how long should a demo reel be? Probably about 2 minutes at most, but definitely just as long as it needs to be to demonstrate your key points to the target audience!