Short form content is everywhere TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and most of it is… well, SHIT. Trend hopping, copy/paste content that clogs feeds and disappears as fast as it’s posted.

If you’re a household name brand with deep pockets, you can get away with throwing spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. But if you’re a fledgling brand without a massive marketing department or an unlimited budget, that approach just makes you disappear in with the noise.

At Red Stamp, we talk about this a lot: everyone is in the entertainment business now! Whether it’s 10 seconds or 10 minutes, your content has to do one thing first ENTERTAIN. It has to stop the scroll, hook your audience, and make them feel something. And if your content isn’t doing that, it’s hurting your brand.

The good news? We can help you fix it!

The Problem With Just Following Trends

Sure, you can jump on trending audio or copy what everyone else is doing and you might even get a quick win. But by the time you’ve posted your version of the latest “This feels illegal” trend, you’re probably the 10th, 50th, or 100th one your audience has seen that day.

The spirit might be right, you should be aiming to do something people actually want to engage with instead of chucking your production down their throat but you’re not standing out you’re just disappearing into the noise and the audience will be PASSIVE.

The Power of Formatted Short Form

The real magic happens when you create a format that’s recognisably yours a piece of entertainment in its own right and this how we get an ACTIVE audience.

Take Criterion Closet as a great example. The Criterion Collection, a boutique Blu-ray/DVD label, has a short-form series where actors, directors, and cinephiles step into a closet full of Criterion titles, pick a few favourites, and tell us why.

It’s always the same shot. The same closet. The only thing that changes is the guest.

To film nerds like us, it’s instantly recognisable and it works as stealth marketing. Even when Danny Boyle popped in to talk about 28 Years Later (a film that isn’t even in the Criterion Collection), he’s still surrounded by Criterion titles. The format itself forces him to indirectly market their products.

This is the beauty of formatted short form:

  • It’s consistent and instantly recognisable.

  • It’s entertaining enough to become a piece of IP in its own right.

  • It can be repurposed endlessly without losing impact.

Criterion are even releasing a coffee table book based on this series that’s how powerful a repeatable, branded format can be. It can actually start making you money directly as well as indirectly!

Short Form Derived From Long Form

If you’re already making long form content documentaries, podcasts, events you’ve got a goldmine for short form content.

Break it down into highlights, behind-the-scenes moments, or micro-stories. Build a community around the making of your project, and by the time the full film drops, you’ve got an audience ready to watch.

Red Bull are masters at this. From one extreme sports event, they create dozens of short clips: stunts, interviews, fails, even silly side events. It’s not just content —it’s a culture. It taps straight into the psyche of their audience, who probably grew up playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and thrive on the thrill.