Latest / Video Marketing with Fexingo: Short Form, Long Form, and Video-First Strategy / How Video Marketers Use Sound Off to Drive Engagement
Transcript
- Lucas: So here's a number that stopped me this week: over 80 percent of social media videos are viewed with the sound off. Not just on TikTok — on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on X. That means if your video's message depends on audio, four out of five viewers never hear it. Luna: Eighty percent? That's higher than I thought. I knew it was a lot, but that's almost everybody. Lucas: Yeah, and it's been creeping up year after year. The default behaviour now — especially on mobile — is mute. So the question for us as video marketers is: are we designing for that reality, or are we still making videos that assume people have headphones in? Luna: I bet most of us are still designing for sound-on. I know I am. It feels natural to write a script and then layer visuals on top. Lucas: Exactly, and that's the trap. So today I want to dig into what it actually means to design for sound-off — not as an afterthought, but as the primary experience. There's a framework I've been testing with a few campaigns, and the results are pretty striking. Luna: Alright, lay it out. What's the first thing you do differently? Lucas: First thing: you have to treat the visual track as the complete story. Not a supplement to the audio — the whole story. That means every piece of information the viewer needs has to be on screen, either through action, text, or visual cues. Luna: So you're saying no 'we'll explain this in the voiceover' moments. Lucas: Right. If the voiceover is the only place a key stat lives, that stat is invisible to 80 percent of viewers. So you put it in a lower-third caption, or you animate it on screen. The voiceover becomes reinforcement, not the primary channel. Luna: That makes sense. But doesn't that make the video feel cluttered? Too much text? Lucas: It can, if you're not careful. The trick is to use text that's integrated into the visual flow — not a block of captions at the bottom, but text that appears and disappears in rhythm with what's happening on screen. Think of it like motion graphics. You can be really creative. Luna: Give me a concrete example. What brand did this well recently? Lucas: Duolingo's TikTok account is the gold standard here. Their videos are almost always sound-off friendly. The owl character acts out the message physically, and text overlays carry the punchline. Even if you never unmute, you get the joke. And their engagement rates are through the roof. Luna: Duolingo — yeah, they're basically a meme factory now. But is that replicable for B2B? Like, if I'm marketing enterprise software, I can't have an owl dancing. Lucas: Fair point. But the principle scales. I worked with a B2B SaaS company — project management tool — and we redesigned their demo videos for sound-off. Instead of a voiceover walking through features, we used short text callouts that appeared as the cursor moved around the interface. Luna: So the visual was the actual product demo, and the text highlighted the value prop. Lucas: Exactly. We kept the voiceover as a layer for people who did listen, but we made sure the video made total sense on mute. The completion rate jumped from about 35 percent to 52 percent. That's a huge lift. Luna: Fifty-two percent completion on a B2B demo video? That's impressive. What about sound design itself? If most people are muted, does audio even matter? Lucas: It matters for the people who do unmute — which is still a meaningful slice. But there's a second layer: visual sound cues. Things like a flash of light when a notification sound would play, or a screen shake when something crashes. It's like closed captions for sound effects. Luna: Oh, like how action movies have those 'BOOM' text animations. That works for marketing too? Lucas: It works especially well for moments of emphasis. If you're launching a product and you want a 'mic drop' moment, you can animate the text 'Announcing v3.0' with a visual impact — a burst, a zoom, whatever fits your brand. That way the emotional beat lands even without audio. Luna: I'm thinking about our own show. We don't do video, but if we did, we'd need to rethink our whole format. No more 'welcome to the show' audio intro. Lucas: Right, you'd have to front-load the hook visually. And that actually ties into something I've noticed: sound-off optimization forces you to be more disciplined about your first three seconds. Because if you don't grab them visually, they scroll past before the audio even starts. Luna: So the scroll-stopping first frame becomes even more critical. Lucas: Exactly. And we've talked about that before, but sound-off adds another layer: that first frame has to communicate the topic without any audio cue. So you might use a bold text headline right in the center of the frame, not just a thumbnail. Luna: Okay, but I want to push back a little. If you design everything for sound-off, don't you risk losing the brand's personality? Voice, tone, music — those are powerful emotional tools. Lucas: They are, and I'm not saying abandon audio. I'm saying design for sound-off first, then layer audio on top. That way the video works for everyone. The audio becomes a bonus for the engaged viewer, not a requirement. Luna: So the hierarchy is: visual story first, captions second, sound effects third, voiceover fourth. Lucas: That's a good way to put it. And when you test both versions — sound-off and sound-on — you often find that the sound-off version actually performs better in completion and sharedness, because it's more scannable. People can get the gist in seconds. Luna: That makes me wonder about the role of music. If you have a great track, it sets the mood. But if nobody hears it... Lucas: Then the mood has to come from the visuals. Color grading, pacing of cuts, the energy of the on-screen action. You can communicate 'upbeat' or 'serious' entirely through visual rhythm. In fact, I'd argue that relying on music to set tone is a crutch that makes your visual storytelling weaker. Luna: That's a strong take. But I think you're right. I've seen those recipe videos that are just hands chopping vegetables with text overlays — no audio — and they're hypnotic. The visual flow does all the work. Lucas: Exactly. And those videos get millions of views. The audience has already voted with their behavior: they prefer content that doesn't demand audio. Luna: So if someone listening today wants to start optimizing for sound-off, what's the one change they should make to their next video? Lucas: Add on-screen captions that are styled to match your brand — not auto-generated, but designed. And make sure the key message appears in text form within the first two seconds. That alone will probably double your engagement from sound-off viewers. Luna: That's actionable. And cheap. Lucas: You know, if today's conversation was useful to you — if you're thinking about how to apply this to your own content — I'll mention that listener support is what keeps these episodes ad-free. If you'd like to chip in, it's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the conversations going. Luna: Yeah, I really appreciate that. And honestly, the fact that we don't have ad breaks means we can go deeper on stuff like this without interruptions. Lucas: Totally. So back to the sound-off strategy — there's another piece I want to touch on: how to test whether your video works on mute. Luna: Please. Because I feel like it's easy to think you've designed for sound-off, but then you actually watch it muted and it's confusing. Lucas: Exactly. So here's my test: before you publish, watch the video with the volume at zero. If you can understand the full narrative arc — the problem, the solution, the call to action — without pressing play on audio, you're good. If you have to rewind or guess, you need to add visual cues. Luna: So the mute test. I like that. Simple, no tools needed. Lucas: And you can formalize it with a quick survey: show the video muted to five colleagues and ask them what they think the message is. If they all get it, you're set. Luna: What about platform differences? Does sound-off matter more on TikTok than LinkedIn? Lucas: It matters everywhere, but the ratio differs. On TikTok, it's probably 90 percent sound-off. On LinkedIn, maybe 70 percent. But even 70 percent is huge. So the same principle applies, though on LinkedIn you might lean a bit more on professional-looking text overlays. Luna: And Instagram Reels? Lucas: Similar to TikTok — heavy sound-off. But Instagram also has the 'music' culture, so some users do unmute for the track. Still, the baseline assumption should be mute. Luna: I guess the bottom line is: if you're not testing your videos on mute, you're ignoring the majority of your audience. Lucas: Exactly. And the fix is mostly about discipline, not budget. You don't need expensive animation — just thoughtful text placement and visual storytelling. That's something any marketer can start doing today. Luna: Great episode. I'm definitely going to run the mute test on my next video. Lucas: Let me know how it goes. And for everyone listening, try it this week. You might be surprised what you find.