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140 characters seems silly

12/04/2011

Comments (16)

Miscellaneous

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that 140 characters for a pitch is not enough. I usually end up having to write something missing the good points about the pitch and just put basic beginning/end sentences.

I realize that they want tweet sized pitches, probably so people can share on twitter but my feeling on that is this:

Most people on twitter who share a video, just say something like: "this video is hilarious bit.ly/4J78G

Usually, they don't go into detail about what's in the video. I also feel that if they did go into detail that the person reading the tweet could make a decision on wether or not to go look at the video, rather than just clicking and watching it. Which, if the person's pitch about the video isn't good, one would be losing a percentage of views on the video.

Does this sound reasonable to anyone else?

I am not asking for unlimited characters. Maybe 300 or 350. 140 is just too hard to describe something enough to get it all in.

Comments (16)

Siew Chin

01/22/2012

Agreed. Most of my Tongal time is spent paring down an idea to fit within the 140-char constraint. If it made it a better submission, I'd be all for it. But the outcome is usually diluted or truncated, losing its original punch. I second 300-400 for an idea to be fully expressed without compromises.

James DeJulio Tongal

01/27/2012

A "Pitch" gives you 500 characters as well as the ability to upload a video and storyboards to support - so it's really unlimited. An "Idea" submission is limited to 140 characters, "Concept" in Benjamin Moore's open project is 250

Darnell Jackson

04/17/2013

Wow! I was gonna say the same thing. Even planned to use the word "silly" in my title. LOL. I completely agree. I get the twitter thing. But a good idea is a good idea. We shouldn't have to grind it down until it unrecognizable just to fit into some vague, trendy box.

Eugene Borisenko

04/17/2013

I think 140 chars is fine. It makes you think concisely, boiling the idea down to its core and leaving room for creative interpretation in the next phase. Affinova algorithm works similarly in concept testing.

Arne Barnard

04/19/2013

I didn't think 140 was enough either until I remembered the way a certain 80's Hit TV Show was born with just *two* words
"MTV Cops"......