Video Packaging

---
name: video-packaging
description: Video packaging — thumbnails, titles, descriptions, hashtags, and CTR diagnosis for YouTube and short-form. Use when user says "thumbnail ideas", "video title", "CTR is low", "improve views", "description and hashtags", or has a finished video needing a publish package. Making the video is video-shorts/video-script.
license: MIT
metadata:
  source: "danvega/skills video-packaging, timscheuerai/content-vault (MIT) — distilled"
  category: video
---

# Video Packaging (Thumbnail / Title / Description)

Packaging decides whether the content ever gets seen. Thumbnail and title are ONE unit designed together — each plays a different role, never repeats the other's words.

## Thumbnail
- Passes the 3-second, 120px-wide test: one focal subject, readable at phone size. Test by shrinking it.
- Text: ≤ 3–4 words, serves as the hook's complement (not a title copy). Face with legible emotion outperforms objects for personality-led channels; the artifact/result wins for tutorials.
- Composition: subject off-center with negative space for text; high subject-background contrast; consistent house style across the channel (recognizability compounds).
- Produce 3 distinct directions, not 3 crops of one idea. Check no platform-UI overlap zone (bottom-right).

## Title
- ≤ 60 characters so search/mobile doesn't truncate. Keyword near the front.
- Curiosity gap with concrete nouns; numbers and specifics beat adjectives. "I cut render time by 80%" > "Faster builds!".
- Never restate the thumbnail text — thumbnail carries emotion/visual claim, title carries the specific promise.

## Description
First 2 lines (≈ 150 chars, above the fold) = what + who + one CTA. Then chapters with timestamps (`0:00 Intro` — enables key-moments in search), links, and 3–5 hashtags (broad 1 + niche 2–3; more reads as spam).

## CTR diagnosis (YouTube impressions baseline)
4–10% is healthy. < 3% → packaging problem: change thumbnail direction first, then title. High CTR + low retention → the promise oversold; fix the content, not the package. Compare against the channel's own 28-day median, not the platform average.

## Output contract
1. Thumbnail brief: 3 directions (focal subject, text ≤ 4 words, composition, emotion/result)
2. Titles: 5 options, each ≤ 60 chars, keyword position noted
3. Description: fold copy + chapters + hashtags (3–5)
4. A/B plan: which pair to test first and the metric (CTR at equal impressions) + decision rule