I personally like the over the shoulder type ones better, the focus should be on the tool and content being reviewed, not the presenter wearing sunglasses indoors and making excessive hand gestures to look cool. I also appreciate the attempt to keep videos to manageable chunks, like 2-3 minutes. Not that there aren’t good reasons for longer videos, some tools or reviews just have enough to cover that even an 8-10 minute video can make sense. But making every video that long can lead to a lot of dead space and filler, repetition, and general annoyance by the viewer. I think that’s in line with your efforts and philosophy here, no need to make an x-word article because it fits more ads in it or something.
I like seeing real world applications in videos, there are lot of reviews out there that the content isn’t bad, the person obviously used the tool, but then the video is the tool on a workbench and they talked about how they did use it and how it worked and point out various things. It is definitely harder to get an “in action” video sometimes, but I generally find them hugely more valuable than just pointing to features and talking about them. The Milwaukee switch tank water tank is a good example, there were a good number of videos from people who got it along with the sprayer tank, and used both, but an inordinate number just had the two tanks sitting and they talked about how they worked when they used them, but never showed them actually spraying water or chemicals or anything.
Unboxing videos I personally stay away from for a lot of things, just because they provide so little value (particularly if they don’t include first impressions from a reputable source, which I do find valuable). Items like a drill kit, it’s usually pretty obvious from online what is in the box, so knowing there’s a bonus couple drill bits in there from an unboxing video is not really helpful. Some items though have lots of bits or pieces or extra attachments, and sometimes the included pictures with listings, even factoring in the description, aren’t really clear about what is and is not included, and what may have to be purchased separately. The Ryobi power cleaner comes to mind here, they had lots of pictures in the original imagery set using the soap gun, the description was unclear (or like some listings it may just not have mentioned the soap gun even though it might have been included). An unboxing video for that would clear that up right quick and have value. Same with some plumbing or electrical tools that have lots of bits and pieces, and knowing exactly what model was purchased and what it came with via an unboxing video can be helpful (M12 pex expander being a good candidate in that category in terms of which kits come with what size tips, easy to see definitively from an unboxing video rather than trawling through descriptions and parts lists).
Last thing from my $0.02, I’m mainly a text person, I prefer reading blog posts to watching videos, but I’m also probably in the minority there. Even if it’s a quick post saying what the video is about and maybe highlighting some points and conclusions, it’d be awesome to have blog posts to complement the videos, and that may work to highlight the videos as well. Treading the line between “this tool was great… watch the video for more!” and providing useful information in the post itself which might make fewer people watch the video is something I’m not sure many places have figured out well. The best example I’ve seen is motherdaughterprojects, where their project videos are usually worth watching if you’re interested in the project versus just reading the still-complete-and-detailed blog posts for them.
First video vote: M12 hatchet! Lots of people I know are still like “I have a recip saw with a pruning blade, why would anybody need this” (same thing with the Ryobi lopper recently), and a video would probably speak a billion words about cleaner cut so less harm to living plants, not shaking the tree back and forth with the recip, etc.
