43:36How Geologists Discovered and Mapped a Great Seaway
Save referenceExpectation Violation
A sea running down the middle of North America sounds made up. The thumbnail asks if it really existed, as if you should doubt it. The title says geologists found and mapped it, so you click to see how they could possibly know.
'How Geologists Discovered' turns it into detective work, so you expect the evidence, not a history lesson, and 'Great Seaway' sounds big without a name you'd need to know.
Everyone knows this view of the continent, so Americans see the band running through states nowhere near the sea, and the question asks them to doubt it.
When your topic changes how a familiar place once looked, draw it straight onto a map everyone knows. Ask in the thumbnail whether it was real, and let the title promise how experts worked it out.
Draw the impossible past onto a map everyone knows.
Apply this pattern to your next video.
Bring the reference into a packaging brief, then decide what your title and thumbnail should each communicate.