Format: Hooks

Hooks are the first 2-8 seconds of video, or the first 1-2 lines of text/carousel cover, that decide whether the audience keeps going or moves on. This skill governs hook production for any format, consumed by mkt-content and referenced by mkt-copywriter for ad hooks.

Platform Retention Windows (design to the shortest one that applies)

These exact numbers shift as platforms change their UI and autoplay behavior — verify current truncation/retention specifics if it's been a while since last checked. The discipline itself (front-load everything) does not change even when the second count does.

10 Hook Types

1. Contrarian claim — states the opposite of common belief.
2. Startling statistic — a number that reframes the stakes.
3. Personal/specific story — a concrete incident, never a generality.
4. Pattern interrupt — a visual or verbal break from the expected opener.
5. Controversial question — one the audience can't help but answer internally.
6. Specific outcome promise — names the result and the timeframe.
7. Wrong-way reveal — "most people do X backwards, here's why."
8. Before/after contrast — two concrete states, no vague middle.
9. Authority drop — a credible pattern observed across many cases.
10. Curiosity gap — names that something exists without revealing it yet.

10-Variation Generation Method

1. Confirm the brief: topic, objective, audience, platform, and angle material from copywriting-frameworks (at least 2 persuasion angles).
2. Generate one hook per type above — 10 minimum, forcing type variety rather than 10 rewrites of the same idea.
3. Check angle coverage: at least 2 of the 4 persuasion angles (more-good / less-bad / status / ease) represented across the set.
4. Discard-and-regenerate rule: if 3 or more hooks in the set feel like minor rewrites of each other, replace them before delivering — the set must offer a real choice, not the illusion of one.
5. For each hook, note: type, angle, target platform, and a one-line reason it should work (or where it might miss).

Hook Scoring (quick filter before handoff)

• Lands inside the platform's retention window when read/watched at natural pace? (pass/fail)
• Passes the specificity test — could this line only be about this topic, or could it be about anything? (concrete beats generic)
• Zero banned words from the humanization skill.
• No fake urgency/scarcity per the offer-design ethics section.
• Readable or hearable in one breath (video) or one glance (text/cover).

Output Format

# Hooks — <Topic>
Objective: <> | Audience: <> | Platform priority: <>

Angle material:
- More-good: <> | Less-bad: <> | Status: <> | Ease: <>

1. <text> — Type: <> — Angle: <> — Platform: <> — Why it works: <>
2. ...
[through 10+]

Recommendation: <which hook for which context, and why>

Handoff

The selected hook goes verbatim into format-reels (as the script's opening), format-linkedin (as the post/carousel cover opening), or directly to mkt-copywriter for ad copy. Hooks never ship standalone — they are always the opening beat of a larger downstream deliverable.