17 seconds, 8.2 million views — the “why are we drilling this brick?” Reel
An educational Reel that held viewers to the end with one simple question in its first three seconds: a 19.1% skip rate against the page's typical 42.8%, and more than 8.2 million views.
8,270,863 views, close to 95% completion and 3,065 targeted followers — with no ad spend.
The challenge
Technical content is easy to skip. A video about drilling into a brick has about three seconds to make someone curious before the thumb moves on, and on Instagram a Reel that is not watched to the end is not shown to many more people. This one had to earn attention immediately and be short enough to finish.
An educational Reel of 17 seconds, published in June 2025, built on three principles.
The curiosity gap. The title and the opening frame — “Here we're drilling into a brick… but why?” — put a simple technical question in the viewer's head in the first three seconds, and the only way to the answer is to keep watching.
Dynamic editing. The video was cut to the shortest length that still told the story — 17 seconds — to push the completion rate as high as it would go.
A precise audience. The scenario was written for the people who matter to the brand: architects, builders and the men who make up most of the construction trade. 83.2% of the audience was male.
What the numbers show.
- A skip rate of 19.1%, against the page's typical 42.8% — the video held people through the opening more than twice as well as usual.
- An average watch time of 16 seconds on a 17-second video: a completion rate close to 95%, a very strong figure for a Reel.
- 3,065 targeted followers, entirely organic, without a rial spent on advertising.
- Over 99% of views from the Reels tab (68.4%) and Explore (30.8%) — the distribution the algorithm gives content it has decided to push.
By the numbers: 8,270,863 views, 26,271 likes, 1,184 saves, 984 shares and 289 comments; 99.9% of viewers were not following the page; and more than two and a half years of total watch time.