/video-script

name: video-script
description: "Write a production-ready video script — 3 hook variants, timestamped dialogue with visual and audio direction columns, CTA placement map, retention notes, accessibility package, and thumbnail concepts. Detects whether the script is organic or an ad: organic scripts declare a search/browse discovery intent, ad scripts inherit objective, audience, and offer from campaign context and follow per-format rules (6s bumper, 15s skippable, 30s spot, UGC-style with disclosure). Triggers on \"/digital-marketing-pro:video-script\", \"write a YouTube script about X\", \"script a 15-second ad\", \"TikTok video for our launch\", \"explainer video script\". Reads the brand profile and campaign briefs; every script passes the /digital-marketing-pro:check gate before delivery."
argument-hint: "[topic or format]"

/digital-marketing-pro:video-script

Purpose

Write a production-ready video marketing script with hook variants, timestamps, visual direction notes, CTA placement, and platform-specific formatting. Produces a complete script package ready for production with visual and audio columns, accessibility notes, and thumbnail concepts.

Input Required

The user must provide (or will be prompted for):

• **Video type**: The format of the video — ad spot, explainer, testimonial, product demo, social short, educational tutorial, brand story, or event recap
• **Target platform**: Where the video will be published — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, Facebook, or multi-platform
• **Target length**: Desired duration — 15s, 30s, 60s, 90s, 2-3 min, 5-10 min, or long-form 10+ min
• **Key message or topic**: The core idea, value proposition, or subject matter the video must communicate
• **Call to action**: What the viewer should do after watching — visit URL, subscribe, purchase, sign up, download, follow, etc.
• **Target audience**: Who the video is for — demographics, psychographics, awareness level, and platform behavior
• **Brand tone**: Desired tone and energy level — professional, casual, humorous, inspirational, educational, urgent, or conversational
• **Available assets**: What production resources are available — on-camera talent, b-roll footage, product samples, graphics/animation capability, studio vs. location, screen recordings
• **Competitor video references**: Optional — links or descriptions of competitor or aspirational videos to benchmark against
• **Performance goals**: What success looks like — views, watch-through rate, click-through rate, conversions, engagement, or brand lift

Process

1. **Load brand context**: Read `~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json` for the active slug, then load `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json`. Apply brand voice, compliance rules for target markets (`skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md`), and industry context. **Also check for guidelines** at `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/guidelines/_manifest.json` — if present, load restrictions and relevant category files. Check for custom templates at `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/templates/`. Check for agency SOPs at `~/.claude-marketing/sops/`. If no brand exists, ask: "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults. 2. **Determine platform specs and format constraints**: Reference platform-specific requirements — aspect ratio (16:9, 9:16, 1:1), max duration, safe zones for text overlays, caption placement areas, and native content conventions. Apply platform algorithm preferences (e.g., TikTok favors native-feeling content, LinkedIn rewards professional storytelling, YouTube prioritizes watch time). 2.4. **Identify the script class — organic or ad — and load campaign context**: These are different disciplines with different physics. **Organic** content earns its audience (discovery intent, step 2.5). **Ads** buy theirs, so the craft is about what happens inside a paid, often skippable slot. If this script belongs to a campaign, read the campaign context first — `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/campaigns/` and any campaign-plan output — so the script inherits the campaign's objective, funnel stage, audience, and offer instead of inventing parallel ones. A mid-funnel retargeting ad and a cold-audience awareness ad are different scripts for the same product; the campaign brief decides which one this is.

For ad scripts, apply the format's structural rules:

• **6s bumper (unskippable)**: ONE message, no arc — there is no time to earn attention, only to land a single point. Brand visible by second 2. If the brief has two messages, that is two bumpers.
• **15s skippable**: the skip button appears at 5s — the script's real deadline. The hook and the core message both land BEFORE it; everything after is for the viewers who chose to stay. A 15s script that saves its point for second 9 was, for most of its audience, a 5-second logo exposure.
• **30s spot**: room for one arc (PAS or before/after), still front-loaded — assume drop-off at every second, pay off early and again late.
• **UGC-style / native ad**: reads as platform-native content, disclosed as an ad per FTC/ASA rules — native-feeling is a style, not a disclosure exemption. Hook physics match organic; compliance rules match ads.

2.5. **Declare the discovery intent** (organic scripts): State how this video gets found — **Search** (typed queries; ranks over months; the topic phrasing must match how people actually search — pull it from /digital-marketing-pro:keyword-research), **Browse** (suggested/home feeds; lives or dies on click-through and early retention), or **Both**. A video with no search or browse logic has no discovery reason, and no script fixes that — send the topic back to development rather than producing a well-made video nobody will be shown. The intent drives everything downstream: search videos front-load the query answer; browse videos spend more on the open. (Ad scripts skip this step — di