The rise and rise of video as a marketing medium is not going away.
The statistics are clear, we spend more time watching video online than ever before. There are more conversions on websites which utilise video, and more traffic driven to websites through video.
When it comes to video, we are being asked two key questions by our clients. The first is how to do it in a cost-effective way? The second is what style of video should be used? Should they be looking to use animated video or live video?
Here’s a few scenarios where I think animated video wins out and where it’s best for your business.
You’ve got to explain a complex product, process or idea
When you’re dealing with a complex idea or product. Trying to explain it solely in verbal form can be very challenging. Depending on the person speaking, the audience may or may not connect and engage. Therefore using shot video sometimes doesn’t bring an idea to life as well as an animated video does.
The combination of voice over, overlay text and animated video enables us to present a complex idea in a simple way. It brings the watcher along our journey and explains the idea through text and narration.
This approach allows us to cover a whole range of learning styles. This means that we satisfy all of our prospective customers, however they prefer to absorb information.
A great example of this is the work we did for Tokamak Energy Ltd. Tokamak are looking to develop the world’s first viable fusion energy provision. Explaining how this scientifically challenging project can actually bring energy to the grid is a difficult thing to explain. However it is crucial to demonstrate to potential investors that it’s both possible and viable.
You need to get an idea across quickly
When we’re creating content for websites or social media, we need to grab and then keep people’s attention. Trying to explain an idea quickly in written word can be hard to do and it can be tricky summarise what we need to say in those few words available to us.
Animated video gives us an attractive medium by which to grab attention, but there’s also a limit to how long people will engage with that content, before they want to read more.
That means, an explainer video for a product needs to be as short as reasonably possible and capture the interest of our audience to get more information.
To achieve this, you need to be able to clearly visualise something working that might not show the exact details, but gets a clear idea across, and makes the process real to the viewer.
One great example of this is a video we created for Pireta. Pireta’s technology embeds connectivity at the fibre level of fabrics enabling a wide range of usages, but clearly giving benefits to those companies developing solutions in the wearables space.
The animated video route enables us to visualise processes which we can’t catch and bring them to life on camera.
Increasing social engagement & driving traffic
A few years back we saw significant changes as images began to dominate our social media feed. Engagement on posts which had an image vs. those without, significantly increased, with many people quoting a 20% difference.
Fast forward a few years and Facebook themselves were talking about their platform being mostly a video platform. With the same statistic between words and picture being in use between image posts vs video posts.
In this article from WordStream, with more stats than you can imagine, one of the stand out elements for me was that social video generates 12 times more shares than text and images combined.
So, in short if you want to create engagement on social media, then you want to be using video. Combine that with the stats around video driving conversion rate (Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users).
Now obviously this doesn’t differentiate between video and animated video, so exactly what you choose to use is really up to you. You should base your choice on your product and your market.
Utilising a fast-paced concept video to get excitement and build engagement on social is a nice technique. We used that for Pireta with their ‘forward looking vision’ video, combining both animated and shot video.
Brand personality
When you’re considering which video format to use one thing you want to think about carefully is the image/brand personality you want to convey.
Animated video gives us more flexibility when it comes to personality. We can be playful, serous, high quality and polished, sketch based… the possibilities are huge. This flexibility gives the power to choose how we want to present ourselves as a business.
It’s fair to say though that choosing animated video for personality is also a challenge. We need to be entirely clear on our personality and be 100% clear on what image we want to project, any confusion on this and we can end up creating a style which doesn’t reflect our business.
When developing a brand around short business tips from our client Safaraz Ali, we wanted a personality that was playful and engaging but not a distraction from the core content. Our Canny Bites videos delivered brand personality and we have been able to convert this into printed form in two different books.
There are many reasons to choose animated videos over live video but ultimately it really depends on what is right for your business. The main points to consider when choosing a video style are:
- Stay consistent with your brand and tone of voice
- Have clear objectives for your video
- Keep it targeted to your audience
- Keep the video short in order to keep your audience engaged
Need more advice on what video will work best for you? Get in touch with our team today, you can also find out more about our animation services here.
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