Interview with an Animator
With consumer attention spans growing shorter and shorter by the minute, it’s become vital to pique potential clients’ interest as soon as possible and provide them with all the information you need to before they move onto the next thing.
The solution? Video.
There is a variety of ways that you can integrate video into your marketing strategy, and you should take advantage of as many as possible.
Whether it’s explainer videos, product demos or tours, or testimonials, incorporating videos is a sure way to grab the attention of your potential clients in ways that text frankly no longer can.
That’s why today, we are going to talk with our awesome animator, Kyle, on what things are important when creating video marketing content.
1.What are the pros and cons of using animated videos over videos of real people?
Often times in business marketing, the subjects aren’t things you can exactly point a camera at, and that’s where animation really sets itself apart. If you’re selling something intangible, or if your product is unfinished, top secret, or otherwise can’t be seen, animation is obviously a much more flexible medium.
An animated video can also be a good way to better set the tone of your public image. Between the animation style, energy, color, music, characters, etc., you can do a lot to control how people perceive you. If your office is dull and doesn’t reflect the vibrancy of your service, or if you’re a small company wanting to look bigger, animated videos give you that ability to craft the more specific persona you want your audience to see.
Alternatively, “live” video takes advantage of the work your company has already mastered. If you have a great team beaming with confidence in your product or if your business is all about that human factor, it’s hard to beat the genuine connection we make with real people.
2. What’s the difference between an animated explainer video and a cartoon?
When you mention the idea of including animated videos in a company’s marketing plan, two words that often come to mind for a lot of people are “childish” and “cartoony.” If you’re a toy company, that’s fine. If you’re a law law firm, that’s probably got you feeling apprehensive.
Check out some awesome examples of effective animated explainer videos.
While sometimes the desired effect includes animated figures and illustrated elements, the medium is much more flexible in style than many people first imagine. A lot of animated explainers are strictly moving text, others use geometry or iconography, realistic or stylized 3D renderings, or quite often a combination of multiple styles. Think of animation as graphic design in the 4th dimension. It can be as cartoonish or sophisticated as your brand.
3. How long does it take to produce a high quality, effective animator video from scratch?
A good animated video that appropriately tells your story in an engaging way definitely takes time. Usually a few weeks to a few months depending factors like length, medium, style, complexity, etc.
And while technology is definitely opening more and more doors every day for creative professionals, you’ll never get a shortcut to automate the human factor. The animation itself isn’t the only difficult part, there’s also the careful pre-production.
We work closely with clients to develop the right script, making sure it not only conveys all the necessary information, but does so in the appropriate tone and voice. You also have to consider the pacing and how your words can be translated or supported visually. That’s no small feat itself, but once everyone loves the script, you’ve got to translate the client’s essence into a visual style, figure out how to best convey the script visually without distracting the audience, and get everyone on the same page with things like storyboards, style guides and animatics.
If you jump into the animation without a killer plan, the animation itself will never go as smoothly, and will always end up with revision after revision after revision. Suffice it to say, like anything else, the more care you put into it, the better the results will always be.
4. What is the most important content to highlight in the video?
Every video project is different. What’s important for one client might be filler for another. More often than not, a good structure for a video is to establish a problem, identify a solution, express the “why” through benefits and differentiators, and follow up with a clear and direct call to action. These types of animated explainer videos are essentially sales pitches, and depending on the need, your content should probably be high level information to grab interest and draw you into following up for more details.
5. Where are the best venues to promote your video content?
Video content can be used in a lot of different places, and depends more on your marketing strategy than the videos themselves. In fact, I always like to know the intended venue before even planning a video. Obviously, there’s the traditional places like televised commercial spots, which carry with them their own sets of rules and best practices. There’s now also online paid advertising like you would see before a video on YouTube or Hulu.
The simplest and most obvious these days, however, is just to implement your videos on your website and social media. There are all sorts of factors in deciding the right places for your content, and like I said, a full marketing strategy is best way to determine just when, where and how to share promote your videos.
Interested in learning more about how videos could be incorporated into your marketing strategy? Contact one of our experts today.