Video animations are one of the most powerful and effective marketing tools. How to fully utilize their potential for the benefit of the brand and business?
Video content is the foundation of modern internet marketing. Whether it's simple GIFs, TikTok and Instagram reels or longer formats on YouTube, videos have become the main carrier of advertising information and an excellent way to build audience engagement.
According to the The State of Video Marketing 2023 study conducted by HubSpot, video content even has a fifty times greater chance of achieving organic search results than a regular text message. At the same time, as many as 91% of the brands surveyed intended to use them in 2023 - the most since the publication of the first edition of the report in 2016.
Among the most popular video marketing formats, animations have come to the fore in recent years. In 2022, such films accounted for 55% of all advertising productions, and in the following years this percentage is likely to only increase. Not without reason.
- Animations are very universal communication tools. They age much slower than video and are much easier to update, which gives them a huge potential to achieve the status of so-called evergreen content - believes Kamil Kosmala, project manager at the creative agency MU Interactive.
At the same time, he emphasizes that this format does not have to serve exclusively for strictly advertising purposes. Currently, animations are used by organizations for consumer education, entertainment or information. They often also replace tedious, internal training procedures and help companies familiarize staff with organizational culture and administrative procedures in an accessible way.
- That's why we can currently see motion design animations and advanced 3D animations in the corporate materials of the biggest giants from all industries: from technology and finance, through medical and food, to automotive and industrial. They are a versatile tool that effectively attracts the attention of recipients and conveys even the most complicated information in a simple and understandable way - adds Kosmala.
A good illustration of the universality and accessibility of presenting a topic in the form of animation can also be so-called explainer videos, i.e. instructional films. They explain, for example, how to navigate the client's platform more efficiently, smoothly go through the registration process on the site, fill out the application form or make purchases of services and products. They can also cover a range of other issues of varying degrees of complexity and abstraction.
– The tendency is usually such that the level of advancement of the issue is proportional to the style of animation, i.e. the more complicated the problem, the simpler the form of communication should be. Another example could be so-called whiteboard animations, which we implemented with the team for the National Electoral Commission. The difficult legal language was transformed into easily digestible animated illustrations – explains Kosmala.
The effectiveness of animations is primarily due to their high degree of memorability. This format, using colors and various visual elements, allows building engaging stories that evoke specific emotions related to the product or service in the recipients. This, in turn, allows brands to create distinctive and unique identities, which are key to attracting consumer attention in the content-saturated internet.
Research confirms this. According to the quoted HubSpot report, even 96% of people declare that they watch the mentioned explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Meanwhile, 89% of respondents admit that they were convinced to make a purchase after watching a promotional video.
And although these numbers are very promising, according to Kamil Kosmala, this does not mean that the use of animated promotional films in an advertising campaign automatically translates into its success.
Animation should be a communication tool perfectly tailored to the client's needs and precisely matched to the specifics of his audience and target groups. Meanwhile, the most common mistake is to assume that the visual layer alone will replace the lack of content.
– A good script is the foundation of every project, because errors in assumptions can be detected already in the initial stages of production. To avoid them, at the stage of creating the concept and brief, several basic issues such as the character of communication based on the brand archetype, the purpose of the project, the target group and the style of animation should be taken into account – advises Kosmala.
He also emphasizes that one should not always stick to the idea of creating animations, because it is not the optimal format in every case. For productions such as case studies, webinars, reportages or live relations, classic video will work much better, as it allows building an image of expertise and presenting customer opinions.
– However, nothing prevents you from adding animated elements such as an intro, caption bars, or a short iconographic animation to the traditional video format, which can positively affect the increase in engagement and interaction with the consumed content – Kosmala summarizes.
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