Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve definitely seen an animated advertising video or two. But if you’re not sure what kind of video we mean, you can always watch some animated videos we made for our clients .
An animated advertising video, or animated explainer video as it’s more commonly known, is a branding and marketing video that explains your product, service or business in an engaging and entertaining way using animated visuals, accompanying text or supers and usually a voiceover. These are often made by a specialty animated explainer video production company like Motionvillee and could be of many kinds: a whiteboard explainer (where graphics and text are drawn on a white background with an accompanying voiceover), a 2D or 3D character-based animated video (that features characters that the audience can relate to), a motion graphics based video (that uses interesting shapes as metaphors that transform according to the narrative), and kinetic typography videos (in which text is animated to add impact to the voiceover). Based on your requirement, the animated explainer video company will suggest which style goes best with your messaging and brand.
Of course, no matter which visual style is selected, an animated advertising video is considered to be one of the most effective and versatile marketing collaterals you can have. This is because every one of them makes use of certain psychological tricks to increase the audience’s grasp of the content, persuade them about the benefits, and convince them to take some kind of action (such as click a link, find out more, sign up, etc.).
Curious? Let’s take a deeper look at the psychology behind animated advertising videos:
Grabbing ALL the attention
One of the main reasons an animated explainer video is so effective is it grabs an audience’s attention right off the bat. Videos present the viewer with a highly engaging experience – they can see visual elements moving on the screen, hear the voiceover, sound effects and background music, and read the supers or text, all at once. Its attractive format makes video grabs a site visitor or general audience’s attention like no other piece of content can. No wonder brands clamor to add an animated video company to their roster of marketing vendors. (And you can too, just click here).
Problem-Solution FTW!
Most animated explainer videos use a particular format to make an impactful message: problem-solution. According to this format, the video first details a problem that the target audience faces, usually exaggerated, and then presents the product or service as a solution to this problem. A variation of this format is to present the product or service benefits and detail how they small multiple problems to create a positive impression as a whole or to show a comparison between two characters, both having the same problem and one failing to fix it while the other uses the product or service and becomes problem-free.
The use of a problem that the viewer most likely faces makes them pay attention to the video and eager to see what happens next. The presentation of the product or service as a solution immediately makes them eager to know more about the product or service so it can solve their problem. While this is a sure-fire tactic, determining an insightful problem or set of pain points is crucial for this to work, which is why it’s important to hire a reputed animated explainer video production company that has made videos that use this trick in the past.
Relate Much?
Another psychological trick often seen in successful animated advertising videos is the use of characters an audience can relate to. So, if the target audience is a corporate, the video will feature a corporate or white-collar executive. If the target audience is a home-maker or a gardening fanatic or a teenager, the character(s) in the video will be as similar to them as possible. Even details like the name of the character(s), what they wear, how they look, what they’re doing in the video, and even how they’re doing it are all carefully designed to mirror the target audience. Why? So they relate to these characters who are facing the same problems as them (remember the winning format we spoke about above), and using the product or service to solve their problems. When the audience relates to these characters, it also makes them relate to the brand or business, thinking that it is made just for them (or people like them). Again, note that ensuring your video has relatable characters comes with a lot of experience and expertise like you’d find in an established animated explainer video company.
Cues That Convert
Every good animated explainer or advertising video makes use of subtle visual and audio cues that work subliminally on the viewer to create a sense of urgency, to create a preference for the product or service being advertised, or to simply create a connect with the brand identity. Ever heard the sound of a clicking clock or the actual visual of a clock whose hands are moving rapidly? That immediately makes viewers feel like they are running out of time and need to take action quickly. Or a product seems to glow or sparkle? That makes a viewer think it is special, as it mimics the glimmer of precious stones. And in a before-after scenario, a character will always seem frustrated or sad before, even the background and music mirroring that feeling – all of which switches to a bright and cheerful tone, the character depicting a huge smile or intense relief after using the product or service. As for brand connect, the use of brand colours, branding elements and the brand logo and tagline reinforces the brand in the viewer’s mind and helps to improve brand recall, quiet covertly for the most part! Look at any of the videos made by a successful animated video company, and you’re sure to have come across some of these cues, maybe without even noticing them.
As you can see, animated advertising video is never as simple as it seems, even though the aim of these videos is to simplify the messaging as much as possible. If you’d like to maximize on these tricks to inform, persuade and convince your target audience, then just <click here> and let’s get talking about using them in your next animated advertising video.