Animation and Digital Marketing
We have previously introduced animation and digital marketing in our blog, here! This blog will discuss the basics of using animation in digital marketing strategies to maximize the success of your campaign. This blog will also highlight the proper use of animations, effective animation digital marketing, marketing challenges, and common problems and recommended solutions.
Different Types of Animation and Their Significance
2D Animation
Historically, animation meant 2D animation, since that was the only archetype available at the time. To read more about the history of animation, click here. Nonetheless, there are many styles of 2D animation, each having their own strong points and appeal. Technological advances like the availability of cameras and accessible computer animation software have expanded the styles of 2D animation available. The figure below summarizes some styles of animation in general to appreciate the diversity and creativity possible.
Each style offers a new creative media with subtle nuances in each style that make it more suitable than others in certain situations. For instance, traditional, frame-by-frame, stop motion, and drawn on film animation are more suitable for storytelling or longer animations. Simply put, traditional animation offers a more fluid watching experience with changing background and moving characters. Moreover, voiceover and music choices can be more easily incorporated into frame-by-frame and traditional animation. This facilitates a more story driven animation.
Motion graphics and typography are more suitable for informational animation. Since motion graphics entails moving graphics (graphs, charts, and shapes), they can be used to make commonly still elements moving. This adds to the engagement factor. They tend to be short and are mostly used for short ads and infomercials. For example, these can be suitable for company training videos, school explainer videos, and website animated videos.
- An example of a motion graphics animation video can be seen here.
- An example of a frame-by-frame animation video can be seen here.
Note: Both Videos are produced by Reeeel Animation.
3D Animation
3D animation styles are limited in comparison to 2D animation. This is mostly due to the fact the 3D animation can only be done using computer software, and they mostly use the same principles of animation. Software like Maya and Autodesk 3ds MAX work in very similar principles. Even free software like Blender for 3D modeling can have an identical work flow to others.
Some styles may be considered 3D and 2D, like clay motion and stop motion animation. Typography can be done in 2D and 3D.
3D animation can be better used for story driven animations since the characters can more realistically mimic human, animal, and environmental interactions. 3D animation can be more relatable and livelier. Disney’s Pixar movies can be a great example as to what can be achieved with 3D animation. The level of realism and attention to detail is unmatchable. The addition of human expressions and voice-over can create the emotional bond with the characters that movie producers want.
Significance of Animation Styles:
Choosing the correct type of animation that suits your goals is paramount. Using motion graphics for a long movie or a goofy cartoon can be boring and too simplistic. Using 3D animation for an infomercial can be overkill and overly expensive. The following table summarizes the pros and cons of 2D and 3D animation:
Finding the correct type that strikes balance between your needs and budget is what makes the choice difficult, sometimes frustrating. For information and advice on which style and suits your brand and needs, feel free to contact us here.
Effective vs ineffective Animations
What is Effective Animation
We can define effective animation as: Animation that successfully fulfills the goals needed in the budget provided. With an infinite budget, anything can be done; nonetheless, producing the animation that ticks all the boxes and shows the results you want within budget, is an effective animation.
Examples of Effective and Ineffective Animations:
Effective
Company “X” paid an animation studio to produce a 2D animated infomercial that explains new warehouse procedures. This animation was to be shown to the warehouse workers. The studio delivered a 2-minute motion graphics video that clearly and simply displayed the new rules and regulations; as well as, new safety and machine procedures. The warehouse supervisor saw a decline in warehouse incidents in the following 3 weeks. The animation cost was less than the cost of repairing a broken machine due to unclear procedures. The company found that the investment was effective.
Ineffective
Hospital “Y” commissioned a freelancer to produce a 2D animated video for a children’s waiting room. The video was needed to entertain children in the clinic playroom before they see the doctor. 2 weeks late to the deadline, the freelancer produced a 3-minute animated video without sound. The video also had no clear theme or story. Children didn’t find it enjoyable to watch. The hospital asked for music with video. The freelancer explained that music production is not his specialty and that it costs a lot to commission a music producer. The Hospital had to pay more to have music produced. The hospital found that this investment was not worth the hassle. The animation was therefore ineffective.
The elements that influence what makes an effective animation can be summarized below:
Effective Animation in Digital Marketing
In digital marketing, any strategy should be targeted towards a specific demographic that represents your customer base. Following that sense, the animation being promoted during the campaigns should have specific traits that make it effective.
The secret to making the perfect animation that resonates with your audience and suits your goals is: “there is no secret”. Market research, experience, trial and error, and dumb luck can all influence your marketing campaign.
Examples of some factors that can influence customer perception in animation can be summarized below:
A Basic Digital Marketing Strategy
The Easiest Digital Marketing Plan to Implement:
The Blowfish:
The blowfish strategy involves building social media pages with empty mainstream content to blow up the followers of the page/account. Once the page reaches the needed number of followers, the page is rebranded to the content you need market/promote. This strategy is summarized below:
To retain the most followers after blowfish deflates, the rebranding posts should be attractive, this is mostly done through creative and attractive animation videos that introduce your company in an engaging way. Retaining followers is the most important part in this strategy.
Higher following pages are recommended more, show more in searches, and are usually regarded as more credible. Missing the chance to retain followers can send you back to square one. You should still make the new content engaging and fun to interact with/watch; however, at this point, the content should represent the company and brand values. Deleting the old irrelevant content is paramount. Irrelevant content on a company’s page is very fishy and suspicious to visitors.
Interactive content like questions, giveaways, and competitions can be a very smart step into retaining followers and even growing your page. This strategy might seem too good to be true; however, it is very commonly used by startups. You can save up sometime by buying a page with a desired number of followers.
Implementing Animations into Digital Marketing
A big fact about animation is that they are expensive. Making all content in your digital marketing plan in animated videos can be unrealistic. Using animated videos on social media is probably the most effective method to achieve the balance between costs and gains.
Social media requires fun, colorful, and engaging short content that gains you likes. As it turns out, animation is fun, colorful, and engaging, what a coincidence! Most importantly, short animations are not expensive, and are suitable for social media visitors. The following table summarizes some tips to make your animated videos on social effective:
How We Can Help
If you would like to have your video produced and customized to suit you every need, contact us! Reeeel Animation is a very experienced company in animation advertising! We handle everything from character creation to animation and advertising. We have been working with the Canadian government for 4 years. Our animation studio was awarded for best animation in 2021 in Qatar. If you would like to know more about us, you can visit this link.
We are excited to meet you and exceed your expectations. We provide the best to the best.
If you have any questions, please contact us here!
Start planning your animation here!
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