Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Why do animated videos work on audiences?

Coca Cola have been the latest of a string of high profile brands to make use of animation to connect with audiences. Coca Cola’s latest commercial, “Man and Dog” is a wonderful 60 second 2D animation that revolves around seeing the world through the eyes of a dog.


WHY ARE MORE PEOPLE MAKING USE OF ANIMATION?
We are visual creatures and sight trumps all our other senses, when we tell a story, communicate an idea or explain how something works visually people remember it.

For most of us animation in the form of cartoons helped us as children to make sense of the world around us, and they continue to entertain us into adulthood, often through humour in cartoons such as The Simpsons, well placed ‘grown up humour’ in Pixar movies or through political cartoons in the press.

Illustrations have for thousands of years remained a universal form of communication and are deeply embedded into the human brain. Animations tap into this perfectly, and makes them ideal for explaining complex subjects, getting across ideas and telling stories.

As multi channel businesses we have an incredibly short amount of time to engage online audiences, not to mention retain their attention. Explaining what you do succinctly is not easily achieved through text alone, in fact ask yourself - What would you rather do, read two thousand words or watch a 2 minute video?

EXPLAINING THINGS CAN BE DIFFICULT 
Have you ever found yourself grabbing for a pen and paper to explain a concept or idea, how your latest product or service works, perhaps how a new drug targets cancer cells or even to explain what a hung parliament means? Well describing and explaining things succinctly can be difficult, and if customers are met by a wall of text having clicked into a website very often they don’t stick around, and this is where animated videos can help.

Animation is widely used in ‘explainer videos’ - because it’s a whole lot easier to show people what you do than just tell them. Furthermore animation has the unique ability to cut through the noise, focus the attention and get to the point.

Good animation not only entertains but also helps us to retain and recall the information we’ve watched. Recent studies have found that on average there was a 15% improvement in how people recalled information they absorbed from watching whiteboard animations.

LIMITLESS CREATIVITY 
Animation is an incredibly rich visual format limited only by ones imagination. From the most basic motion graphics and kinetic typography through to the most involved CGI and hand-drawn frame by frame Disneyesque productions it can be used to transport the viewer off to outlandish fictional places, where inanimate objects can morph into others, have their own personalities and where intangible products and services can be easily explained.

Whether its telling people what you do, explaining an idea or placing your product within an entertaining narrative like Coca Cola have done, animation is the perfect way to grab the attention of your audience, add a bit of fun and imagination into their lives and retain their attention.

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Why you should be adding online video to your marketing mix.

It’s no secret that video is fast becoming a necessary part of digital marketing - For starters we all watch a lot more online videos than we used to, from music videos, film trailers and stupid cat videos, to product demonstrations, explainer videos and corporate presentations. Here are four very compelling reasons why you should be using video...

By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic - Cisco Systems Inc

1. WHY IS ONLINE VIDEO SO IMPORTANT?
As marketers we need to present and occupy the same spaces and channels that our customers do. If the rocketing numbers that reflect the incredible rise in B2B and B2C video consumption are anything to go by then the hottest places to be seen are in online videos.

75% of senior executives told Forbes they watch work related videos at least once a week

2. VIDEO INCREASES YOUR REACH
Being accessible and visible through the use of online video content exposes your brand to a whole new audience and many more potential customers. Video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Facebook have a staggering number of users.

YouTube has more than 1billion unique visits every month - more than Yahoo, Bing & Ask combined

Video also benefits from being truly cross-platform and thrives on any channel, allowing you to create assets that can be easily shared and made use of across Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, within your email marketing campaigns, on your website and so on.

3. GOOGLE LOVES VIDEO CONTENT
Google no longer favours static websites - As it places less importance on traditional keyword optimised content it looks to the increasing trend of video consumption from consumers. As a result Google now places more and more importance on video within its search results.

You're 53x more likely to appear on pg.1 of Google if you have video on your website: Forrester Research

4. EASILY ACCESSED, EASILY DIGESTED Today content needs to be quickly and easily accessed and digested, with the consumer putting in minimal effort. People are hungry for information but rarely want to spend much time getting it.

Think of video in this way: Are you more likely to read an article of 2000 words to find the answer to a question, or watch a two minute video? 

Furthermore modern tech, notably smart phones makes that two minute video far more digestible, not to mention convenient to consume whenever and wherever you are.

People only remember 20% of what they hear and 30% of what they see… But they remember 70% of what they see and hear.


Monday, 20 April 2015

Ten Years Of YouTube Videos

Monday, April 20, 2015 Posted by Liteman , , , , ,
Today YouTube celebrated its ten year anniversary. The first video was uploaded and featured YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, an unassuming 18 second video clip titled "Me at the Zoo".

Ten years on YouTube receives more than 1billion unique visits every month - that’s more than Yahoo, Bing and Ask combined. It is the second largest search engine after Google, and users upload more than 300 hours of video every minute.

It is predicted that by 2017 video will account for 70% of all consumer internet traffic. Video is rapidly revolutionising the internet itself. It has evolved from being simply a repository for all things weird and wonderful to becoming an integral part of how business and commerce engage with consumers.

Here are the highlights of ten years of YouTube!...

 

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

The Best Animated Sports Commercials

Animation has been put to great use in recent years by sports organisations and television broadcasters looking to capture the imagination of audiences when promoting the worlds greatest sporting events. Here’s one great animation for each of the last four years, enjoy!

2015 Crabbie's Grand National - The Outsider

This beautiful Disney-esque animation that tells the fairy-tale story of a unicorn turned racehorse was produced to promote channel 4’s coverage of this year’s Grand National, and for many it was better than the event itself.

2014 FIFA World Cup - Official TV Opening

The World Cup is one of the most hotly anticipated sporting events on the planet with the final typically attracting the largest global audience of any sporting occasion. This vibrant animated opener for the event caught the imagination of audiences and introduced them to the spectacular Rio landscape and its people.

2013 Rugby League World Cup - Official Trailer

To promote the Rugby League World Cup award-winning studio Blue Zoo created this wonderfully stylised animated short inspired by the Incredibles. It featured oversized low-poly-style characters rampaging across Britain in a battle for the winners trophy. It worked well to convey the brutishness and strength of the game.

2012 London Olympics - Official Trailer

This fantastic animated trailer for the summer games was based around the concept of ‘Stadium UK’ - bringing the nation together in a huge Olympic Stadium to enjoy the BBC's comprehensive coverage of the London 2012 Games.

Despite sparking controversy due to similarities to a Lloyds Bank Ad this stunning animation provides plenty of eye candy in the way of stunning vistas of the British Isles and athletes running through terraced streets; cyclists tackling the Scottish highlands and gymnasts somersaulting along London bridge. Well worth watching again.



Thursday, 9 April 2015

Adobe introduces Adobe Character Animator

“Adobe Character Animator” part of Adobe creative cloud.
There have been some interesting developments over the past few years to make animation more accessible and easier to carry out more basic tasks. While purists would shudder at the thought of using online software packages such as GoAnimate, they do have their place in the market for people who want to create quick, simple and affordable animated videos.


So who better than Adobe to step into the arena of character animation. After all Adobe software forms the basis of most creative studios in one way or another, I personally live and breath Photoshop as the preferred tool for concept work, and its Adobe themselves who have just announced what could be a real game changer when it comes to producing quick and professional looking animated characters, in the form of 'Adobe Character Animator', an addition to their creative cloud.

Whilst we've yet to get our hands on a copy of this new software (but guess what we’re doing later today!), early signs suggest it has great potential. Adobe Character Animator can be launched from within Adobe After Effects, so we would assume that it’s interface and approaches integrate and follow on from this in some way or another.

In basic terms, you create your artwork in Photoshop or Illustrator, import this into Adobe Character Animator which then allows you to use your camera and microphone to act out your characters facial expressions and voice. It will automatically synchronise with your speech and hand gestures and various movement can be controlled by a combination of pre-programmed behaviours, your mouse and keyboard.

We’re quite excited about it’s potential, especially the notion that we are able to create your own characters rather than rely on ‘stock characters’ which we never do, so this allows us to continue creating unique content but potentially speeds up our workflow, which in turn will give better value to our clients.

We hope to have a good play over the coming days and intend to post more as we learn. Here are some useful links if you want to read more from Adobe themselves and find out more about the Adobe creative cloud.

This video shows some of the potential: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmPo0_WZyPU#t=249

Not heard of the creative cloud, check it our here: https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud.html

Here’s what Adobe have to say on the matter: Adobe Blog

Thursday, 2 April 2015

The importance of telling stories in content marketing

Despite all the distractions of modern life there’s nothing we enjoy better than a good story, a skill practically all of us learn at a young age, whether from our parents, grandparents, teachers and peers, delivered to us sat around a camp-fire, in a lecture hall, over a pint of the good stuff with friends or by way of an immersive IMAX 3D experience, good stories always stick.

storiessell

With the rise and rise of social media interaction corporations are increasingly required to create compelling ‘shareable’ content to feed the demand from an increasing number of channels that consumers are using to find and interact with the labels, products and services they demand. To this end the art of storytelling is fast becoming a fundamental part of how you can successfully engage with your customers and cultivate your following.

In the pursuit of the perfect narrative scientific research is delving into the history and the finer details of how good stories can and do change our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, and why our brain loves a good yarn.

The importance of storytelling lies in its power to explain and our brains have long been wired to look for the story when making sense of the world around us. In ancient civilisations those that could explain and most notably embellish the actions of the Gods in times of flood, famine and war would draw the largest and most attentive audiences, helping to elevate their positions in society and assume positions of authority, thus the rise of priests, judges, rulers and ultimately Alan Sugar, sorry business leaders.

For those in business today stories can be told using online video, arguably the single most engaging format for audiences and one that’s fast becoming the preferred way to absorb information. But there’s more to just telling a good story than high definition video - if you want a narrative that’ll elevate your brand, motivate, inspire and help spread your message the key is in our biology, in particular the hormone oxytocin.

Oxytocin is a powerful neurotransmitter most commonly associated with relationship building and parent-child bonding. It is produced when we are trusted and shown kindness from others, it helps to motivate us to cooperate with others by enhancing a sense of empathy. Research carried out in the U.S. that involved accurately measuring oxytocin release aimed to understand more about the neurobiology of storytelling and why stories can motivate voluntary cooperation.

Results showed that for stories to motivate people to cooperate in helping others they must maintain attention by building tension during the narrative; if they are successful in doing this they’ll not only be more likely to stimulate empathy with the characters but for their audience to mimic the feelings and behaviours of those characters when the story ends. This explains why people are more willing to donate money having watched a charity video.

With an increasing number of businesses making use of online video the neurobiology of storytelling is particularly relevant when understanding what will successfully drive and engage your audience. Wrapping your companies USP’s in a character driven narrative that can display how you can, or alternatively have improved the lives of the characters will help to stimulate empathy from your viewers resulting in a much better understanding of those key messages. Furthermore they will remember them for longer.

Many brands and organisations have already seen the benefits of how compelling a well constructed narrative can be upon a target audience, from encouraging people to give generously on Red Nose Day to telling the tale of a startup business. If you want to motivate, persuade and be remembered start with a story of human struggle and eventual triumph. This is what will capture people’s hearts - by first attracting their brains.


Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Monday, 2 March 2015

6 of the best... Examples of kinetic typography

Now I think most people will agree that they’d quietly retreat from anyone discussing the wonders of kinetic typography at a social gathering. It’s one of those subjects best conveyed visually than in discussion over a glass of cider. As such here are six of my favourite examples of where kinetic typography is used to evoke emotion and reactions among audiences.

ONE

From Paper to Screen
This awesome piece of work is in fact a graduation project by designer Thibault de Fournas. The feature illustrates the evolution of typography itself, starting from the basic principles and rules of typesetting through to the application of typography in cinema. The animated video is beautifully synchronised with Claude Debussy’s Claire de Lune.

TWO

Childline: First Step
Created to promote Childline’s free 24hour counselling service and encourage those that have experienced sexual abuse to talk about it, this moving and engaging four minute animation was a collaboration between a London based ad agency and LA based production company. The video wonderfully illustrates how the creative use of kinetic typography and abstract art can be used to communicate the most sensitive of subjects.

THREE

Book trailer: You Are Not So Smart
This innovative idea for a book promotion illustrates how engaging a video animation can be when promoting a product, as well as being a nice change from relying on the blurb on the back of the book or perhaps Amazon reviews to get feel for what’s to come. The cleverly animated book trailer concisely sums up its content whilst conveying the personality and nature of the publication. Concentrating on the subject of ‘procrastination’ the animation is perfectly timed throughout with the voiceover and will surely have you agreeing and smiling as you relate to the odd point or two.

FOUR

Apocalypse Rhyme 
This is definitely one just to watch, turn the bass up and enjoy an emotive piece of work that exhibits how effective kinetic typography can be when its combined with an equally powerful narrative, in this case a poem penned by Oliver Harrison. What’s even more impressive is that Oliver created the whole production himself, in its entirety - writing the poem, composing the music and creating the animation for Channel 4’s Random Acts, a short-form daily arts strand on Channel 4, late nights, launched in 2011. The feature went on to win the ’Best Motion Graphics' prize in the British Animation Awards 2014.

FIVE

‘Anonymous’ infographic 
This rather slick two minute explainer video or infographic tells the story of how online hactivist group ‘Anonymous’ came together in 2003 and subsequently went on to orchestrate various audacious protest acts upon large corporate enterprises. The animation combines bold 3D effects and stylised animation with kinetic typography and voiceover resulting in a feature in keeping with the mystery of the organisation itself.

SIX

Shop.vac music video 
Created by Sacramento artist, musician and software developer Jarrett Heather this stunning example of kinetic typography began with a catchy song; shop.vac by Jonathan Coulton and a desire of Jarrett’s to learn how animation works. At around 1000 hours of painstaking work this epic video exhibits some remarkable detailing and features a number of different fonts suited to each part of the song.



Thursday, 26 February 2015

Increasing web presence and customer engagement with an animated video on your home page

The trend for using online videos has and continues to increase incredibly quickly, providing both B2C and B2B consumers with a tide of imaginative and innovative content to feast their eyes on.

Short animated videos including whiteboard explainer videos are proven to be extremely effective in capturing the imagination and engaging audiences.

Showcase your assets
The aim of any marketing should be to show what you do, how good you are at doing it, and why consumers should choose you. All this can be done by using an animated video on the homepage of your website. A video can be used to convey all your key messages and USP’s in a fraction of the time that it takes to read your text content, not to mention with a lot less effort.

Time is of the essence
In early 2014 data revealed that over 55% of website visitors spent less than 15 seconds on websites - granted this kind of data varies depending on what kind of industry you’re in, however we all know (from our own habits) that we’re pretty quick to click away from a website that doesn’t immediately grab our attention.

We’re all watching more online video
Although I’m not a big fan of statistics they do speak volumes when illustrating the trend towards online video and how it’s becoming a preferred format for online consumers.

..
  • Youtube receives more than a billion unique visits every month - that’s more than Yahoo, Bing and Ask combined
  • 50% of all mobile internet traffic is from people watching online videos
  • Videos within email marketing increases your click through rates up to 200%
  • Videos are liked, shared, tweeted and mentioned in social media more so than any other format.
  • Videos increase understanding in products and services by 74%
Declutter, organise and simplify your offering
The home page of your website can be an awfully tricky area of your business to get right, albeit vitally important that you do. It must engage quickly, retain and encourage your visitors to make an enquiry and or a purchase.

An overcrowded and disjointed homepage is never appealing, and will likely fail to convey your key messages and USP’s. Too much text can be overbearing and a particular turn-off for those viewing on mobile devices with small screens.

An animated video not only provides the opportunity to neatly package your offering within an easily digested format but also provides you with the opportunity to spruce up your homepage, keeping it clean, fresh and more appealing to visitors.

More than just words
Trying to communicate the essence, personality and principles behind your business through words alone is not always easy, but it is becoming more important as consumers are turning more attention to these details when choosing the brands and products they consume.


Video is a fantastic way for you to genuinely engage with your visitors and demonstrate your brand personality. The animated explainer video above demonstrates how in only one minute a relatively complex subject can be wrapped and packaged in an entertaining, friendly and approachable manner, helping to instil confidence in the company and  encourage the viewer to find out more.

Storytelling
For services, products and perhaps investment opportunities that are not particularly self descriptive a degree of explanation will likely be required. When considering a video for your business a typical scenario is to demonstrate the challenges that may face your target audience, then follow this up with how you provide the solution to them. This formula is best applied and adapted by developing a story that your audience can easily relate to - with a video being the natural way to present it to your audience.

Whiteboard animations
Whiteboard animations are a fantastic format for telling a story - they work by stimulating what’s known as ‘viewer anticipation’ - a reaction we have all experienced when we’ve stopped in the street to watch what an artist is creating. This reaction makes whiteboards perfect at grabbing and keeping the attention of website visitors.

Research in recent years by Dr Richard Wiseman, Psychology Professor at the University of Hertfordshire has proved that whiteboard animations dramatically improve the transfer and retention of information in those that watch them - with on average a 15% improvement in how viewers recalled information having watched them compared to standard live video.

SEO, authority and lead generation
Google continues to place more importance on video content when returning search results. According to Forrester Research you are 53 times more likely to appear on page one of Google if you have a video on your website.

Google isn’t the only reason to consider animated videos though - including video within your email marketing increases click through rates up to 200%. Further still videos are proven to help improve lead generation, increase the time on your website resulting in lower bounce rates and most importantly increase authority in your brand... So what are you waiting for - start thinking of how you can tell your story!


Thursday, 19 February 2015

A history of YouTube video marketing

Thursday, February 19, 2015 Posted by Liteman , , , ,
Whether we’re consciously aware of it or not video marketing has become a part of our everyday lives, whether we’re creators, brands or consumers, in fact the roots of video marketing stretch way back, further than we realise. Since the early days of internet advertisers have searched for a format to equal the effectiveness and reach of the ads that we watch during commercial breaks on television.

Although video marketing has a long and rich history its two videos; “The Spirit Of Christmas” made by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in the early to mid 90’s that are often credited with paving the way for today’s industry – the first of which was passed around colleagues at LucasArts having been cleaned up by an animator, and the second being commissioned by Fox executive Brian Graden as a video Christmas card having seen the first video. The two features became the precursors to the hit series.


Video has come along way since it first made the leap from tape to pixels with these first muffled, low resolution attempts, but it wasn’t for another decade until YouTube put the marketing into ‘video marketing’ and brands, promoters, marketeers and technology giants raced to be the first to harness the value that video continues to provide.

With the launch of YouTube came the era of the viral video!

The earliest forms of video marketing were in fact the overlay and display adverts positioned alongside popular YouTube videos – This revenue stream allowed creators who were previously making content for free to potentially make a living.

In the early days of YouTube few brands and businesses were making good use of video in a meaningful way, one trailblazer at the time however was Tom Dickson, Founder of Blendtec.

Dickson created what’s considered to be one of the first and best viral marketing videos to promote their range of kitchen blenders. Each episode would see Dickson setup a scenario with all the enthusiasm as a high school science master, proclaiming “will it blend” as he stuffs a suitably unsuitable object into one of their ridiculously powerful $400 kitchen blenders.


It all sounds more like a comedy short than a piece of serious advertising, but over the following two years their ‘Will It Blend’ videos turned a brand with little mainstream recognition into one of the most recognised and talked about brands on the planet, attracting over 1.5 million views on Youtube and helping to increase sales of their Total Blenders by over 600%.

Despite there being little technical distinction between viral videos and the rest, businesses such as MacDonalds and Fiesta began finding innovative ways to make use of creators and ‘Youtubers’ to promote their brands.


As the digital revolution accelerated, driven by the new iPhone and the proliferation of broadband internet access video consumption became more and more in demand. As competition for audiences and views increased the collaborative efforts between creators and marketers worked for both parties, helping to shape yet another online industry.

The Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” video uploaded in early 2010 saw yet another twist in the way video could add value when it spawned a multitude of parody and spoof versions. This not only helped to spread their original message entirely for free, but also demonstrated the value created when an engaged audience interacts with your video content.


Now that a relationship between makers and advertisers had been determined Multi Channel Networks or MCN’s began popping up to take advantage. In short MCN’s help creators/artists and brands to generate a revenue through multi platform distribution and management. They do this by affiliating themselves with multiple YouTube channels. MCN services involve assistance with programming, funding, promotion, partner management, digital rights and copyright management, monetisation, audience development and more.

MCN’s led the way in collaborative guerrilla ads, brands would pay a premium through MCN’s to run ads cleverly disguised as videos. These kind of videos have been used to promote many brands including airlines such as WestJet’s 2013 Christmas video through to new movies such as often priming audiences for what was to come.


As audiences find evermore different ways to use video, marketeers and advertisers find more innovative ways to promote the products and services they offer.

Although big budget viral videos have their place many brands have focussed more attention on ‘social video marketing’ campaigns that often compliment other social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. These kinds of campaigns focus more on core audiences and generate much more more meaningful discussions, not to far better indicators of their success through increased sales.


In recent years video has grown, matured and become mainstream, it’s reshaping the internet as we know it, and will continue to do so. For consumers it’s far easier to consume a three minute video off our smart phone than to read a couple of pages of text, if you’re still here?


Thursday, 12 February 2015

Why animated whiteboard videos work on audiences

How animated whiteboard videos engage audiences and improve the transfer of knowledge - making them great for your business...  

Today we watch more video than ever before, on average there’s around six billion hours of video watched per month on YouTube alone. Super-fast wifi and high definition smartphones, tablets and iPads enable us to conveniently watch online from wherever and whenever we like. 

For businesses both large and small, from startups to multi nationals, online video provides a fantastic opportunity to reach and engage their targeted audiences like never before.

One of the most popular and widely used formats are whiteboard explainer videos, or scribe videos. These have become popularised by organisations such as the RSA charity and have proven to be a huge hit among audiences. In fact this relatively simple yet effective technique has been proven to be more effective at knowledge transfer than other types of online video.

Award winning professor of psychology Dr Richard Wiseman, an award winning professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire carried out several tests where he observed that whiteboard animations outperformed ordinary ‘talking head’ videos in memory tests, problem solving, shareability and their overall impact on audiences.

Having recorded a normal ‘live video’ of himself talking he then created a whiteboard version using exactly the same transcript in a bid to observe how viewers would react and respond having watched each video.

The results by any standards were astonishing, on average there was a 15% improvement in how the viewers recalled information they absorbed from watching the whiteboard animation compared to the standard video format.

Dr Wiseman himself said of the results... “Anyone involved in education or research will know that is absolutely massive. Normally you have to work incredibly hard to get 5, maybe 10% increase in any kind of behavioural measure like that. Simply by animation you’re seeing a 15% increase.”

On one particular question put to those that viewed the whiteboard video 92% recalled a correct answer compared to only 22% of those who watched the ordinary video.

whiteboard_graphic

So what reasons are there to explain such a marked difference in the way that one video format successfully transfers knowledge to your audience over the other?

ANIMATED WHITEBOARD VIDEOS BETTER ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE...
Figuring out how to engage an audience can be a real challenge, however it turns out the process itself of a whiteboard animation stimulates what’s called ‘viewer anticipation’ - a reaction that we’ve all experienced whether as excitable kids watching our parents draw us a picture of a Woofle bird or as part of a crowd gathered around a street artist waiting to see what’s being created.

The creation of art has always captivated audiences and as we watch a whiteboard video our brains are constantly trying to anticipate what’s coming next, when the final form or message is revealed to us the brain experiences a sense of surprise and satisfaction and releases dopamine, the pleasure chemical which in turn increases our engagement.

As a result of their success in engaging an audience, whiteboards go on to be three times more likely to be shared, a vital component to the impact of video marketing activities for businesses and organisations.

    

HAVE FUN, LEARN MORE... 
One of the key reasons that Dr Wiseman cites for whiteboards being so effective is quite simply fun!... Animations are fun, in fact it’s fair to say that video itself is a lot more fun for your website visitors at least, than having to wade through all that text. 

Dr Wiseman noted that “We do anything better when we’re in a good mood … creativity, productivity, learning. … One thing whiteboard animations do is make me laugh, and it puts me in a good mood … Suddenly, it’s not so much work. It not only makes the viewer have a better time, but more importantly it means the information is going in.” 

Naturally for those looking at making use of video in a commercial setting, be it promotional and marketing videos, explainer videos or perhaps internal training videos fun cannot be the only reason to choose a whiteboard animation - but add the huge improvements in information retention and memory with the way they can engage your audience and you have a winning combination.


Friday, 16 January 2015

The technicalities of kinetic typography in online video

What is kinetic typography?
We’re not going to spend too long explaining this one - it’s text that moves!

In particular we’re referring to text within online videos, whether in music videos, famous speeches, tributes, explainer videos for startups or animated videos, we’re looking at the various styles of kinetic text that are used to convey a specific idea, vision or emotion.

Temporal typography
Temporal typography is typography that appears to move or change its identity over time, one of the most widely recognised examples of this is Channel 4’s logo idents screened prior to the start of programmes - here the form relies upon the changing landscapes to create the number four. Temporal typography can be divided into three categories - dynamic layout, scrolling and fluid typography...

  

Dynamic layout typography
In dynamic layout typography the movement, size, form and direction of the letters and words is used to prioritise and emphasize messages over and above the background scene. This technique is often utilised for online explainer videos and is often at its most effective when it's complemented by a coordinating voiceover.


Scrolling typography Similar to dynamic layout scrolling typography is when text moves in a directional motion, this can be horizontally, vertically or even to give the idea of the text moving closer or further away. Scrolling typography can be used effectively to tell a story and allows the viewer to easily skip on. The celebrated scrolling introduction to Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes back is an early example of scrolling typography.


Fluid Typography
Fluid typography is the least used of the typography techniques we’ve described, namely as a result of the difficulty in creating it. With fluid typography individual letters and words can change and morph their shape, identity and location. Forms become malleable and fluid, letters and words can be created from forms and vice a versa.

Fluid typography is often used to animate logos, and it can be effectively used to represent multiple meanings and convey emotions.


There are no limits to how kinetic typography can be used, and with the proliferation of online video it has become an increasingly effective tool when engaging audiences, advertising products and services, promoting ideas and evoking emotions.


Friday, 9 January 2015

Making use of whiteboard animations for startups

Friday, January 09, 2015 Posted by Liteman , , , , , ,
Online videos have fast become an essential element of digital marketing for businesses, and in particular startups looking to engage and expose their brands to a wider audience.

As with television advertising online videos combine the potent combination of sound and vision to engage audiences, not only making it quicker to convey complex messages but also making them more likely to be remembered.

While conversion rates of video marketing are far greater, upwards of 200% more than traditional media, not every video is guaranteed of hitting the right mark. For a video to prompt a tangible reaction in the form of an enquiry it must have just the right balance of information and engagement.

          

On average we only remember 20% of what we hear and 30% of what we see… But we remember 70% of what we see and hear

Artistic storytelling
Whiteboard animations are one of the groundbreaking techniques employed by video marketers to leave a lasting impression on their target audience.

This relatively simple but effective form of video animation presents an idea or message in the form of a live drawing by an artist, and complements it by a corresponding voice over. This maximises the viewers understanding of the subject by fixing their eyes on the artistic content being sketched out before them while asserting the messages with a corresponding voice over. If employed well this technique is remarkably watchable, almost hypnotic.

Startups often make use of whiteboards to demonstrate and appeal to potential customers and investors. They can focus their attention on telling their story, from the conception of an idea or process to its growth and evolution using a friendly and emollient format.

Low cost
A well thought out and conceptualised whiteboard offers great value for money for both the viewer and the brand it represents. With no considerations around live filming, actors, lighting and locations, the costs involved in creating a video makes them hugely cost effective and appealing for startups.

For audiences video content provides minimum effort to consume, be it product demonstrations, corporate videos, pitches and much more, right from their smartphones or tablets, whenever and wherever they are.

Multipurpose tools
Whiteboard animations can be utilised to replace a multitude of other tools and media for businesses and organisations. They’re often used as explainer videos placed upon website homepage's to quickly explain the features and benefits of products and services to visitors.

The flexibility of the format has led to them being used all over the internet, including some unusual places from replacing live training videos to government communications and celebrity interviews.


Tuesday, 6 January 2015

New year, new start - on the way the top, perhaps.

Tuesday, January 06, 2015 Posted by Liteman , , , ,
Christmas is over and I’m back at my desk contemplating whether now is the time to make a move, no not to get my third cup of coffee of the morning but a real move, from my current ‘ordinary’ job to something more fulfilling, dynamic and full of ambition, at which point I drag myself off to the kitchen to boil the kettle and put on a couple of crumpets.


For today is traditionally the busiest day of the year for people searching for new jobs - with many of us suffering from post Christmas and New Year blues, and having mingled with many of our peers over the festive period that all seem to have much more appealing occupations than ourselves we’re now on the look out for just the right position that offers us excitement, variety, much more money and endless prospects - whilst at the same time consuming slightly less effort than we’re currently exerting.

Having identified that there’s little or no prospects in our immediate vicinity many of us get over excited eyeing up positions further afield that we’re totally unsuitable for, but do happen to mention broad activities and skills that we’ve been involved in and demonstrate, albeit to a much lesser extent than they appear to be demanding, for example... 

“Head of Marketing and Sales at Virgin Atlantic” 
  • Experience of working with or managing marketing and sales teams
  • Leadership qualities
  • Excellent communication skills
  • blah blah blah
That’s definitely me, I have extensive experience in managing and cultivating successful teams, both Dave and Phil have been here almost 2 years, and it won’t be long until we can let Phil talk directly with clients, I think.

For the vast majority of us we’ll remain in the positions that we’re in, often like myself because we secretly really enjoy it, both the people we work with, the clients we service, and the simple fact that the grass isn’t always greener - and if it is, it comes with plenty more dog shit to navigate.