Here at Visionary, we tend to have a steady flow of corporate clients and prospects – big businesses with complex, multi-faceted value propositions and plenty of inspiring vision. But often when we take one of these businesses on, they ask us the same question:
“Isn’t animation too silly for a big company like ours?”
The worry here is that animation can’t capture the serious aspects of a corporate brand – when people think of the word ‘animation’, they see mental images of Spongebob Squarepants!
Will it work for highly professional organisations? Won’t we look childish? Does it suit our brand?
These concerns are understandable, but unfounded.
Premium animation studios have long ago mastered the art of creating clean, professional animation that resonates with a corporate audience.
In the same way that graphic design can be tailored to capture different feelings, impressions, and effects, so it is with animation. As a rule, corporate animations have simpler visuals and more subtle effects. More angular shapes, less contrasting colours and less funny characters.
Take a look at this example, produced for WorldWide Speaking Agency, Right Selection, based in Dubai:
Our designers will also make use of effective “white space” – tactical blank space left in a scene, with minimal detail. The colour doesn’t have to be white, as the phrase suggests – just more or less blank space, in any colour. Your target market perceives such scenes, and their associated products, as premium, more organised, luxurious even.
The implication is that the product simply speaks for itself …
This design phenomenon can be very easily noticed in the marketing assets of almost any premium brand …
And the opposite – cluttered scenes full of colour and chaos are often used for discount brands and organisations who intentionally want to appear as cheaper than their competition.
Let’s look at some more ways Animated Explainer Videos can cater to a more corporate image …
A Professional Voice
When producing Animated Explainer Videos for a corporate brand, authority is key. At Visionary, we use high-quality voice actors that communicate with a brisk, commanding presence.
This helps to immediately eliminate any of the more ‘whacky’ connotations of an animated video.
Make no mistake – Voice Artistry is nothing short of an art. Our Voice Artists are often lifelong professionals. Voice Artistry is their craft. Performance of the script is a quintessential way of creating the right emotional context for your communications, quickly setting the tone of the piece.
A Powerful Script
The Animated Explainer Video script needs to speak directly, emotionally, to your perfect customer as an individual. So before we even start the writing process we’ll define this person in detail with you, in our initial Visionary Strategy Session.
Often this perfect customer is a C-Level Executive or key decision maker. So words in the script need to be carefully chosen, phrases ordered in the right way, and the flow of the script carefully crafted, so that it sounds awesome when performed by a Voice Artist.
By keeping our narratives tight and straight-forward, we help you to communicate in a clear, professional manner. Make no mistake – the script is the most important part of any Animated Explainer Video project, especially when speaking to corporate audiences.
A Lighter Effect
If you’ve ever dealt with graphic design work, you’ll understand how much of a difference colour can make to the overall impression of a piece. Simple changes in tone or brightness can be the difference between an Animated Explainer Video for a CEO, and a Cartoon Network production.
For corporate animations, we use a lot of clean blues, whites, pastel shading, and fine lines to maintain an authoritative look and feel.
A little less character
Characters are important components of a quality animation. They help to focus the viewer’s attention and provide useful hooks into the story of your product. When skilfully executed, they allow a viewer to put themselves into a character’s shoes.
However, too much focus on characters can make your video seem childish. Especially when they are “bobbing” in and out of scenes in quick succession!
So when we’re working on corporate videos, we blend understated characters with simple shapes and text to help drive your point home.
We’ll leave Mickey Mouse out of it!
Wrapping It All Up
These days, everyone from industrial engineering firms to top-level tech giants are using animation to efficiently communicate their product offerings.
In a recent study, B2BMarketing.com found that over 81% of Senior Marketing Executives are using video or animation in their marketing programs. A quality animation can absolutely increase your authority, brand recognition, and salesmanship dramatically.
And of course – it doesn’t need to be entirely boring and formal! We’ll add an appropriate hint of humour, some powerful effects and design ingenuity to keep your audience watching right until the end, and ensure your brand is conveyed effectively …
