Digital Storytelling: 5 Ways To Become A Better Communicator With Animated Explainer Videos

Whether it’s a novel you can’t put down, a Netflix series you can’t help but binge or the story your friend told you that keeps making you laugh in inappropriate situations - good communication stays with us and great communication leaves us wanting more.

Good communication depends on well-defined messages, knowing your audience, originality and attention to detail. Digital storytelling through animated explainer videos is packed with opportunities to make messages engaging and ensure the details aren’t just right, they’re adding new levels of charm, relatability and explanation to your animated explainer.

Digital storytelling is our passion, and we have over 20 years’ experience. We’ve put together a list of five tips that will help you use storytelling in business, education or awareness raising to the fullest.

What is digital storytelling?

Digital storytelling is storytelling that weaves several different mediums around a central narrative. Digital storytelling tools include images, video, audio and text - used in different combinations to reach different audiences and share messages in the best way.

This digital media can be articles and webpages that place videos alongside text to add extra depth, web-based stories that provide new interactive narratives and visuals to bring viewers into stories through an exploratory and immersive approach, or stories told entirely through visual and audio collages.

The only limits to digital storytelling are technology and imagination. The form of digital storytelling we focus on is animated explainer videos and whiteboard animations. We combine illustrations and images with animation, voiceovers, sound effects, music and onscreen text to create digital storytelling that engages, informs and stays with viewers.

We love using animated explainer videos. They are versatile, handling subjects as diverse as blackholes and the rules of golf. They make the complex simple and the detail heavy feel entertaining. They also work on every device, from a smart phone to a smart TV. These strengths make animated explainers ideal for uses such as:

• Storytelling in business

• Brand videos

• Public information films

• Engaging educational animations

• Awareness raising videos

How can animated explainer videos make you a better communicator?

Using digital storytelling, animated explainer videos can take your comms to a new level. This is possible because they take a creative, tailored approach to the message itself and the visual thinking that brings it to the screen. The power of creative thinking and custom content creation can achieve great things.

1 - Extra content to really land your message

The best thing is that even when you’ve made your animated explainer video, there is still more that the creative process can give you. Working with the creative team behind your digital storytelling, you can turn scenes, characters and other parts of the animation into images or clips that are perfect for social media and other comms.

This can be a great way to connect your animated explainer with broader marketing campaigns. Using illustrations and clips from the animation allows you connect well with your audience and to get the most from the unique and bespoke illustrations that have been created to share your message.

2 - Digital storytelling makes your message very shareable

Our brains are wired for storytelling, we love a great narrative, and these are what drive animated explainer videos. More than that, storytelling makes information engaging and entertaining. Wyzowl found that people are twice as likely to share videos, compared with other content like blog posts or product pages.

Twitter echo this finding, revealing that as far back as 2015, tweets with videos were getting 2.5 times more replies, 2.8 times more retweets and 1.9 more likes. The stats from Wyzowl and Twitter highlight the power of digital storytelling in sharing a message or idea and the reach you can achieve. Storytelling in business can be especially powerful, sharing products, brands and company purpose.

3 - Using your brand guidelines creatively

When working with a good animation studio, every part of the digital storytelling process and your animated explainer video will be created just for you - tailored to exactly what is needed to communicate your story well and appeal to your audience. This creates a golden opportunity to include your branding in original ways. After all, you worked hard on establishing your brand and your audience can connect with you through it.

At a basic level, this could just mean using your brand colours and fonts. You could, however, use characters from other campaigns or famous team members in the video. Your logo can also play a role. Far from just appearing at the start or end, depending on its design it could become a character itself or part of the visual metaphors and storytelling.

4 - Animated explainers capture your personality

Building on creative use of your brand guidelines, one of our favourite features about digital storytelling and animated explainers is that you can add your essence and personality at almost every stage. This is especially true for whiteboard animation, something we helped to pioneer. From the tone and choice of language in your script, the illustration style and animation approach, and the choice of voiceover artist - you can truly make your animated explainer feel like you.

Because everything in an animation is bespoke, you can even feature elements of your branding, characters and other cultural references that will truly make your video an extension of you. Not only does all this make for a great piece of digital storytelling, it also makes your video feel unique and memorable. As you plan how to do this in your animated explainer, consider:

• How do you want to include your brand?

• What will your audience enjoy and connect with?

• How can you use visual tools like metaphors, references, charm and humour?

5 - Create messages that connect at an emotional level

An essential part of the digital storytelling process is building an emotional connection. You can create an emotional connection with your audience by empathising with and relating to their struggles or successes, capturing all this in an animated explainer video that your audience will resonate with. Digital storytelling and animated explainers provide many options when it comes to creating this emotional connection.

These include:

• The performance of your voiceover artist

• The design of your characters

• The emotions your characters express

• The locations your characters appear in

• The use of music

• The use of references and metaphors

By making the most of these digital storytelling aspects, you can deliver your narrative in a meaningful and relatable way. When done well, this makes your message more memorable and your calls to action or audience takeaways more powerful. Most importantly, using these elements well ensures you treat your subject in a way that does it justice.

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In a world saturated with information and voices, good communication and the intelligent use of digital media has never been more important. By communicating well, you connect with your audience, share your personality and get your message across in a powerful way.

Stand out from the crowd through the quality and originality of your animated explainer video, or whiteboard animation, and take your communication to the next level. Book a free creative consultation today to ask us any questions and explore how animated explainer videos could help you.