That feeling that someone really gets and understands us has to be one of the best, like when we walk into our favourite coffee shop and not only does the barista know you - but your coffee arrives decorated with coffee art from your favourite band. It may be a little thing, but just seeing it can raise a smile on a bad day, while the time spent on it and the connection it creates is a constant reminder why this place is special.
It’s this connection which is important, and something which is at the heart of empathy. Whether between friends and family, coffee shops and their regulars or companies and their clients - empathy plays an essential role in the way we interact. It builds trust and relatability while achieving that feeling that we are truly listening to what a friend, colleague or customer cares about and is experiencing, while understanding the best way we can help.
This makes building that connection a must for any organisation reaching out to their audience, and it’s something whiteboard animations are very well placed to help with.
Know your audience
Empathy begins with understanding your audience and answering some key questions:
Who are they?
Where are they?
What do they like?
What don’t they like?
What challenges do they face?
What are their goals?
How can you help?
With this knowledge you are all set to transform your communications from generic statements into messages and visuals that show your audience that you ‘get them’ and have carefully considered how you can help. This is what separates you from other organisations and competitors in the eyes of your audience.
A great example of this is the packaging and marketing of Oatly oat milk. Any coffee lovers who enjoy this in their cup will have seen the packaging or an advert and know that it speaks very clearly to their target audience stylistically and in the way it relates to what its audience likes. They’ve done this so well, this article describes their marketing as ‘genius’.
Whiteboard animations are packed with opportunities to build this kind of connection with your audience. From the earliest foundations of the animation to the finishing flourishes, whiteboard animation videos allow you to weave your audience insights and connection building into every element.
Creating empathy
Empathy come from a place of genuine understanding on both sides of the conversation. Here we’ll go over ways you can use whiteboard animations to create the space for and build the connection between you, your message and your audience.
Storytelling
Storytelling is at the heart of connection building. Oral storytelling has been with humanity for millennia, and whiteboard animations combine this ancient tradition in form of a voiceover with a written script and engaging illustrations. This is important when it comes to creating empathy, because our brains are wired to respond to storytelling.
Writing for Berkeley’s Greater Good magazine, director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, Paul Zak said, “stories that are personal and emotionally compelling engage more of the brain, and thus are better remembered, than simply stating a set of facts.” In the same article he goes on to say, “emotional simulation is the foundation for empathy and is particularly powerful for social creatures like humans”.
This highlights the importance of storytelling. It is one reason that business storytelling has been such an effective tool for companies and organisations that are looking to connect with and leave a lasting impression on their audience.
Tone and language
In whiteboard animation videos, everything stems from the script. This is the first port of call for creating a connection with your audience, and like the fertile ground you plant your coffee plant in, it bears fruit later on in the whiteboard animation. When writing your script, the words and tone you choose set the tone of your animation. Tone is a very important consideration, setting the wrong tone can harm how your message is explained and received.
It’s important to create the right script, because this will go on to be used by illustrators to create the visual storytelling within your whiteboard animation and it will be read by the voiceover artist - each mirroring the tone and style you set out in your script. From choosing the right illustrations and the right voiceover artist to the colour choices and emotions displayed buy characters, whiteboard animations provide lots of ways for you to establish the conditions and tone for empathy to develop.
Scenes, illustrations and metaphors that resonate
Knowledge about your audience in hand, you can think about the visuals. Whiteboard animation is fundamentally that, a whiteboard on which you can visualise almost anything you can imagine. This makes whiteboard animation videos great at speaking to your audience’s likes, dislikes, struggles and goals because you can create the exact illustrations they'll resonate with.
It could be a location, a cultural reference or a visual metaphor that explains an idea in the perfect way - illustration is there for you to transform your ideas into whiteboard animations that connect with your viewers and explain your message in the ideal way.
Relatable characters
As your whiteboard world unfolds, characters take centre stage. They bring your message to life and can embody the audience you are talking to, allowing them to see themselves in your whiteboard animations. People relate to people, even illustrated ones, making your characters a big part of the way you connect and build empathy. Consider:
Who they are
How they are dressed
What they are doing
Where they are
The emotions they are expressing
Show people your values and purpose
An important part of creating empathy is being human and relatable, and this is as true for your local barista as it is for a multinational corporation. This means sharing with the audience as well as showing you understand them. A great way to do this is to include your values and purpose. This can be in the script, the illustrations you create, the voiceover artist you choose and the call-to-action you include.
Understanding your ‘why’ and the principles that guide you allows the viewer to connect with you and your mission, connection is a two-way process.
Consider your audience’s communication needs
Nothing influences how someone connects (or doesn’t) more than how easy it is for them to access animations and comms. This could be a matter of translation - we look at the different levels of translation in whiteboard animation here. But it could be the accessibility requirements you need to build into your whiteboard animation, to ensure that your audience can engage fully with your video. This website provides some great information on accessibility, with options including:
Clear text and backgrounds
Creating an audio-described version of a film
Making the on-screen text accessible for screen-reading software
Providing a large-print copy of the VO script
Keep it focused
It can be hard for someone to work out what you are about if you talk about too many different things, which makes it harder to establish that initial connection. For this reason, it’s best to focus on one message per whiteboard animation or piece of communication you are planning.
Highlight the impact of your work
Some sayings are oldies but goodies, and ‘actions speak louder than words’ is definitely one of those. Using the creative freedoms of whiteboard animation to show viewers in more literal and more abstract ways what you have done and the impact it has had shows your audience that you are serious and committed. This is a powerful way to build empathy, as viewers are able relate to and connect with the work you have done.
In a world which only gets noisier and noisier, creating a strong connection with your audience and customers has never been so important. Building two-way empathy is a very good way of doing this, sharing our humanity and the things that matter to us. Whiteboard animations allow you to build this connection through every aspect of their production with conscious design and the ability to make everything bespoke to the needs of your message and your audience.
Storytelling is at their heart, and we talk more about storytelling techniques for business here. It’s our passion and we love to bring organisations and their messages to audiences in an engaging, memorable and accessible way. If you would like to connect more with your audience, we’d love to talk to you about how we could help! Contact us today.
Creating a successful explainer video takes detailed planning. Done well, they supercharge stories and messages, giving them a lasting impact and high engagement rates.