Whether it’s what is actually in that blend of herbs and spices, the password to your neighbour’s wifi or where your young child has hidden the car keys, there can be few things more closely guarded than secrets. Trade secrets may be part of business, but video creation and storytelling are our passion and we want everyone to get the most from them.
One thing that is no secret is the popularity and effectiveness of video. Wzyowl have found that 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. This popularity is backed up by research commissioned by Google, who found that as far back as 2016 in the US, YouTube was reaching more adults 18+ during prime time than any cable network does in an average week - on mobile alone!
There is more to using video than stats however. Video is a great choice for engagement thanks to its versatility across devices and its combination of visuals, movement and audio. This is a winning combination when it comes to informing, entertaining and holding viewer attention. When it comes to your brand, video (and whiteboard animation in particular) offer a whole range of ways to feature your brand both subtly and more directly.
Secret 1 - Storytelling
This might not feel like such a secret, but sometimes the best kept secrets are hidden in plain sight. Storytelling is the spark that transforms almost anything into engaging and memorable content. It’s why so many ‘vital’ PowerPoint presentations disappear from our memory while even the stories we wish we could forget cling on. We can’t explain enough how important it is, and it comes in several forms.
Your brand video will need a written script and visual storytelling to bring your message and brand to life, but there is more to it than this. After considering the key points and CTAs you want to include, our top tip is to think about the narrative style you want to use. It might be that a more storytelling-based narrative like the classic hero’s journey suits your brand and story, or that a more explainer-based narrative rooted in a context or problem brings out your message better.
There is a longer list of explainer based narratives here, but some good examples include:
Problem, Action, Result, Learning, Application, and Suggested actions - if your brand video is offering a solution, this is a great way to resonate with your audiences pain points
Context, Hindrance, Action, Results Quantified, Evaluation, and Suggested actions - this allows you to frame your story and message in a very relatable way
Secret 2 - Personality
At every scale, personality is essential in a successful brand video. It allows viewers to connect and identify with you by presenting a human element to even the most multinational brand. This connection is important because it allows you to engage viewers more powerfully and give your messages more impact and memorability.
Branding videos offer a wide range of ways of doing this and you can weave your personality into every aspect of the video. Starting with your script, your choice of language allows you to set a tone that reflects you, and that your audience will respond well to. This script then informs your visuals, whether they are illustrated or filmed, which allows you to express your personality and voice in a dynamic and nuanced way.
Building on this, your choice of characters, actors, colours, fonts - if on screen text is used - and voiceover artists all allow you to include even more of your personality. This means that your finished brand video will have your voice and essence woven into every fibre, celebrating who you are. In a very busy online world, expressing your personality like this helps your video to feel vibrant, authentic and to stand out from the crowd.
Secret 3 - Vision
An infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time may eventually write the works of Shakespeare, but who has the time (or the monkeys)? Working out your vision and planning are a much surer way of making sure your brand video ends up as polished and successful.
It can be tempting to get stuck straight into making a video, but knowing what you want to achieve from the outset will allow you to keep your brand video on track throughout the production process. There are a number of questions that are useful as you establish your vision:
What are the goals of your video?
Where will it be used?
What are the must haves and must avoids?
Who is the audience for your video?
What messages and feelings do you want to leave them with?
What is your call to action?
How will it fit with in with your other marketing activities and your overall strategy?
Secret 4 - Characters
We’ve touched on characters already - this really is an important one. Don’t underestimate the power of a well thought out character. Too often, we see generic and out-of-the-box characters used as the face of messages and stories in videos. Getting your characters just right is one of those seemingly easy things which can launch your brand video far ahead of the competition, so we’ve included it as a secret in its own right.
Well-developed characters, whether they’re actors or illustrated, are the gifts that keep on giving. As well as being the vehicles for your personality that we’ve already mentioned, they take the impact and engagement of branding videos to the next level by embodying your message perfectly and appealing to your audience.
When casting your roles or briefing the illustrator, think about who your characters are, how they are dressed, what they are doing, the emotions they are showing and their overall energy and presence. Tailoring your characters in these ways to you, your brand and your audience will allow you to deliver your message in the optimum way and invite your audience to relate to your video even more - boosting engagement and entertainment while making your brand video and its content more memorable.
Not all characters need to be invented. Using real people or famous faces linked to your organisation (or illustrated versions of them) can be a great way to build authenticity and added connection into your brand video. Depending on your message and audience, this can give your video a whole new level of connection and engagement.
Secret 5 - Show the bigger picture
Our next secret focuses on the bigger purpose behind a brand, and the benefits that come with incorporating it into your brand video. The British Academy’s 2020 Future of the Corporation Summit created a new definition for the purpose of business:
“To profitably solve the problems of people and planet, and not profit from creating problems.”
And whether that purpose is as grandiose as this, or something more every day, every business and organisation was set up with a purpose in mind. More than the guiding principle behind your organisation, purpose also separates you from others in your field. Mentioning your company’s purpose in brand videos allows you to show how the everyday actions and functions of your organisation fit in with your higher goals.
This gives viewers a stronger sense of who you are, your personality and gives them more to connect with. This stronger connection increases the effectiveness of your branding video, and if someone watching is weighing you up against a competitor, your company purpose may just be what gives you the edge. Speaking slightly less cynically however, your purpose is at the heart of your organisation, and by sharing it you also raise awareness about the bigger cause or need it relates to.
Secret 6 - Ideas that layer and build
When it comes to explaining a concept or telling your story, brand videos offer lots of possibilities and creative freedoms. One of the best ways of using these to get across an idea or important part of your story is to explain it in a way that builds and layers information on top of eachother, like floors in a skyscraper.
This is easier in animated non-linear formats like whiteboard animation, but showing how one idea grows and develops from an initial form to a final fully developed illustration is a powerful and accessible way to explain key or complex points. It also makes them more memorable. You can take this level of explanation to the next level by then showing how it connects or relates to other things you have talked about in your video.
We love this method because it allows you to include all the details and depth you need to in a clear and simple way.
Secret 7 - Logos aren’t just for endboards
Secret 7 focuses on the humble logo. Capturing your essence in a neat graphic, these little beauties are visual shorthand for your brand and everything it stands for. This is why they deserve more than a cameo in your video at the start or the end. Consider creative and inventive ways you could feature your logo throughout your film.
It could be on props or clothing worn by characters, or it could be a character. We have made animations for clients where the logo has become the centrepiece of the film, connecting key points together, or has appeared throughout as an important piece of the visual storytelling. Recently, we turned a logo into a building block which appeared throughout to help characters overcome barriers.
However your logo fits best for you, involving it in your brand and marketing videos is a great way to reinforce your identity and to associate yourself with a solution or message even more closely.
Secret 8 - Don’t overlook the importance of translation and accessibility adjustments
Alongside creative freedoms, brand videos also give you plenty of ways of making your video widely accessible through translation or accessibility adjustments. These are important; if you know your audience or your goals well, you may already have these in mind, but even if you haven’t thought about these yet - you never know who is going to see your video.
Movements like the international WeThe15 highlight the importance of accessibility adjustments, while the often bad auto-generated captions on YouTube show why it’s important to think about translation if your message is likely to find an audience in multiple countries.
When it comes to accessibility adjustments, this website is very helpful. Some of its tips include:
Captions and subtitles
The colours, fonts and font sizes you use
Audio descriptions of visual information
We have written more deeply about video translation options here, with four major options being:
Subtitles
Recording multiple voiceovers in different languages
Using minimal onscreen text and globally meaningful visuals
Creating ‘trans-created’ videos that have translated onscreen text, new voiceovers and culturally appropriate imagery
Secret 9 - Brand videos are greater than the sum of their parts
One of the most important secrets when creating a great brand video is to see the role of each aspect in coming together as something bigger. A bit like a football team, if a crucial player is missing or not performing at their best, the performance of your video will suffer. But if the team are all on top form and working together, you’re ready for the championships.
You can’t look at the elements of your video in isolation. To plan an effective and successful branding video, you need to understand how they will combine and work together. This way of thinking about branding videos allows you to maximise storytelling, engagement and impact while making a marketing video whose quality is as much an ambassador for your brand as the messages it delivers.
Which type of explainer video is right for you?
Videos come in a wide range of styles and types; but unlike scrolling through Netflix looking for something to watch, choosing the right kind doesn’t have to be hard. Each video style has its own strengths and weaknesses, making them ideal for different types of brand videos.
2D Animated Explainer Videos
2D animations make great basic explainers. They harness the power of storytelling through characters and scenes, bringing a narrative or message to life. Because they’re illustrated, there are plenty of ways to share your message, add your personality and identity. One drawback of 2D animated explainer videos is that they are often not suitable for more complex subjects.
3D Animated Explainer Videos
That extra dimension gives you a lot more potential to design and model products allowing you to pick up on small essential details or get the full scale of something across. They suit more realistic representations of products, where the three dimensions are best placed to explain a message but don’t have the creative visual thinking of some other video formats. If you don’t need 3D to explain your message, the 3D may actually distract from your message rather than give it impact.
Motion Graphics Videos
Motion graphics videos allow you to create very stylised and punchy videos. They don’t depend on characters or narratives to the same extent as other forms and are usually better for shorter more simple messages. This style is great for an announcement but makes motion graphics less well suited to explaining more complicated or detailed messages that require more explanation and time to engage and stay with viewers.
Whiteboard Animations
Whiteboard animations combine a script, illustrations, animation and a voiceover to tell stories and explain ideas. They give you the visual freedom to create anything and use powerful tools like visual metaphors and the layering of information. This makes them great for complex, abstract or dry topics. The whiteboard animation method makes topics memorable, engaging and shareable. Depending on your message, it may suit a shot footage or a 3D explainer, though our whiteboard animation research has shown these don’t offer the same level of information retention.
Live Action Explainer Videos
Based on footage, live action explainers allow you to capture emotion and to root your video in a real location. Depending on your message, this can be a real advantage. Another benefit of live action explainers is that they require less experience and often less budget to make. There are some drawbacks however. If your message or subject is more complex or abstract, it could be hard to capture it fully in a live action explainer. You are also limited by the locations, actors and props available at the time of recording.
Common uses for these types of brand videos include:
homepage and landing page explainers
brand videos for social media
videos that tell the story of your organisation
marketing videos and report summaries
announcements for key groups and stakeholders
Live Action Talking Head Videos Vs Whiteboard Animations
While creating the RSA Animates series, a series of animations based on live footage of lectures, we saw a massive increase in views and engagements on the whiteboard animations compared with the live footage version. We wanted to find out what was happening and asked Professor Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, to help us conduct some whiteboard animation research.
We were very happy when he said yes and together, we compared a ‘talking head’ video with a whiteboard animation that used the same soundtrack and voiceover. Our research found that the whiteboard animation was:
66% more likely to be shared
Resulted in a 15% increase in information retention
Was rated 33% more entertaining
This explained the increased views and showed that whiteboard animation was a great medium for making information memorable and engaging audiences.
The best brand videos give you the opportunity to celebrate who you are, what you do and why you stand out from the crowd. There is a lot to think about though as you create them. From the types of brand videos you choose to the way they tell your story and deliver your message, videos offer plenty of options and approaches.
We have been making explainer, brand and marketing videos since 2004 (developing our whiteboard animation approach as we made the RSA Animates) and over the years we've picked up some tips and tricks, sometimes through experience and sometimes through experiments. We hope the secrets we have written about here will help you create your own high quality videos that share your message far and wide!
We are passionate about storytelling and using whiteboard animation to share the messages and ideas of our clients. We have been honoured to work with organisations and businesses like the BBC, Deloitte, Coca Cola, Google, The Royal Society and the UN. We’d love to talk to you about how we could immortalise your brand in a whiteboard video, contact us today!
Explainer videos are visually dynamic and captivating videos. They excel not only in distilling complex messages into easily understandable narratives but also in etching a lasting imprint on the minds of viewers. This makes explainer videos a must for any marketing strategy!