5 Video Animation Ideas for Businesses

By 2021, 82% of internet traffic will be video. The popularity and appeal of video are here to stay and has changed the course of popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, who are altering their format to accommodate the popularity of videos.

Half a billion people watch videos on Facebook every day and in 2017 Facebook increased the length of their videos and live streaming on Instagram became a huge favorite amongst users.

82% of users on Twitter prefer watching video content

Businesses have been quick to respond to this worldwide and pervasive format by combining it with their ads and centering marketing strategies around videos. The creativity and imaginative ways that videos can be applied to entice, seduce, appeal, and connect with consumers have left video marketers achieving significant increases in brand awareness and gaining more qualified leads per year, 54%, and 66% respectively according to Aberdeen.

Where live videos can ultimately be limiting and expensive, animation has been the real meat and bones of video marketing campaigns because of the diverse and exciting range of styles that can be used to hammer in the nail of a brand message.

What Are the Different Types of Animations?

1. 2D Animation2D Animation, or Two-Dimensional Animation, focus on story, character, and settings in two-dimensional spaces. It is often called traditional animation. Examples include tv favorites like The Simpsons or a Disney classic movie like Snow White.
2. 3D Animation3D animation, or Three-Dimensional Animation, has depth and realism, and 3D modeled characters, settings, and environments. Examples of this type of character animation include movies like Shrek or Toy Story.
3. Motion Graphics This is an animation format that features moving animated imagery, often colorful graphs and charts, and a simplified animation style. Examples include the opening titles to popular tv shows like Marvel’s Jessica Jones and movie favorites like Guardians of the Galaxy’s title sequences.
4. Whiteboard AnimationA mixture of high-quality sound with illustrations that are created as the viewer watches it, which makes even the most complex or boring subject matter interesting for audiences. It is typically black and white with some colors.
5. Kinetic Typography AnimationA combination of motion graphics and text that has a dynamic and modern feel. One of the most famous examples of kinetic typography is in the opening sequence of the all the Star Wars movies.

Video Animation Ideas to Help Your Company Achieve Goals

2D Animation

2D animation is a faster alternative to its 3D counterpart and is a very adaptable format for creating animated videos. It enables businesses to deliver direct messages, products, or services to customers through a 2D animated depiction. 2D animation gives videos lucidity and can be tailored with a great degree of options to customize your company’s message. The nostalgic and childlike nature of 2D animation is very universally loved and appealing, as well.

Benefits of Using 2D Animation

1. Improved
   ROI Video is identified by leading global marketers as the content format with the best ROI.
2. Turning Leads
   into Conversion After viewing a brand’s videos on social media, 64% of consumers move on to the purchasing phase.
3. Strengthening
   Branding Businesses have the power to make a lasting impression with animated videos since over 80% of users can recall and remember a video ad they’ve seen over the last 30 days.
4. Establishing
   Business Initiatives Companies who want an inexpensive, yet attention-grabbing animation style, use this format for appealing to new customers and prospects, capturing mobile audiences, building trust, and effectively explaining new products and services.

2D Animation – Business Scenarios (Case Study)

Google US Data Centers

• Google’s 2D animated video about the cloud has garnered almost 100K views in 2 months since April 2018 and educated about the infrastructure behind the Google cloud. The minimal, non-extravagant usage of 2D animated techniques underlines the informative quality of their message.
• Challenges: Distracting imagery, overly complicated animations, lack of a connection between message and video, and not portraying human or animal characters with enough realism in movement sequences, gravity effects, and expression, can pose challenges in 2D animation.
• Cost Associated with Animation: $1K-$10K per minute

3D Animation

3D animations are truly compelling and visually dynamic and offer a lot of room for complex detail and superior levels of realism, even with imaginative characters not based on existing human or animal forms.  They have the potential to look very expensive and rich and bring life to marketing and sales videos. They’re extremely attention-grabbing and popular amongst viewers and can make businesses stand out as a unique entity amongst competitors.

Benefits of Using 3D Animation

1. Improved
   ROI For the overall 3D animation market, 3D modeling is predicted to comprise 30% of the overall revenue share by 2025. Businesses can use 3D animation as a lucrative investment in their image, brand portrayal, and ROI.
2. Turning Leads
   into Conversion Videos featured on a landing page can increase conversions by at least 80%.
3. Strengthening
   Branding 3D videos can provide up to a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs, which helps businesses reach new audiences more quickly and expand their brand’s reach.
4. Establishing
   Business Initiatives Businesses can use 3D animation to showcase their products and services and attract new customers with a flashy format. It also gives companies the opportunity to feature their business vision.

3D Animation – Business Scenarios (Case Study)

Gatorade and Lionel Messi

• Gatorade’s 3D animated video starring Argentine footballer, Lionel Messi, has accumulated over 12 million views in a just few short weeks of its release. The poignant storytelling narrative, positive message, and copious product placement has really appealed to longtime fans and new customers alike and is a perfect example of how powerful this animation format can be.
• Challenges: This form of animation requires top-notch technology so as not to risk looking outdated or low quality. Businesses need to be careful of delivering a message or story without getting swept away with too many effects. 3D animation is more complicated to produce and generally is associated with higher costs.
• Cost Associated with Animation: 3K-20K per minute

Motion Graphics

When businesses need to take a dry subject, like educating employees on new policies, for example, this type of animation that can effectively communicate information, displaying statistics, charts, or facts, in a really interesting and appealing way. Its flexibility and easy integration with all kinds of different video styles, and reliance on colorful graphics make this a well-loved format.

Benefits of Using Motion Graphics Animation

1. Improved
   ROI It gives businesses a more effective medium for educating, informing, and sharing important data with their customer base, which in turn leads to more purchasing behavior.
2. Turning Leads
   into Conversion For example, retailers can use motion graphic to encourage customers to visit their website, purchase a product, and even be encouraged to order more or repeat products. Likewise, service providers can tell a story about their brand, improving interaction levels with audiences at a faster rate. It can strengthen your SEO ranking because customers will see it on the first page of search results when using specific keywords.
3. Strengthening
   Branding Marketers can use this format as a technique for strengthening product branding, or to feature product promotions. The versatility of this format enables businesses to adapt depending on demographics or target audience base.
4. Establishing
   Business Initiatives The storytelling format and imaginative imagery of this style is a powerful support for businesses whose objective is to increase awareness of products or services, enhance SEO, develop brand recognition, or enhance their impact on social media. If your company has a lot of hard facts or statistics, then this can directly deliver data without losing appeal.

Motion Graphics – Business Scenarios (Case Study)

Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey

• Deloitte used high-quality motion graphics to illustrate complex information into an easily understandable and engaging format with their Digital Democracy Survey. The video features information about Millenials in a quickly absorbed way, despite the amount of information included.
• Challenges: If the graphics get too over the top or cluttered, or too ambitious, then businesses run the risk of the core message or content getting lost in the animation.
• Cost Associated with Animation: $500-$10K per minute

Whiteboard Animation

If a business has a training session that really needs to hit home with employees or personnel or needs to convey a message to a very niche viewer base, then this is a straightforward, concise, and budget-friendly choice. This format is typically black and white and helps provide a clear and simple narrative. For example, if your business wants to describe a new service in an easily understandable way, this animation form works well.

Benefits of Using Whiteboard Animation

1. Improved
   ROI Businesses can benefit from a direct impact on their ROI as 90% of business users have revealed that product animation videos aid in decision making.
2. Turning Leads
   into Conversion Reduces website bounce rates, generates new traffic, and higher call to action ratios and click through rate (CTR’s).
3. Strengthening
   Branding Dr. Richard Wiseman shows evidence of the ability for Whiteboard animation to help viewers gain a 15% increase in knowledge retention.
4. Establishing
   Business Initiatives It’s a clear format that has become an increasingly popular way for businesses to explain products, services, or complex facts.

White Board Animation – Business Scenarios (Case Study)

Coca-Cola Content 2020

• Coca-Cola used whiteboard animation as an internal explainer video to be used for marketing, sales, and HR onboarding and corporate training, which has gained over 600k YouTube views.
• Challenges: Black and white can be very limiting sometimes, so it’s important to be creative enough where you are not going to bore your viewers or be too simplistic to actually engage audiences.
• Cost Associated with Animation: 2k-$6k

Kinetic Typography Animation

This style combines motion and text to share messages or influence audiences or clients. Businesses rely on this to present stylized and rich content or messages for landing pages or ads. It’s particularly attractive in sharing updates about products and services, or brand developments, and there’s no limit to the complexity that can be used in the design.

Benefits of Using Kinetic Typography Animation

1. Improved
   ROI Marketing campaigns are supplemented with the ability to tailor customer messages, email campaigns, and social media marketing campaigns that affect company sales. 78% of marketers state that video provides a solid ROI.
2. Turning Leads
   into Conversion Customers can be encouraged to move from the consideration stage to make a purchase after watching an animated video, considering that 64% of those surveyed are likely to purchase products and services online after seeing a video.
3. Strengthening
   Branding Artistic text and motion graphics can really make logos, products, and services pop. With some creative color palettes and fonts, businesses can convey strong, memorable messages in a very short amount of time.
4. Establishing
   Business InitiativesWith the capability to showcase messages through text, companies have the opportunity to directly impact customers and clients by directing their attention to product messages, services, and promotions.

Kinetic Typography Animation – Business Scenarios (Case Study)

How PayPal Works

• PayPal featured Kinetic Typography in explainer videos for both Australian and American audiences in their “How PayPal Works” campaign. The basic color palette and straight to the point format style helped them educate people on the safety, speed, and other highlights of their service.
• Challenges: The reliance on text and numerical characters can run the risk of appearing old-fashioned, out of context, or too slow. It is important to deliver a message clearly and smartly so that it can be understood.
• Cost Associated with Animation: $5k-$10k

Why Is Animation Expensive?

To use a familiar Hollywood catchphrase: “let’s go behind the scenes” for a moment and take a deeper look into the expenses involved in creating animated content. While there are industry averages, pricing depends on the experience of the studio, the types of animation, video editing, pre and post production fees, extra equipment, actors (live or voice-over), pricing, and timeline.

Costs for Animation

• Overall Cost: Expect to pay anywhere between $5K-$30K per minute for any high-quality animated video, which incorporates the video length and style, sound design, script and storyboard, research, and animation.
• Length: Studios typically charge on a per minute basis, so length will significantly impact pricing.
• Voiceover: Depending on the project, you can expect to pay either a flat fee, or about 150 dollars for a 15-second recording, or $200-$350 for a 30-second recording for commercial purposes. A lot of it depends on the word count as well and how long it takes you to record it, plus editing and post-production
• Illustration: Illustrators often charge anywhere between $25-$100 per hour and average costs for illustration projects in the US can range between $90-$500 for smaller projects, and more complex projects can run into the several thousand depending on project timeline, length, and revision cycles.
• Motion Graphics Editor: Anywhere between $600-30K for a flat rate fee.
• Sound Technician: $300-$700 per day.
• Script: For an experienced scriptwriter through an accredited studio, pricing averages about $261 to about $2,615 for a 60-second explainer video. 

Statistics of Animation Cost Based on the Locations

Professional animation studies in China and India are becoming increasingly popular partners for studios in Europe, US, and Japan. The flexibility of working with smaller and more inexpensive studios in Asia, as well as the fresh, creative perspective that these countries bring, has a very appealing factor for larger studios and businesses alike.

The global animation industry was worth $254 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach 270 billion by 2020. These numbers are due to the pervasive usage of videos on the internet, and the widespread access to multimedia devices.

Global Animation Market

The US

The US market for 3D animation is growing, as seen in the chart below. Propelled by new technological advances and increasing multi-industry demand, particularly entertainment and media. Singapore, India, and China are also major players in global animation market growth due to a combination of skills, experience, and lower production costs for animation.

Australia

The average reputable, accredited animated or digital content production studio charges anywhere between $700 to $1000 as a starting price for custom animation projects.

The UK

To contract an accredited animated or digital content production studio in the UK, you can expect to pay an average of $7,972 for a 60-second basic explainer video package, or about €6,500 or £5,700. The chart below displays the pricing model ranges for animated explainer videos based on a survey of UK companies.

India

For animated videos from accredited digital content firms, pricing ranges fall between $25 to $40 per second on average for 2D and 3D animation.

Price Distribution by UK Company Survey

• US

  $300-$20K per minute depending on 2D, 3D, and studio type and precise location.

• EU

  €200-€15K per minute depending on 2D, 3D, and studio type and precise location.

The Evolution and Revolution of Animation

Customized animated videos for business is not only the future; it’s the now. By 2021, 82% of all internet traffic will be video. Changing technologies embedded into our operating systems on phones and mobile devices are altering consumer perceptions and experiences with video.

Businesses need to not only respond to this evolving demand for fast, tailored ads, marketing campaigns, promotional content, and training seminars, but be bold and aggressive in delivering what consumers and audiences want.

Video Caddy’s experience in animation and extensive video animation services, gives us the ability to translate brand and business messages into visually stunning animated video content that resonates with viewers, consumers, and targeted audiences.

– Video Caddy

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