8 reasons to use animation in marketing
Most people think of animation as something that belongs to TV, films and YouTube. Here are 8 more reasons why an animation can give you an advantage over your competitors…
1) Visual
Animation is a powerful medium to get your message across because it’s visual: on average users only read 28% of words per visit; and 90% of information that’s transmitted to the brain is visual. You’ve probably seen the statistics.
Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text!
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Hence the use of visualisation on the internet has increased by 11900% on the internet since 2016.
2) Engaging
The biggest challenge in content marketing is to engage the target audience. With 27 million content pieces being shared every day, it’s no surprise that our average attention span is only 8 seconds. To get your prospects’ attention you need to take it to the next level. We can get the sense of a visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second, so visually stimulating motion graphics tend to be more effective when it comes to getting someone’s attention.
3) Easy to understand
Sometimes if you are selling something intangible such as a service, this can be difficult to describe. Animation allows you to show people the benefits, not just tell them. It enables you to explain your offering in a succinct and clear way and can turn the most complex of processes into digestible information that’s easy to comprehend. For example, for CDI AndersElite an animation was the best way to explain the benefits of their new staffing solution.
4) Flexible
Animation can show scenes that no camera can ever shoot. And if it could, it would likely be a lot more expensive. Animating a house on fire is a lot cheaper than physically destroying it! You can make things happen that are outside the realms of reality and you have the power to create characters from scratch – they don’t even have to be human! As Alfred Hitchcock said “Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like the actor, he just tears them up.”
Animation can show scenes that no camera can ever shoot.
5) Appealing
As well as being able to tell a story, animation can reflect your brand personality better than any words can. If done well, it can showcase the flair of your business and enables the audience to connect with your brand as it’s brought to life through elements such as the use of colours, style of graphics, choice of music and voice-over. Likewise, if not well-designed it can compromise your brand image so it’s important not to treat this as an afterthought. One of the UK’s most successful co-operatives, Openfield, recently used animation to show the breadth of their services, whilst really bringing their brand to life.
6) Entertaining
Animation allows you to communicate your message in a humorous way, through music and fun characters. Take for example the story of Alfio, the star of one of my animation for the ‘Plemmirio of Siracuse’ that promotes the value of respect environment and natural reserves. This may not sound particularly exciting, but showing it in context through a day in the life of the fish Alfio, including quirky details about the point of view of a fish, humanises both the product and the Plemmirio of Siracuse.
7) Memorable
As animation stimulates both sides of the brain, viewers remember 59% more information than they do when they just view images among text. For the right hand side of the brain, animation ignites emotions and the left side turns these into images. Put simply, animation can help brands to make long lasting impressions as the visuals are stored in long-term memories.
8) Increased traffic
Animation can boost the conversion rates of your website and email marketing. Videos in search results have a 41% higher click-through rate than plain text and having video on a landing page increases conversion by 70%. In addition they are shared 12,000 times more than links and text posts on social media and viewers spend 100% more time on web pages with videos. As with any type of content, merely producing it and sitting back isn’t going to give you results. Animation is most effective when it’s part of a well thoughtout integrated campaign and can be used across many different types of media such as websites, social media, direct mail, email marketing, mobile apps, events and in sales meetings.
About me @firedream
I am a multi-disciplinary creative freelance who specialise in high quality branding, brand management and creative marketing communications. This unique mix, along with my strong account management and commercial awareness across many different industry sectors, sets me apart from agencies or other freelance. Whether you want to transform brand perceptions, drive audience engagement, increase brand awareness or align marketing and sales objectives, my services are underpinned by the perfect balance of creativity and business focus and are designed to ultimately have an impact on your bottom line.
