Marketing Using Animation: Four Ways to Integrate Explainer Videos into Marketing Campaigns

June 7, 2018

Before delving into why using motion graphics is such a good idea, it’s helpful to have some background information about motion graphics.

While some marketing trends come and go, motion graphics is one trend that has endured. Why? Essentially, it’s because motion graphics are the video marketing era’s answer to infographics. An accessible and entertaining way to share complex information, infographics allowed marketers to capture consumer information in a way that text simply could not. Now motion graphics reign supreme.

So what are motion graphics, anyway? Essentially, motion graphics are just graphic design elements in movement, the practice of taking a still, flat design and adding dimension to it. They are everywhere—in film, television, digital advertising, social media and more! Coupled with the rise of video marketing, motion graphics are bound to remain a vital tool in marketing campaigns that continues to evolve in dynamic, interesting ways. So why else is using motion graphics in marketing campaigns a good idea?

Five Reasons to Use Motion Graphics in Marketing Campaigns:

1) It helps to create cohesive brand identity.

Brand awareness and association are the real muscle power behind driving conversions. After all, if a customer hasn’t heard of a brand, how can they buy from it? Using motion graphics, marketers have a limitless number of ways to incorporate branding into their content. Unique and cohesive brand identity can be developed and reiterated through copy, music, shape, color, design and movement.

2) It transforms the boring from exciting.

Studies have shown that if an audience enjoys a video ad, it increases brand association by 139% and purchase intent by 97%. Motion graphics and animation allow companies and businesses to take static content and transform it into something engaging and interactive—something particularly important given the short attention spans of consumers today.

3) It can generate higher retention and engagement rates.

65% of viewers watch more than ¾ of a video—more than text-based content.
Statistics also show that audiences are 10 times more likely to share and engage with video content, making it the ideal medium to drive awareness and engagement higher. Motion graphics are no exception. Facebook videos, for example, have 135% more organic reach than their static image counterparts.

4) It’s shareable.

Today, content consumption has shifted primarily to mobile. In fact, more than 50% of consumers watch videos on their smartphones or tablets. This trend, combined with the fact that motion graphics can be played by any device (unlike Flash videos that are incompatible with iPhones and iPads), means motion graphics is an ideal medium to maximize viewership of user-friendly, shareable content. With 100 million hours of videos watched on Facebook every day, and 10 billion daily video views on Snapchat, social media offers a multitude of opportunities for viral content to be seen and shared.

5) It offers big return for little investment.

One of the most important things content has to offer is the value it builds through consumer relationships. Motion graphics need to be informative yet entertaining. And above all, it needs to be authentic. In order to build trust with consumers, businesses and companies need to create genuine content that offers facts rather than conjecture and data over opinion. Motion graphics also allow companies to condense complex data and incorporate it into bigger-picture narratives and insights that consumers can better relate to and understand in relation to their own lives.

Motion graphics content isn’t just a brand building exercise; it has been proven time and time again to successfully drive through conversions. Whether it’s an explainer video, a social video or even a presentation, embedding motion graphics content into websites has been proven to increase front-page Google results by 53 times, and shown to double click-through rates when used in email campaigns. So what’s the bottom line? Motion graphics create big return for little investment.

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