Marketing is one of the key components of any business, big or small. It serves as a megaphone for your company to ensure that people find you and use your services. Now, this doesn’t exactly sound great, especially the megaphone part, but a great thing about a good megaphone is that you can adjust it the way you need.
Instead of shouting and making noise, you can create an appropriate signal and make sure it is heard only by those who may want to hear it. One of the best ways to create a message that people would love to hear is to use animation for your advertisement.
Ultimate Entertainment
For at least the last three generations, animation has carried a very special meaning. For one, it hugely associates with childhood and happier times. Nearly all of us have been watching cartoons as children, so seeing a familiar style of presentation would be a huge plus for the advertised product or company.
Another great thing about animation is that through the past few decades, it has managed to evolve and take a number of different forms, from purposely crudely made surreal 2D animated cartoons on YouTube to spectacular cinematic 3D movies that almost look like films made with real actors.
What’s more is that all kinds of animation can be applied to other areas of human life, from educational films to advertisements and infomercials. Animation works everywhere and for everything.
6 Reasons to Use Animation in Content Marketing
There are a number of different reasons why animation is effective in content marketing. Aside from being associated with something nice, animation has several very specific features that make it a great form of entertainment and, thus, an ultimate tool for content.
1. Using video is more efficient
There are lots of different arguments for using video in your ads. However, one of the most compelling and convincing of them is the one that underlines several important characteristics like the uniqueness of such content, its continuity, and capabilities. Video content will likely be unique for your customers, especially if you plan to target online platforms. Facebook, for example, often relies on video ads to create unique content.
The Internet is full of junk ads that include plain images or even text in most cases, so a video will look like an oasis in the middle of a desert. At the same time, should your video ad be approached and developed appropriately, your customer will interact with it for more than one second but, rather, for the whole duration of the clip. Finally, in video ads, you can show a sequence of actions, which allows you to talk more about your product or business.
2. Colours
Unlike our mundane, boring, and dull life, animation makes use of bright colours that can be combined in any way you want. The colours can be plain, gradient, or mixed, or they can be purposefully dull in order to stylize your advertisement to appeal to a certain audience.
Different studies and reports have stated numerous times that colours strongly influence the effects of advertisement; so, depending on the context, you can use them in animation. For instance, colours will certainly define around 85% of consumer decisions when it comes to advertising and marketing a product. On top of that, nearly 90% of impulse purchases are influenced by colours. Although modern technology allows applying a colour filter to video as well, there are still relatively few things you can do with that compared to animation.
3. Making complex things look simple
Using this trait can be easily put under the “art of advertisement” category. Educators use animation to create stunning instructional videos for a reason. Animation allows showing absolutely anything, be it a theoretical concept or an experiment model not to be ever re-enacted at home. This feature is priceless for an advertisement if you want to be clear about your business, mission, vision, or product overall.
Often, business operates in a much more complicated manner than it seems. Alternatively, some products may have a value that is hard to demonstrate using actors and real-life environments. Animation, however, has these and many other similar issues covered.
4. Cost efficiency
Not many marketers and bloggers seem to talk about it, but an animated advertisement is much cheaper than a live-action video ad, especially when it comes to the DIY advertisement for a small business. Sometimes, a 2-minute animated video is 3 times cheaper than its live-action counterpart. Essentially, all you need to create a great animated video is the animation and audio editing software. Some programs like Blender and Audacity are pretty powerful, available for free, and relatively easy to master and use.
Voice acting, music, and other minor elements can be very cheap or even free as well if you search for freelance talents or perform those functions yourself. For a live-action video, however, you need appropriate gear, location, actors, a special effects editor, and sometimes even animators. All of that is undoubtedly costly and may not even produce the desired material and effect.
5. Making use of those sweet nostalgic associations
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, animation associates with something pleasant, warm, innocent, and, overall, better for us. Animated advertisements that utilize appropriate imagery and brand elements properly can double if not triple the effects of other forms of advertisement.
Some people may like your products already or found out about them through different kinds of media and advertisements. After seeing an animated video with familiar imagery and relevant products, they will certainly love them. That’s going to happen on a subconscious level, so the love will be strong and eternal.
6. Infinite possibilities
Have you ever had an idea so crazy that you had to stop yourself from completing it merely because it would be unrealistic to film it live? Well, that’s something that animation can handle easily. As long as the visual artists and animators can imagine something, you can have any idea of yours come to life with time.
This very specific feature of animation makes all other points on the list possible, along with many more to come. By using this characteristic of animation, you can advertise any product in any context with any tone you want. There will simply be no boundaries for you and your marketing team with animated advertising and promotions.
The Ultimate Advertisement Form
Undoubtedly, animation is the ultimate medium for advertisement. With its capabilities, visual appeal, and supply, you can always rely on animation. The benefits of using it as one of the primary media are only the tip of the iceberg, considering that you can do anything you can think of as long as your team can do it or as long as you know how to show them.
A diverse, interesting, and colourful marketing strategy is a key component for the success of your business, and something that is currently highly sought after. And animation is something that can help you find what you’re looking for.
