We’ve produced a variety of animated explainers for our clients, most recently for JSI’s “My Village, My Home” project and their Dose Per Container Partnership. Both projects aim to increase vaccination rates in developing nations. “My Village, My Home” utilizes community-level engagement to increase vaccination rates amongst children in six countries, while the Dose Per Container Partnership aims to increase vaccination rates globally by focusing on the number of doses in vaccine containers. Both are complex and nuanced topics not easily distilled into 3 minutes or less of video. But by honing in on key messaging points, crafting a simple storyline and thinking creatively about visualization, we were able to pull off engaging short animated videos that quickly explain these concepts. Here’s three reasons why animated explainers can be a great tool for conveying complex ideas and topics in an engaging and creative way.
Inserting Specific Key Language
With a live action video or documentary-style marketing piece, it can be difficult to insert specific key language or talking points into the story. Usually these videos are interview based, so without scripting someone’s comments or using a teleprompter, you’re not always guaranteed to get the exact language you want. With animation, you’re creating the script from scratch (usually to be read in voice over), so it’s easy to write in specific phrases, acronyms and concepts.
Generic Characters Have Wide Representation
In an animated video, you’re free to create any type of characters you can dream up. When they are crafted in the “infographic” style like in our DPCP video, they are able to represent large populations which can be incredibly valuable for stories that are focused on global issues. Careful selection or color palette and details like clothing and hair allow the characters to remain more generic and not specific to one ethnic group or country, increasing the potential reach of your animated video.
Creating Emotion
It’s easy to fall into the trap of only focusing on creating interesting visualizations of ideas when producing an animated video. But animation presets nearly unlimited possibilities for storytelling and emotion. There’s no reason your animated explainer can’t have a strong emotional center. In all of our animations, we’ve always honed in on one or two characters that carry us through an emotional journey. That way, once you’ve hooked the audience, they’ll stick with the story as you try to convey data driven ideas and messaging. Finally, adding in an affecting voice over, creative sound design and expressive music helps elevate everything beyond a simple explainer video into evocative storytelling that stands out.
