In a digital age, where 27% of global internet users watch over 10 hours of online videos daily, and more than a billion hours’ worth of video are being watched on YouTube every day, it’s vital that advertisers recognise the importance of innovation.
Basic advert tropes will no longer cut the mustard.
Animation is dynamic and exciting, giving marketing teams the opportunity to unleash their full creative potential, without bounds or limitations.
And, with talented creatives on your side, you’ll be astounded by the success that your advert achieves.
But, the benefits don’t stop there. There are so many reasons why advertisers are increasingly choosing animation over live-action advertising, including cost, engagement and speed and creativity.
To help you see the full benefits of choosing an animated advertising campaign, we’ve created this blog post, detailing the full opportunities to be unlocked with animation.
Cost effective
Although they may look complicated to create, animated adverts are actually an extremely cost effective option.
This is because, when you compare them to their live-action counterparts, the overhead costs are far lower.
Anyone who has filmed a live-action advert knows how quickly the costs rack up. There’s the cost of the acting team, the scriptwriters, the filming team, renting a space to shoot the advert, the cost of accommodation for everyone involved. Even if it’s just a short advert, it can be a very expensive process.
Then, of course, you’ve got to consider the cost of multiple retakes, if a scene isn’t quite correct. And all of this, before a long series of edits. With live-action adverts, all of the individual scenes need to be cutdown, enhanced and transitioned seamlessly. As you can imagine, this takes time(and so money).
If we compare this to animation, the resources required to create an advert are considerably less.
A great example of this is our Grow with Focus advert, created using 2D animation techniques. If you think about how this advert would be created as a live-action alternative, you’d have to pay for the cost of multiple actors, film in a variety of different settings, rent a vehicle, and then invest a considerable amount of time in editing, to piece all of the elements together.
In comparison, with animation, you can take the creative direction of your advert in any way you like. There are no limits placed on the scenes, locations or objects used in your advert, because the cost is the same regardless!
High level of creativity
The trouble with live-action adverts is that they put real restrictions on your creativity.
Your marketers may have a bold and brilliant idea, but the matter of budget, possibility, geography and reality (pigs don’t fly, unless you’re in an animation) would force that idea into the discard pile.
The beauty of animation is that the advertisers are given full reign to film in a variety of different locations and feature any objects that they require, without incurring any additional costs.
In short, you can create a video that fulfils all of your hopes and requirements, without breaking the bank.
Take the tropical backdrop of our Indie Bay Snacks advert, as an example. Or, there’s the Deliveroo pick up explainer video, which takes the viewer across central London at rush hour (something that, if you’re a local, you’ll know would be a huge challenge!).
In fact, animation allows pretty much any concept to be an option. With everything from 360 degree animation to cut-out animation, hand-drawn animation to mechanical animation, you can identify a style that perfectly aligns with your brand image and the interests of your target market.
If you’re new to the world of advert animation, be sure to check out the list of our top 21 2D Animation Styles. You’ll be amazed by how many options are at your disposal.
What’s more, this choice of medium will be fantastic for your advertising and marketing teams, as it gives them the opportunity to design an advert without creative limits. They can take the brief in any way they like, and create something that really stands out from the crowd. This is your opportunity to see exactly what your team is capable of.
Increased engagement
With creativity, comes engagement.
The bolder, more dynamic and more unique your advert is, the more likely your target audience is to click on it, and want to watch it till the end.
Did you know that a marketing video can increase your traffic and potential leads by around 300%? In fact, 52% of marketers name video as the content type that achieves the best ROI.
With the amount of creativity that can be brought to any animated advertisement, this medium is perfectly positioned to capture the attention of consumers. The artful combination of story, colours, transition and sound gives animated advertisements the ability to deliver far better engagement than other types of ads.
This, in turn, will make it far more likely that your advertising campaign is a success. By improving engagement at the ground level - i.e. in the way that customers respond to the advert itself - you will see an increase across your campaign's key metrics.
Depending on your requirements, these targets can include brand recognition, conversions (with sales being the most commonly measured conversion metric), brand awareness, customer loyalty and average spend - all of which are essential components in a successful company.
And, by working with a professional animation team, you can share these targets with them. Then, they will be able to tailor your animation to maximise the likelihood of it hitting these specific targets.
Created quickly
One of the main benefits of working with an animation agency is that the agency will be able to supply you with almost all of these elements. Their team will include actors, scriptwriters, illustrators, animators, designers and editors, alongside recording and animation software.
As a result, you’ll have access to all of their specialisms, without having to dedicate extensive time and additional funds to find and hire all these professionals individually. Win-win!
Plus, thanks to their abundance of knowledge, experience and resources, animation agencies can create top quality videos at an impressive, efficient timeline.
As an animation agency ourselves, at OK Social, we know that it’s very possible for animated advertisements to be created, from scratch, at short notice.
Although you’ll always see the best results when you don’t rush things, if you’re working to tight deadlines, creating animated adverts with a specialist animation agency is the best way to keep to schedule.
Why work with an animation agency like OK Social?
At OK Social, we are a renowned animation agency, with extensive advertising experience.
Having worked with some of the UK’s biggest names, we know precisely how to ensure our clients achieve everything that they require for their new advert.
We are renowned for our creativity and bold, engaging animation style. With our talented team at your disposal, you can be sure that your new advert will hit all the high notes.
To find out more about our animation services, or to enlist our help for your upcoming campaign, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
