Chris Stone
Today, animated advertising is one of the most result-oriented and lucrative ways of promoting your brand, its products, and services. Now brands and companies have the power to share their brand story, and values by harnessing the power of animated videos. Because it all starts with compelling and unique storytelling as it triggers emotional responses and persuades users to take the desired action.
When it comes to animation in brand advertising, it constitutes myriad creative visual elements which attract viewers’ imagination while telling them your brand story more effectively. Incorporating animation into your advertising strategy can improve the look and feel while making your brand appear more interesting, up-to-date, and trendy. Imagine a world where you can make your characters fly, travel in time or talk all the time!
Animated advertising campaign ns are a lot more cost-effective as they allow you to demonstrate your product’s qualities more effectively. The special lighting and coloring effects make animated videos more appealing to your audience, something that poses a challenge to achieve naturally.
More and more businesses are using animation in their marketing efforts to promote their products and services for a number of reasons, including:
- Animation usually involves humorous and fun aspects that keep the viewers entertained for longer and create a higher user engagement than their traditional marketing counterparts.
- Creating animated videos allow you to be a lot more creative as you can narrate your unique brand story more interestingly, which is a great way to capture audience attention for longer.
- Incorporating animation into your advertising strategy can help you communicate the message clearly, and in a creative yet memorable way.
- Already wary of intrusive marketing, an animated marketing campaign can generate huge engagement and the meaningful social impact that sticks around in the minds of your audience.
An animation is a powerful way to promote your brand by using the power of storytelling and striking visuals to captivate and engage your audience. Animated marketing videos, when executed well, can do wonders and enable your brand to reach your target audience. Have a look at these top animated marketing campaigns that will definitely help you develop a striking idea for your own marketing campaign.
Nike
Nike’s “What’s your Air Max” is one of the best-animated video marketing campaigns, incorporating a symbolic exploration of air and the negative space. This short video beautifully explores all types of breathable textures and design elements that convey the properties of Air Max sneakers – soft, breathable and lightweight. The video uses some pastel shades to depict the quality of fabrics and the background music of foot strikes, runner’s breath and traffic noises come together to enhance the feel of the video. The robust history of Air max provided a glut of inspiration, helping the agency to tie it all together. This resulted in a fun, sprightly, and soulful campaign that leverages a cool sneaker or two and layers of compelling imagery—to narrate the awe-inspiring story of an iconic shoe’s heritage. It’s an eclectic, confident remix of everything Air Max – a shoe that has garnered its own holiday; the air max day!
Oreo
Oreo always struggles hard to promote their products a bit differently. Their Wonderfilled animated campaign is an amazing example of video marketing that shows how a blood-sucking vampire takes a positive turn with the help of the classic crème-centered cookie. Through this video, Oreo wants its consumers to see the world with positivity, openness, and sincerity.
According to Janda Lukin, Director, Oreo at Mondelez International, Inc., “It starts with a very simple premise, about how something as small as an Oreo cookie can bring about a positive change in perspective. Kids already have a sense of wonder in how they see the world, but adults have to be reminded of that. The stories are going to resonate with different people, but overall, it’s an adult campaign.”
The beautifully animated campaign beseeches adolescents and adults to get in touch with their childlike sense of wonder, something we have gone astray from in this cut-throat era, and stop for a minute to enjoy everything around them. While, indubitably their main objective is to make their audience relate the fuzzy, heart-warming feelings of sharing an Oreo, the campaign captures the world through the eyes of a child, creating something endearing in turn. Each element of the campaign, such as the user-generated content, catchy videos/jingles, quirky typography, vibrant scenes, and style of animation, breathe life into the campaign.
What makes this campaign so successful is that it is really easy to relate to. Not to mention, customers all over the globe have taken to creating and sharing their own versions of wonderland, keeping the legacy alive. Even though the campaign is a new take on Oreo, it still manages to retain the all the brand’s core values: fun, socialness, imagination, and humor. The cartoon campaign captures emotions and themes that traditional mediums would have failed to do.
Starbucks
A renowned American coffee house Starbucks always provides its customers with unbeatable coffee flavors. The brand is famous for using an outstanding roast of coffee beans. Through this animated advertising campaign, the brand highlighted the excellence that goes into making a flavorful cup of coffee. It is true that animated videos bring complex ideas to life, and make them easier for the laymen to grasp and become fascinated with. Not to mention, we have been so programmed to enjoy animation from a really young age, that everything seems better when an animated character is used to explain an idea or narrate a story.
Dropbox
Dropbox beautifully uses animation in their ad campaign where they smartly demonstrate their product. “What is Dropbox animated video” has been viewed more than 11 million times on YouTube. Here is what makes their animated video stand out among competitors:
- The explainer video leverages cut-out animation to narrate the unique story of their brand and how it came to be. Not only is the style eye-grabbing and unusual, its less-detailed, iconic characters make the video resonate with a diverse audience.
- While most explainer videos make use of metaphors, such as a recurring situation or a problem, to create a sort of set-up for the storyboard, the drop-box video introduces not one, but a series of relatable situations – misplacing your keys, forgetting your wallet – to conjure a familiar feeling of disorganization. Once you experience the feeling of exasperation at remembering these well-placed scenarios, Dropbox jumps in and tells you how it can help you stay organized!
- The video is short but sweet, not something you would expect from a 90-second video, considering that it must leave somethings said. This video was made for a specific purpose and sticks to it instead of beating around the bush.
Marks & Spencer
The UK based clothing retailer created an animated video to explain the concept of “shwopping” to make ordinary clothes extraordinary. They explained how they recycle and reuse any unwanted clothes of their customers. Since 2008, Marks and Spencer have raised more than $20.35 million in an effort to fight poverty. The stylishly animated films go to reveal items of clothing that have been donated via the “Shwop drops,” morphing into good deeds around the world, including business training and clean drinking water for all.
American Express
The advertising campaign of American Express is one of the best advertisement campaigns that show how Amex is more than just a financial services company. With this “Imagine what you can do” campaign, the brand wanted to explain how it can do wonders in digital science and hybrid world. This video is aimed to reach a wider audience and alter the impression that American Express is only a finance company.
Over to You
If you are planning to create a marketing campaign for your brand, it is advised to use animation in your advertising strategy to create your brand story in a more creative way. As animated videos appeal to your target segment, help arrest the viewer’s attention and keep viewers engaged till the end.
Ashad Rehman
Ashad Rehman
Mohammad Ali