Look around and you shall find one similarity among the best video campaigns that took over our devices’ screens.
And what’s that? Nothing but Storytelling!
There’s no doubt about it being one of the most crucial weapons ever used by brands worldwide to reach their target audience and attain marketing goals.
We live in a world where visual content dominates the majority of our screen time.
And with the rise in competition, it has become relatively difficult for brands to cut through the fluff and gain the attention of their potential customers.
This is where brand storytelling meets animation to communicate the central message of an animated video.
Let’s understand the role of animation in storytelling and its impact on a brand’s growth:
The role of Animation in Brand Storytelling
Animated stories can enhance storytelling in a way that cannot be measured.
The power of animation has made humans’ ability to communicate through stories possible in a previously unimaginable way.
When combined, these two elements create a powerful tool for educating, entertaining, and engaging audiences.
Through animation, brands can unlock the power of storytelling and market their videos in this chaos-filled competitive market.
When visuals are animated or presented in motion, it automatically grabs the viewers’ attention and gives them a reason to complete watching your video.
This way, the story that a brand intends to communicate or pitch, receives momentum and is empowered into reaching a wide audience.
An even greater attraction of animation is the way it gives otherwise boring objects a sense of life and quirkiness.
Animated video content has always been a hot favorite for marketers globally.
The reason is – Such videos are armed with compelling stories making them the most preferred tool to attract potential customers toward the product or service offered.
Here are the top 3 reasons that emphasized the role of animation in telling stories:
1) Grabs attention:
Animation can grab viewers’ attention by turning boring content into stunning and interactive visuals.
With the help of appealing animated characters, a brand’s story can be brought to life, making it a more memorable experience.
Usually, brand storylines are limited to the vision and mission statement.
However, by adding a taste of animation to them, the same story can be leveraged to leave a strong initial impact on the target audience.
2) Encourages engagement:
Apart from grabbing attention, storytelling done via animation can infuse new energies in the minds of potential buyers, thus making them interact with your branded content.
Humans love hearing stories. And when they are animated, businesses get an opportunity to weave a deeper emotional connection and long-term relationship with their audience.
To encourage viewers to engage with the video, interactive and relatable elements or icons can be integrated with the storyline through animation.
3) Helps retain visitors:
Amidst decreasing human attention spans, brands are finding it harder to attract customers and retain them on their websites or social handles.
Through its central theme and designs, animation-based content on the website keeps visitors interested in what’s next. This in turn, increases session durations on a brand’s website.
As a result, when animation & storytelling come together, they help establish an environment where viewers finish watching and stick to the video till the end.
Now that you know how much potential storytelling holds if executed by making optimum use of animation, let’s look at two of the best industry examples:
Best Examples of Animation with Brand Storytelling
1) The Lego Story:
Animation Style: 3D Animation
Industry: Kids Toys
Company: The Lego Company
Communicating a brand’s history, core values, and emotions on which it has been built is a challenge faced by almost every marketer.
This is a short 3D animated film about one of the world’s biggest and most-known toy makers & game brands.
The video showcases the initial days of how the company began its journey from a workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932.
Apart from stellar 3D animation, the story also leaves an impactful mark on the minds of viewers and educates the world about the legacy of the company.
If you closely look at the animated characters and the background environment, the beauty with which it has been presented will make it difficult to take your eyes off the video.
2) How A Kid With $0 Created Nike:
Animation Style: Presentation Style Video
Industry: Fashion
Company: Nike
You would have probably heard about the iconic history behind the birth of the world’s biggest sportswear brand more than 100 times.
But not often do you get to witness and walk alongside a Live+Animated brand video that aptly narrates the complete brand story of Phil Knight’s billion-dollar company – Nike!
With this video, the sportswear giant illustrates its entire story right from how it began, the people involved, the setup of its first production line, the rise of unwanted controversies, battles with other sports item manufacturers, collaborations/partnerships with world-class athletes, etc.
The video houses stock i/video footage and still images accompanied by a kinetic typography animation style.
Catchy screen transitions and elements present in the backdrop provide viewers with a cinematic experience.
3) TEKKEN 8
Animation Style: High-End Animations
Industry: Video Games
Company: Tekken by Bandai Namco Ltd
If you want to witness the power of brand storytelling, Tekken’s video can be the perfect example for you.
You see, the gaming industry is transforming itself into a world of space where viewers can picture and consider themselves an active part of the game.
Ultimately, this is achieved by the application of high-quality animation coupled with excellent storytelling that leaves the end user in awe with every single plot.
If you look closely, the body & environment built of every character and object used has been paid sharp attention to in terms of how they would be animated to produce a realistic feel.
The detailing of scenes is a sight to behold. Overall, the trailer leaves the audience guessing what’s next and this is can be attributed to how well the story has been written & equally presented.
4) Honda ‘Paper’
Animation Style: Paper-Fold Animation
Industry: Automobiles
Company: Honda Motor Co.
Usually, stop-motion videos do not house the elements of storytelling to an extensive level.
However, this commercial video by Honda showcases how aesthetically stop-motion based video production style can be integrated into commercials by properly leveraging the power of stories.
This video narrates Honda Innovation’s six-decade journey through hand-drawn sketches and illustrations, manipulated by animation experts in a stop-motion style.
Also, pay attention to the changing background music as and when a new automobile was innovated in its respective decades. It speaks tons about how stories, sound effects
Regarding how perfectly the video has been planned, shot, and edited, the number speaks for itself with the video gathering 6 million+ views on YouTube alone.
Conclusion
Animation is expanding beyond its average threshold and venturing into exciting spaces such as the metaverse, and virtual reality to name a few.
However, when it comes to brand storytelling, the fundamentals and the bond between the two remain the same.
Humans are strongly driven by emotions. And when they are being narrated a story appealingly and crisply, they are likely to interact and engage.
Since we are an experienced animated explainer video production company, we have helped dozens of our clients in communicating their brand stories to the world.
If you want us to do the same for you and help you attain your branding and marketing goals, get in touch today and let’s help you share your brand story with the world.
