Ranked #1 on G2’s list of the Top Project and Work Management Software and with 131,000 paying customers, Asana has been dominating the project management space since its official launch in 2012.
The tool is the ultimate solution to help streamline project-related communication and improve productivity and efficiency among the workforce.
But if you dig deep into how it made it to the screens of thousands of its customers, you will find a dominant and key factor in the face of Explainer/Motion Graphic Videos.
So to understand how it climbed up the ladder, we looked at how Asana used explainer videos in rolling out new features based on their user education agendas.
Decoding: How Asana used Explainer Videos to boost reach amongst its
target audience?
Asana’s YouTube channel receives millions of views, proving that explainer videos are an integral part of its business strategy.
It’s interesting to note that this top-grossing project management tool has played with different video animation styles such as kinetic typography, 2D character animation, 3D motion graphics, etc.
Let’s look at a few of their videos that have been critical in their journey by knowing the probable challenges behind each one of them:
#Challenge 1: Elevate Users’ Experience on Asana
Asana’s presence in the project & work management industry has been nothing short of magic.
And why not? The software has been a painkiller to tedious tasks, communication gaps, cluttered project details, etc.
So to leverage the rush of Generative AI and provide users with a better user experience in terms of using their software, they recently launched Asana AI.
Solution: Asana AI
Well, Asana has quite recently jumped on the ongoing AI wave by introducing Asana AI – A feature that helps teams make decisions faster and improve efficiency at work.
The agenda behind empowering its product with AI is to equip itself as an assistant to organizations, thus guiding them toward eliminating unnecessary work-related bottlenecks.
To better facilitate the usefulness of their new feature, they chose a Kinetic typography + Motion Graphics video style to demonstrate in just 67 seconds, how AI will accelerate regular tasks and increase productivity.
Video communicates the essence of a new product or feature’s communication to its target audience.
It’s clear that with Asana AI, the mission is to free teams from the chaos of time-consuming/repetitive tasks by providing quick, one-click summaries of their projects.
#Challenge 2: Smoothen Gmail Integration
In our pursuit of decoding how Asana used explainer videos, here’s what they encountered next:
Evident from its popularity, Asana is very well-versed with the challenges faced by its users.
Another challenge that its users were facing was creating tasks and assigning responsibilities to the team as per the details communicated via mail.
For obvious reasons, this is a pretty lengthy and repetitive task even for small teams. So to save users from the infinite switching of tabs between Gmail and Asana, they launched an effective Add-on…
Solution: Asana for Gmail
To stay on the top of its consumers’ minds, Asana knew it had to provide its users with innovative solutions that further ease their lives at work.
By offering an option to integrate Gmail in 2017, Asana has been helping users directly create new tasks and assign roles on a certain project on its platform – all without leaving their inboxes. How quick and time-saving is that?
Yet again, the role of videos in demonstrating this new update comes in handy, as this time they have used a Screencast video.
The video takes up the role of a helping hand, guiding viewers into how they can go about leveraging the power of Asana in Gmail itself.
#Challenge 3: Address Project & Work Inefficiencies
Project managers are a communication bridge between the production house and the client. As a result, they need their stuff to be streamlined and well-organized.
Asana recognized this loophole, developed a feature, and launched what happens to be one of their most exciting and beneficial functionalities – Timelines.
So now with this, project managers and team leaders especially, can ensure all their project details are well-displayed on a dashboard with clear deadlines and a progress track bar.
Solution: Introducing Asana timeline
Asana just killed it with this 2D-character based motion graphics video. They seem to have defied all odds of transforming complex concepts into engaging and entertaining pieces of animation.
In this case study, we looked at the best 2 of the videos that have helped them reach thousands of teams globally. But this video stands one step above them.
One of the core benefits of using Asana happens to be – Organized task allocation, supervision, and accountability. And their timelines feature just helps smoothen the entire process for team leaders and project managers, to be precise.
Using an animated video, they go all-in for demonstrating one of their hero feature’s functionality and generate decent engagement in terms of platform signups as well as an increase in DAUs [daily active users].
Conclusion
Being a SaaS product, Asana has been at the core of eliminating project and team management obstacles in a few clicks.
And this is exactly what it has showcased through its multiple motion graphic videos published on the internet.
Asana’s videos also serve as a reminder that even the most comprehensive and complex of products can be well explained through animated videos in a mere 60 – 120 seconds.