In the field of video production, cartoon animated videos are some of the most versatile styles, catering both to B2B and B2C. They combine eye-catching graphics with visual storytelling, boost engagement and, overall, offer you an easy way to promote your products or services in as little as 60 seconds.
But why exactly are cartoon animated videos so effective and how do we create them here at AddVideos?
Read below to find out:
Cartoon animated videos present complex services in an easy-to-follow way
Although cartoon-animated videos aren’t restricted to one type of business or service, they are a favorite among B2B clients who sell complex products or services and want to simplify their complexity for non-technical targets such as purchasers, investors or management people.
For example, businesses in the automotive, industrial or mechanical fields often experience the technical nature of their products as a barrier preventing them to connect with the target. And if the target doesn’t understand what exactly they are buying, how they can be used or how they can be integrated, sales are automatically hindered.
You could, of course, hold a presentation or send your audience lengthy documentation for further reading, but these aren’t exactly engaging.
Cartoon-animated videos, on the other hand, can explain in 60 seconds the equivalent of several pages of technical explanations, because they are designed in such a way as to cater to the audience and keep them engaged. Think of Google Doodles, for instance. Even though Google users don’t know what holiday or event is celebrated, they click on the animation because it’s very engaging and instantly appeals to them.
People are visual learners. We can memorize pages upon pages of technical information for school and works, but most of this is forgotten after a while. However, technical notions that have pictures associated with them are easier to remember. By seeing a visual representation of what your product does, viewers are much more likely to remember it and ask about it later.
Animations also draw people’s attention and keep them engaged. As every modern marketer knows, most Internet users have a short attention span and if you don’t capture their attention within the first 15 seconds with an enticing message, they will walk away. Thanks to their bright colors and fun characters, cartoons make the viewer stay until the end, with or without the sound on.
What exactly makes animations so fun to watch?
Well, the most obvious answer is that they feature colorful characters and easy-to-follow storyline, and these are indeed key benefits. Even when they are learning something new or they are discussing the details of a business deal, people love being entertained. And animation does exactly that.
Then there is also the nostalgia factor. People grew up watching cartoons and even as adults we are instinctively drawn to watching them because they remind us of childhood and bring up happy feelings. We associate cartoons with simpler times, and colorful, quirky characters put us in a good mood.
In numbers, here’s how including one of these videos in your marketing campaign can help you:
- If you include a cartoon animated video on your homepage, you can boost conversions by 80%
- 65% of site visitors who watch a video about a product decide to purchase that product
- Half of the executives who watch a video about a product want to learn more about it, which makes videos one of the best way to introduce your business to investors and prospective business partners
- Video is a widely consumed form of content on the Web. It is estimated that a third of all online activity is watching videos.
- Only 14% of the best explainer videos curated by HubSpot are non-animated. The rest are animations.
The branding power of cartoon-animated videos
Cartoon-animated videos can be made in a playful, colorful style, featuring interesting characters and voices, but the choice of visual elements is not random. On the contrary, cartoon-animated videos are created in such a way as to align to your brand identity, featuring your company colors and logo.
For consistency, we often create a company series of videos and define a style to increase customer loyalty – with the same characters, same colors, same voice, same video duration and same story. This is the case of our client u-blox, who offers wireless and positioning semiconductors and modules for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets.
In time, your audience will grow accustomed to your animation style and the characters featured in your videos will feel familiar, which boosts brand recognition and brand trust.
Options and trends in cartoon animation
Although cartoon animated videos are often 2D, they can sometimes be produced in 3D, like this video we made for u-blox:
This way, they leverage the storytelling power combined with the benefits of 3D animations.
One of the reasons why cartoon-animated videos have stayed so popular over the years is that they keep evolving and constantly become more innovative thanks to new technologies.
A major trend in video production are trace animations. They consist of first shooting a video with real people in a real environment, then of creating the cartoon on top of it. This way, the final animation looks realistic and has a nice live-action feel to it:
How we make cartoon-animated videos
At AddVideos, we produce everything in a customized fashion. We will first define how the characters should look like, then create a mood board that it is consistent with the customer’s corporate identity and branding strategy.
To create cartoon animated videos, we follow a simple, streamlined process:
We first need to figure out what video style our clients want. Sometimes, the client has a very specific style in mind, perhaps an example from a competitor or a supplier, and by looking at this video we can determine the visual style we should follow.
But very often, our clients don’t exactly know what they want, which is why we allocate some time to figuring out the perfect style of cartoon-animated video for their business. We help by giving them free access to our video library, which gathers several hundreds of videos done by the best agencies in the world for the best companies in the world. All those videos are organized using filters, which enables our clients to bookmark the videos they like very quickly. For example, they can use the “Company” filter (e.g. if they want to see all “Boeing” videos), or the “Industry” filter (e.g. if they want to see all “Electronics” videos), or the “Style” filter (e.g. if they want to see all videos using 3D animations).
The script is one of the most important parts of the video production process and, by default, we write it for our clients so that they can save time.
We have unlimited iterations with our client during the agreed production period for improving the script, the storyboard and the video/animation. We can carry out as many changes as the client wants, so that the final video meets and exceeds all expectations.
Where can you use cartoon animated videos?
Once the cartoon-animated video is complete, you can use it across various channels, depending on your marketing goals. Here are some ideas:
- Upload the video to your YouTube channel. In fact, according to one study in Forbes, more than 50 percent of executives report watching work-related or business videos on YouTube every week, and of those, 65% visit the marketer’s website after watching.
- Use the video for your homepage or a website landing page to boost conversion rates
- Share the video on your social media pages to engage with followers and generate traffic
- Use the video for your email marketing campaign. For maximum efficiency, we can also customize these videos for you to increase email open rates!
- Show the video during sales talks to help your audience better understand your products and how they work
- Use the video during trade shows to attract visitors
- Minimize perceived wait time. You can make the cartoon-animated video run on a flatscreen in the waiting room to your physical location, in order to minimize clients’ perceived waiting time. This way, while waiting, they won’t feel that they are wasting time. On the contrary, they will be entertained and gain some insight into what you do. When it’s their time to meet you, it’s less likely that they will be irritable and impatient and they will have already learned a bit about your product.
Feel free to have a look at some of our cartoon animated videos and contact us if you have an idea for a video!
