Realising a 30-second video can convey the same information as a 1000 word article, brand marketers have fast discovered how adopting online content processes can keep communications channel open, even amid tight COVID-19 restrictions.

In March of this year the world was quite literally turned upside down. Within a few short weeks, a rumoured outbreak of an unknown illness spread to global pandemic proportions. Businesses shut, workers stayed home and hospitals began preparing for the largest mobilisation of pre-emptive care in human history.

The Covid-19 Effect

A big shift fast 

As brands and businesses struggled to shift their processes and communication strategies, advertising in most spheres stopped. With revenue streams and pipeline profits suddenly under threat, businesses pulled the plug on their marketing spend. Ad were stopped and media relationships snipped at the root.

With no commuters walking city streets, billboards become redundant. With no buses running, commercial wraps became pointless. Traditional bricks and mortar businesses had no idea how to get products off their shelves and although e-commerce has seen a boom, increased unemployment means there is less money being spent in the economy.

Brands are experimenting 

The world is now more online that ever before and ad making has had to shift accordingly. People can’t move as freely as they once did and when they do gather, they can only do so in small numbers and with restrictions and safety measure firmly in place. It has made filming live action impossible in many instances. Film production has largely stopped and traditional TVC making has shifted to using laptops and smartphones to capture footage rather than $100,000 cameras in shiny city studios.

For advertisers, it a time for reflection and for experimentation. The old ways just don’t work as well as the once did. As a result there has been an explosion in the number of marketer looking for alternative avenues to communicate their messages to the world. Animation, stop motion and motion graphics are one such way that brands have looked to shift their brand creative and align with a process that works amid the shifting working landscape.

Covod-19 Has Changed The World

Animation is a process built for the realities of 2020

Due to the online nature of animation and the fact it requires few of the requirements of traditional actor-capture production, brands that previously never considered animation are now building a huge portfolio of work in the medium, attracted to its flexibility and myriad application, including but not exclusive to: 

• 2D, 3D creative flexibility

• Speed of making

• Cost efficient

• Length

• Power in conversion

• Power in messaging

• Power in message retention

• No talent fees outside of voice overs

• Potential for ownership of creative in perpetuity

Examples of institutions using animation

RMIT University in Melbourne has successfully began using animation as a way to communicate course offerings to prospective students without the need to capture any live action footage at all. Simple and effective, these videos have been created with social amplification in mind, favouring 1:1 ratios over the traditional 16x9 format.

The Australian Government launched the COVIDSafe app in June 2020, an application that quickly let you know if you had come in contact with someone that had tested positive for coronavirus. The Department Of Health chose to launch the product with a series of animated videos that broke down the use for and need for the application as well as showcased how the app works. 

Examples of brands using animation

Brands have had to pivot quickly in order to keep up with the changing nation and state restrictions pertaining to COVID-19. Uber used animation to showcase how their new door-to-door safety standard would come into effect.

Xero harnesses the power of animation and motion graphics in their how-to and demo videos, short videos that show how customer can use various functions of the accounting software. Clear, simple and concise animation enables the brand to keep atop the changing and evolving functionality of their platform and better communicate with their customers.

It’s not just primary services that businesses are looking to promote, sometimes animation offers a fresh way to communicate the less marketable day-to-day messaging to a niche market. Commonwealth Bank continually use animations to this effect, here to promote career opportunities within the company, in this instance for their brand network roles.

Why Animation Is Good For Brands

When you should use animation

“Animation is the perfect vehicle for ordering complex information as well as refreshing old creative,” says Matt Roberts, senior animator for Snackable. “Animation is the primary method for creating explainer videos but for brands are also realising that they can use animation to refresh their older campaigns.”

Animation has long been used by the B2B sector and as part of sales or presentations collateral. Its ability to engage and educate is widely known but it has often be neglected but B2C companies who have come to rely on live action and talent-led videos to sell their products and services.

“Brands are now coming to animation because they can’t shoot traditional,” says Roberts, “but they are coming back again and again because they realise that the format works. It’s a fun and creative way to explore ideas and communicate. The fact that its COVID-19 proof is only making it increasingly attractive for brand managers.”

Animation is now being used for all sort of reasons including:

• Television commercial

• Explainer videos

• Online ads

• Social media

• Website

• App how-to

• Sales funnels

• Internal communications

• Staff training

• Student learning

Interested in using animation for your next project? Reach out for a free and fast quote from the Snackable team today.