Last year online video made up more than half of all internet traffic. This figure is expected to rise to a staggering 80% by 2020. In the last five years alone, video consumption has skyrocketed by 800% with pretty much all of the social media behemoths now boosting video content in our news feeds. This surge in moving pictures can be attributed to one simple thing: human nature.
Humans are inherently visual creatures, processing visual information up to 60,000 times faster than text. What’s more, our busy lives and dwindling attention spans means that if we can’t find what we’re looking for in a few seconds or less, we’ll just look elsewhere. When your business has a service or product to sell, you’ll need to grab the attention of your audience fast… and keep it.
Enter the explainer video
It’s the perfect sales pitch every time. With a typical duration of 2 minutes or less, an explainer video is a fun and entertaining way to help your audience understand your product in seconds. Not just that, but visitors to your site will hang around for longer, which makes for a great boost to your search engine ranking. And here’s the kicker: explainer videos can boost conversion rates!
Cartoons – Not just for kids anymore
Opting for an animation instead of a live-action video has many benefits. For one, it’s considerably cheaper and faster to produce since you don’t need to hire actors and camera men and serve them all lunch. Plus the possibilities are endless. Want to explain Social Media Marketing with flying cursors and goofy one eyed jellybeans? Well you can. Any animator worth their salt will be able to bring your vision to life, no matter how wacky it may be. And if your brand is more serious than slapstick, don’t fret. Animation styles are as plentiful and varied as Taylor Swift’s exes.
Some examples to prove our point (and more reasons for you to keep procrastinating)
Oscar, the New-York start-up valued at $1.5 billion, entered the market with one simple goal: make health insurance suck less. They did so with a series of quirky explainer videos which quickly became synonymous with the brand. They’re simple, they’re memorable, and they’ve been watched almost 2 million times.
And who can forget this delightfully twisted take on the classic (and boring) public service announcement about train safety. Not only is Dumb Ways To Die the most shared PSA of all time, but the song charted on iTunes in 28 countries and the animation has since spawned its own series of toys and mobile games.
Finally, there’s Rise To: proof that just because you have a corporate sounding script aimed at 40 year old execs doesn’t mean you can’t explain the idea with rocket ships.
2016 is poised to be a very exciting year, for visual marketing specifically, and content marketing in general. Whether you’re a start-up with a big idea, or an established brand with something new to share, it’s never been a better time to get on the explainer video band wagon.
