What is an awareness video?

Awareness videos are often made by charities or nonprofits, but can also be commissioned by governments in the form of Public Service Announcements (PSAs). They’re all videos that are designed to raise awareness around a subject and influence behaviour.

Awareness videos may be broad and raise public awareness of the existence of an organisation like a charity, or they may concentrate on a specific topical campaign. Often distributed online, they have an optimum duration of 60-120 seconds. PSAs are distributed free of charge by media outlets because they’re deemed to be in the public interest and are therefore usually 30 seconds in length, in line with standard broadcast commercials.

The benefit of using animation for awareness videos is that it allows personal stories to be told anonymously, and in ways that can be more expressive and emotive than filming alone.

As with any online video, the selection of style, voiceover artist and music all set the tone. It’s really important to get this right for campaigns that have a sensitive nature. The call to action for awareness videos is often to find out more, but they can also call on support by way of donation.

Awareness videos get a lot of traction online and are shared peer-to-peer because the nature of the content is in the public interest. Charities also have a strong community of advocates that support and help to share the message. That’s why awareness videos can be seen as a good investment by charity marketing teams because they can get a wide reach organically online and see a good return on investment.

What is online video advertising?

The term online video advertising (OLV) covers adverts that are streamed on an internet-enabled device. Standard durations are 6, 15 and 30 seconds. These ads will often be found as standalone sponsored posts on social media platforms or at the start, middle or end of videos airing online known as pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll.

The challenge for these types of animations is to grab the viewer quickly before they scroll on or hit ‘skip ad’. Some adverts are non-skippable, but the goal of being sticky still stands. A catchy soundtrack and some beautiful visuals are likely to be part of the winning recipe for a successful online ad.

As with any video content, your choices around style, pace, music and voiceover all help to paint a picture of your brand. Video marketing is a great way to quickly and indirectly communicate lots about your brand personality, ethos and values.

What is an explainer video?

An explainer video is a great solution for explaining what your company does in a short space of time, ideally no more than 90 seconds. It’s usually housed on the homepage of your site and does a lot of the heavy lifting for your marketing and sales comms.

An explainer video is designed to be watched by people who are interested in understanding your offer. The call to action is often something more than visiting a website as your audience is likely already interested in what you do. It might be ‘sign up here’ or ‘book in a call’. An explainer video can drive sales in a non-salesy way. It might also be used as organic social media marketing to pique someone’s interest enough to visit your site to learn more.

Explainer videos can be used for B2B and B2C communications. As well as doing their job of explaining your product or service, they also create a strong impression of your brand. The visual style, music choice and voiceover artist tell the viewer so much about your brand’s personality. With the right explainer video, you can really connect with your target audience. They’re an essential part of any business’s marketing toolkit.

If you have a technical product or app, then your explainer video might show the audience its user interface so they can get a feel for the product. It may even go into detail about how some of the features work known as a walkthrough. Some companies opt for a series of explainer videos in the form of ‘how to’ video guides. These can be especially helpful to reduce the number of contacts to your technical or customer service department - freeing up your team’s capacity. Winner!

What is broadcast advertising?

Broadcast advertising is what you might consider a traditional TV commercial, sandwiched between your favourite TV show. It’s a popular format for B2C marketing, and there are also smart advertising platforms which enable your ad to be aired to your target demographic, not just by region or schedule. This type of advertising has opened the doors for less well-established or challenger brands with smaller production and advertising budgets as they’re able to spend wisely, in a targeted way.

As well as linear TV, broadcast advertising includes ads during programmes aired on Video On Demand services, which offer levels of targeting and measuring to rival digital platforms such as Facebook or YouTube. It’s common for one ad to be used for both online and broadcast campaigns. Double whammy.

What is a branded motion toolkit?

Motion toolkits or motion graphics packages are small, individual assets that can be used in various ways. They are usually created together in one batch with all eventualities in mind for efficiency and budget optimisation.

Individual assets may include a looping logo animation, a longer logo ident with strapline, animated backgrounds as well as any specific requests for live events, shows or interviews. Examples of those include lower thirds (straps along the bottom of the screen that provide supporting information like name and job titles in interviews), transitional wipes (a way to move between two shots or different pieces of content) and titles or bumpers (a full-screen text card or graphic to feature in a longer edit).

By having all of these elements in place, you can make all of your video content feel consistent and on-brand. The elements are often supplied with an alpha channel - a way of encoding that creates a transparent background which can be overlaid onto footage or other material.

An animated logo can also be used on your website to bring some movement and interest. These are usually exported in a web format which uses code to play the animation. The benefit of this is that it’s scalable, like everything else on your site, so there’s no loss of quality when viewed at different sizes or on different devices.

When commissioning your logo animation, it’s a good idea to get loopable and non-loopable versions - known as ‘in’ and ‘out’ or intro and outro idents. The intro will animate your logo on and hold: good for the opening to any video content. Whereas the outro will start with your logo on screen and animate off which can be helpful for closing videos. Loopable logos are great for websites, social media and presentation decks. They can also be created as a GIF provided the animation is short and uses a limited colour palette; usually the case with a logo animation. GIFs can be handy for sharing in emails, using in presentation decks or on social media.

What is a showreel or case study video?

Both of these formats are designed to showcase your work to potential customers in an easily digestible video format, usually around 60-90 seconds long. They’re a great way to neatly compile all of the assets or data outcomes from a piece of work.

Showreels contain a broad selection of your best work edited together as highlights, usually set to a catchy music track. This type of showcase is particularly used by creative agencies as it’s perfect for visual businesses. A showreel gives a flavour of the quality and diversity of your portfolio, rather than seeking to explain any detail about a project, process or outcome.

Case studies could be about a particular project or a client account. They may include testimonials from your client to help as a sales tool. These types of showcases are super helpful when your business is results-driven as they can make data look more visually appealing. There are some beautiful ways to animate data which can make sharing your impact easier and more appetising for your audience.

With a showreel or case study, you will supply a large chunk of the assets and key messages, leaving it to the production company or animation studio to knit it all together. The key challenge is to come up with a nice way to house content from multiple sources so it feels cohesive and the narrative comes across clearly, usually driven by text on-screen or a voiceover.

Internal communications is an art in itself and a vital part of building an engaged workforce. Using video content to do this can be really beneficial, particularly for heavy going or complicated information like pension or bonus schemes. They can also make a great impression on your staff when onboarding. Having a library of key videos explaining policies and procedures or sharing company updates adhoc can be incredibly helpful, especially with a remote-working team.

Another use for video within an organisation is Learning & Development where training on how to carry out tasks can be provided to many people using the same asset and very little manpower. This can range from health and safety essentials to developing leadership skills. These videos are bespoke to your business so you can use the language and imagery that your teams will be familiar with, as well as reinforce your company values.

As with any video, you can help to communicate your company ethos and brand personality through the creative choices you make around style, tone, music, voiceover, etc. so they are an important form of internal marketing.