Storytelling & Animation: A Perfect Duo?

Chanel, Jack Daniel’s, Starbucks, and other worldwide brands have already upgraded their marketing campaigns by applying animated narratives. They tell stories about the brand’s history, business processes, and just daily routine. Did they find a goldmine of customer’s love and trust? If this is such an effective tool, then let’s find out together what storytelling is and how it benefits the brand!

 

 

What does storytelling mean?

Let’s give a few definitions to start. What is storytelling? It’s an informal way to share your experience and path with others. It’s the explanation of the company’s goals, beliefs, and ambitions put in a short and memorable narrative form. The main aim is to make it emotional and catchy to grab everyone’s attention and build a strong association with the brand.

 

Visual storytelling definition sends us to all common kinds of visualization. These may be photos, infographics, live videos, cartoons, and all the other ways to illustrate your thoughts. But, which variant is the most convenient and engaging for well-known brands, and why? It seems that animation is the best option for those who want to stand out from the crowd and highlight their uniqueness. 

 

 

So, if someone asks you: “What is visual storytelling?”, be maximum clear: “It’s the best way to promote your brand today!”

 

Why Do Businesses Have to Use Storytelling?

In a nutshell, storytelling is the way to represent your business or give essential information by telling stories (obviously) and making the brand closer to the customer. The way the company does this may vary depending on a goal or available resources. But, even live videos don’t engage the audience as storytelling animation does. It has its own charm and style, which distinguishes the brand from others.

 

Why is animated storytelling all the rage in 2022? The video format has become the most popular one across the net, especially on social media. Potential users and customers – watch hundreds of videos daily, so their attention stops reflecting on text and static formats the way it used to. A recent study shows that 92.1% of students agree that whiteboard animation is clearer and easier to perceive than basic lectures.

 

Just a brief example. Why did cinema get its popularity across the US in the early 20th century? Videos appeared to be nearly the only way to group people of different nationalities, religions, beliefs, and education levels. By the way, in the 1930s, people defined one more reason to use animation storytelling for advertising. It increased the sales by up to 200%!

 

Brand Storytelling is the Way to Go

Animation storytelling has become a powerful marketing solution for thousands of companies all over the world. From well-known ones to local startups. They fulfill the main aim – humanize the business, causing emotional attachment.

 

Visual narratives benefit the brand hundreds of times more than other types of promotion. What’s the difference? Storytelling animation helps:

 

• Stand out from the crowd. Today, we are more likely to deal with a brand if it has a unique DNA – something that distinguishes one company from another. The brand’s storytelling animation is something that can convey the core easily and quickly (in less than a minute). Furthermore, it can use unique characters and show only significant moments.
• Build Loyalty. In our globalized world, people have already stopped trusting faceless corporations. They don’t seem to be reliable and exist at all. Animation helps to create a certain impression, makes big companies closer to customers, clarifying their philosophy. The visual part attracts the audience more, causes emotions, and makes people empathize.
• Increase Growth. Animated stories are 66% more likely to be shared than basic videos. This means that your audience will grow 1.5 times faster than it could. By the way, there is one more psychological moment. If the company has a story, which can melt the audience’s hearts, then it is experienced and fundamental. Many of us want to be a part of something big and significant.

 

Make Your Story Memorable with Animation

The importance of storytelling in animation is the same high as the quality video itself. The visual part may be even absolutely basic like the white background and hand-drawn creatures. Such videos seem to be more conversational and catchy, as they contain no extra details and focus on the main points.

By discussing the pros and cons of using animation for storytelling, we can create a huge list of benefits and come up with just a few disadvantages. Video illustrations can be adapted for any brand’s style, so you can get an absolutely unique story that matches your ideas and tone of voice. Almost the only disadvantage we can mention is the difficulty of content production. Storytelling in animation should be thought out to the last detail and created by a pro, who can fully implement the vision and enliven the narrative.

So, why use animation and storytelling together? Because they work!

 

Effective Visual Storytelling Techniques

Video storytelling techniques are so diversified, that it’s possible to achieve the desired result without adapting the idea to available sources. You can create either 2D or 3D explainer, demo, or promotional videos and that’s only the beginning!

Here are a few tips on how to make any animation storytelling techniques work:

• Show, don’t tell – visual storytelling allows showing anything in greater detail than any text or speech. Moreover, it helps to focus the audience’s attention only on the vital details.
• Use Dynamic Visuals – dynamic movements grab attention and keep the audience focused.
• Show People – showing people helps the audience to engage and relate to the video and its message. This also helps to build strong associations.
• Teach New Things – enlightening stories are an excellent way to build loyalty, retain existing customers, and attract new ones. As well as highlighting your expertise.
• End With a Takeaway – The ending must contain the key message for visual storytelling to be truly effective.

It’s up to you which visual storytelling techniques to apply, but don’t try to copy the already existing style. Be unique to become memorable!

 

Examples of Visual Storytelling that Work

You can find dozens of visual storytelling examples on the net, but how to define which one is successful? Pay attention to the following brands and their styles. Do they evoke strong emotions and feelings? Maybe, you start thinking about the company from a new perspective or get a super motivation to do something about your life. Is the main character so memorable and extraordinary that you can do nothing, but fall in love with him? If the story makes you feel, think and reflect, then this is the nice job of marketers and a great storytelling example!

 

• Airbnb became a part of a huge racial discrimination scandal, so the mission of its animated narrative was to show that the brand’s beliefs and philosophy have changed for the better. This is one of the storytelling marketing examples that were aimed to recover the company. In addition, this explainer video informs about the ways of data use, which help to fight discrimination.
• Lyft focused on people instead of cars to show their inner state and explain the reason for the project’s creation. It used saturated acid colors and dynamically changing layouts. This storytelling example is more about people’s emotions and the brand’s mission.
• Starbucks often provides us with effective storytelling in advertising examples. This time, marketers used psychological tricks to highlight the value of their product. How did they do this? Retrospective narration showed the way each person and each coffee bean did to become your tasty drink. By the way, all the visual elements were created from cropped paper cups – the symbol of the end result that consists of all the previous stages.

 

Hope, these successful storytelling examples will inspire you on something great!

 

Conclusion

Today, the key to success is uniqueness and closeness to the audience, something charming, unusual, and warm-hearting. How can the brand combine everything and achieve the main goal – build loyalty, ensure growth and attract customers? Animated storytelling is a powerful marketing tool that implements even crazy ideas!