Social Media and Video. These are two of the most important tools in any marketer’s toolbox.
Video increases website traffic, and online engagement. Whilst social media is one of the most powerful methods of distributing your marketing content.
There is an increasing shift towards video consumption across all the social platforms. Because of this there is massively growing demand for video and so over the last few years more and more people have been turning their hands to it.
And accordingly, Internet and social networks are increasingly turning to visual, emotional and quickly engaging media. Animated social media videos combine these three aspects, while describing your product or service in a cost-effective way.
Why is video so popular?
Visuals are understood much faster than text
We understand images instantly. We have to work to process text.
This shouldn’t be surprising of course, we as a species evolved before words, to read the world around us in visuals, those that didn’t… well they likely didn’t live very long. In fact, visual information is processed 60,000x faster than text. That’s a whole lot of zeros.
Our brains are just more accustomed to processing images—ninety percent of the information sent to the brain is visual. None of this is new. The human brain has always processed images ludicrously faster than words, the recent trends in marketing shouldn’t be surprising.
Social media videos are more engaging
An analysis by Wistia discovered that people spent on average 2.6x longer on a web page with video than they did on one without. Now let’s think about that.
If the viewer is spending two and a half times longer processing information 60,000 times faster, their brain is going to be a lot more engaged and you are going to be able to get across a huge amount more information.
Images are more memorable than words
There is a simple science behind this. They have colour, they have shape, and they have multiple connotations. There is more to remember about them.
If you think about someone like Daniel Tammet who recited Pi to 22,514 decimal places in 5 hours and 14 minutes in 2004. The way he describes his extraordinary memory is that he is able to visualise those numbers, as shapes and colours.
This is obviously an extreme example, but it makes my point. Visuals are more memorable than words.
Daniel Tammet painted this picture showing how he visualises the first 20 digits of Pi.
A few stats
If you’re not already convinced by the power of social media animation here are a few stats to help convince you
- 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video (MWP).
- 52% of marketers believe that video is effective for brand awareness (WowMakers).
- Using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boosts the open rates by 19% (Syndacast).
- Including video in a landing page can increase conversion by 80% (EyeView).
- Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store (ThinkWithGoogle).
- 4 out of 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful (Animoto).
- Online shoppers who view demo videos are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers (DMB Adobe).
- 4x as many customer would rather watch a video about a product than read about it (Animoto).
So people love videos, but why go animated?
There are a huge number of social media videos being uploaded every day on every possible topic.
To cut through the noise you are going to have to do something a little different, something a little more special. And we at The Animation Guys have a few suggestions as to why animation could be the way forward.
Immediately grab people’s attention
Your 2D or 3D video needs to grab your viewers’ attention within the first 30 seconds of watching, and then even more challenging, hold on it.
Animated videos can be different, surprising, colourful and captivating. You have a huge range of possibilities and opportunities to explore that can make your video stand out from the crowd.
Make complex topics fun
With animation, there is a wonderful lightness that allows you to simplify and explain complex topics without being boring or sounding patronising.
It’s not just complex topics though. You can make any topic fun with the help of a few ostentatious animations.
It’s nostalgic
There is something wonderfully childlike about animation. Playing upon that bittersweet yearning for the past can be immensely powerful. With animation, viewers remember the cartoons they grew up with. And this often makes them subconsciously more sympathetic towards the video.
It is comparatively affordable
You don’t need to find a location, create a set, hire actors; and there are no huge production equipment costs for things like cameras, lights, reflectors, and backgrounds.
You can do almost anything you can dream up
Possibly the main reason for using animation over other forms of videos, is that you can do almost anything that you can dream up.
You want a donkey doing acrobatics, or bowls of dip to have a philosophical conversation? Fine. Much harder to make happen without animation…
When it comes to marketing then, video is the most powerful format to use. However, it require resource and time.
Animation makes this process easier, makes the results more fun. Which makes it it the perfect accompaniment to your social media campaign.
Explore endless possibilities with brevity and clarity. Engage and entertain your audience, grow your brand and grow your sales..
To learn more about the power of animated videos in social media, get in touch.
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