Using animation in advertising: Why is it important, how to do it?

Animated videos produced with different techniques such as 2D, 3D, or stop-motion are used by many brands in commercial films promoting their products and services. How does shooting animated commercial films make a difference compared to shooting videos in studios or in real places with real actors/actresses? In this blog post, Digital Panorama focuses on the use of animation in advertising and sheds light on how to create attention-grabbing commercials using animation techniques.

The results of surveys carried out with marketing professionals and 2023 marketing trends show that video is still one of the most powerful marketing tools for businesses. Indeed, 9 out of 10 businesses say they will use video as a marketing tool in 2023. While this figure stands out as the highest rate recorded since 2016, the trend is influenced by the fact that digital is at the center of marketing strategies and digital platforms prioritize video content. Given that video content and promotional video production is highly important for marketing professionals, there is a search for faster, less costly, and more effective ways to produce these videos. At this point, animated videos come into play.

As Digital Panorama, a company that uses the competencies of different disciplines to transform dreams into long-lasting stories and visual worlds, we will discuss the use of animation in commercials in this blog post. Focusing on techniques and approaches, we will evaluate why using animation in commercials is a more efficient and agile way, what are its advantages for brands, and we will compare animation production with film production/live action.

Why do brands need video and animation?

As we hinted in the first paragraph of this blog post, we know that online content consumption is mainly focused on video and animated content, and that animated visuals attract viewers’ attention more than static visuals. This effort by platforms and consumers is driving brands to promote their products and services with videos across many outlets, especially digital. 2 out of 5 marketing professionals say that it is easier to convince consumers of the value of video content than other content formats, while emerging technologies in video production reduce the costs of video content production, enabling brands to take advantage of videos to deliver the stories they want to tell to their target audiences.

Videos, movies, and animated commercials offer brands the opportunity to tell their stories and messages in a context. Compared to a static visual, video content can deliver a greater amount of messages through a more dynamic setup. Social media and advertising platforms give priority to video content to ensure that well-constructed commercials reach more people. Consequently, brands are able to get more satisfactory responses to their expectations in the campaigns where they use video.

Advantages of using animation in commercial films

Of course, video commercials go beyond live-action commercials that are produced in a real studio, with real actors, for the above-the-line (ATL) audiovisual media outlets such as television. This is because evolving animation techniques and computer software give brands the opportunity to present their messages, products, and services in a wider visual universe with a wider range of possibilities.

The use of animation in commercials is not limited to digital marketing. In some cases, animation is even used in movie productions to ensure the integrity of the story. The following issues come to the fore with respect to the advantages of preferring animations in commercials:

1. Animations make it easier to communicate complex ideas in a simple way

As the digital world becomes more complex and competition among brands increases, it becomes more important to present products and services with the right words, at the right time, in a shorter time. Animation helps to explain in a few scenes, in a more attention-grabbing and engaging way, what could perhaps be explained in a few paragraphs of text. Many world-renowned brands focus on conveying the general features of a newly announced product through commercials prepared with animations and visual effects, to become more permanent and intriguing brands for their target audiences. When creative visuals are involved, the commercial and the messages it intends to convey are more likely to stick in minds.

1. Animations reaching more people

In a survey carried out with marketing professionals in 2023, 87% of respondents said that using animation increased traffic to their website. You’ve probably watched one of Pixar’s lovely animated films on the edge of your seat like your sibling, child, nephew, or niece. This is a testament to the inclusive nature of animation that appeals to audiences of all ages. Thanks to their narration capabilities, animated movies manage to impress children, young people, and adults at the same time.

1. Animations offer a cost-effective solution

Animated commercials are mostly produced on computers by animation studios, special effects artists, computer-aided visual specialists, or 3D/2D designers. This eliminates actors/actresses, venue, lighting, equipment, etc. costs required for producing films. On the other hand, the visual content produced during animation production can be stored on the computer in work files, providing brands with draft streams, visual worlds, and ready-to-use models for use in their future campaigns. Therefore, there is no need to go through costly production processes for similar works.

1. Animations give the opportunity to better reflect brand characteristics

In animated commercials, brands can use colors, typefaces, designs, motion designs, and entry and exit images that define their brands. Brands can more easily convey their brand identity to their audiences in animated commercials In this way, they introduce consumers not only to their products and services but also to the visual world that will be associated with that brand. Consumers internalize the brand characteristics they learn over time and recognize them the first time they see another piece of content about that brand, so the reach of animated commercials has the potential to grow and increase.

Introducing all the characteristics of a brand and all the features of its products or services in a studio environment with real actors/actresses requires hard and meticulous work, re-shootings, and field operations. This naturally increases costs. According to the results of a survey conducted by the World Federation of Advertisers with 43 multinational companies, 3 out of 10 brands will cut their advertising budgets in 2023, and products and services will increasingly get digital regardless of the sector, indicating that the use of digitally supported commercials and animation in advertising will become inevitable for efficiency and agility.

How to create attention-grabbing animated commercials?

We have given brief answers to the question “Why should brands use animation in advertising?” in a few titles, now we’ll try to reveal the secrets of creating attention-grabbing and memorable animated commercials in a few steps.

1. Identify your goals and target audience: Before starting any advertising campaign, remember that the first thing you should focus on is to identify the expectations from the commercial, the goals you want to achieve with the commercial, and the audience the commercial is targeting.
2. Build a creative visual world: Realize that there are many visual elements, tens of thousands of visual worlds, and several design styles to be inspired by on the internet. Instead of using stock images or video sources, try to create original images and a design language of your own.
3. Reflect your brand identity consistently: Make sure your brand’s tone of voice, design identity, colors, and calls-to-action are consistent.
4. Think long term: Remember that every visual element you produce about your brand, products, and services in the digital environment can be transformed and reused in the future. Every animated commercial you design can be re-used in another product with minor changes. When using animation in advertising, keep in mind that these digital assets may be useful to you in the future.

Discover the work of Digital Panorama

As Digital Panorama, one of the award-winning design agencies, we have structured computer-aided image production as a separate department to transform the messages brands want to convey into creative ideas and then into long-lasting animations and modeling. With Design Content Studio, the largest CG studio in Turkiye, we produce visual content and animations for our brands using the latest technologies, and we accomplish high-quality pieces of work to create experiences that will stick in the minds of our customers. As Digital Panorama, which believes in thinking beyond the limits and transforms this belief into reality within the infinite possibilities of animation, we melt the power of different disciplines in a single pot to make a difference in all communication and marketing activities of our brands. Visit Our Works page to discover the animation and visual design services we provide to leading brands and contact us so that we can explain what Digital Panorama can do for your brand.