Creating Highway Code animations
How short videos boosted our Twitter engagement
By Zal Tehrani and Sarah Tehrani (Graphic Content Designers)
Last November, we were asked to design something visual to be published on The Highway Code’s Twitter page.
The brief was for us each to design an MP4 file, no more than 15 seconds in length, representing a rule from The Highway Code.
Standing out from the crowd
Designing for social media requires a focus on engagement from start to finish, and clarity to ensure the message is being communicated effectively.
With an average of 6,000 tweets posted to Twitter per second, Twitter users see hundreds of tweets a day.
Tweets need to appeal widely to businesses and individuals, and stand out on a follower’s endlessly scrolling feed.
The aim of this project was to design something that would grab the viewer’s attention and promote an important message.
Designing an animation
Animation is widely used by companies and individuals as a creative way to represent ideas, products and services. It appeals aesthetically and emotionally, and connects on a personal level with an audience. It’s a highly engaging and shareable format, ideal for social media.
Creating an animation requires patience and concentration, the appropriate software, and an understanding of the 12 basic principles of animation.
While creating the animation, it’s also very important to consider the organisation’s reputation. As well as using correct branding, we also have to make sure that the rules are represented correctly, and that the content is socially inclusive and accessible.
Zal’s tweet
Zal:
I decided to make my animation with an emphasis on clarity. I created the animated elements and scenery using a 3D isometric angle - a simple, clear way of showing interactions in a 3-dimensional environment. Conveniently, it is also in keeping with the look of The Highway Code, which uses isometric imagery throughout to demonstrate rules visually.
To compliment the DVSA branding, I used colours from the GOV.UK colour palette to draw attention to particular vehicles and characters, while reducing the colour saturation of less important elements so as not to distract from the main action.
I added sound effects to the visuals to help emphasise the scene, but wanted the animation to work equally well without sound to ensure accessibility - especially as video sound is automatically muted by default on Twitter.
The Highway Code rule is also displayed typographically to reinforce the message as clearly as possible.
Sarah’s tweet
Sarah:
As audience engagement was an aim of the project, I chose to create an animation that was as humorous as possible - in both the style of the assets and also the interactions between the characters.
Humour is an excellent engagement tool, and has been used by advertisers for years to make the most memorable and effective campaigns - audiences like to be entertained not pitched.
I hope by making my animation amusing, it will stay in the audiences memories, help to enforce this particular Highway Code rule, and also encourage them to view the other rules illustrated on Twitter.
This was also the reason I felt it important to make the DVSA branding clear - plus of course, it re-assures the watcher the information provided is official!
To engage all members of our community, I created the characters to be representative of our neighbourhoods’ demographic. I wanted to emphasise that people of all ethnicities and ages are affected by, or capable of, not following the rules for safe road use.
Happily my approach worked! The tweet was the 6th most engaging from UK government accounts on the day it was published.
5 times more engaging
We looked at the analytics for our tweets, and found that they were 5 times more engaging than tweets with no video or animations.
We’re working with our communication colleagues to make sure that we can build in more video or animations into DVSA’s tweets.
For example, videos have been included in recent tweets about changes to the driving test.
For The Highway Code Twitter account, it’s particularly important to make the content as engaging as possible, and give it as wide a reach as possible. Research has shown that over 70% of Twitter users who follow the account say that they’ve changed their road behaviour as a result.
