Must-have Marketing Magic in Motion
So, what are the benefits of motion graphics? Let’s start off with what it is first. Motion graphics are the marriage of graphic design, animation, and sound — and is also one of the most powerful marketing tools on the web. They tell a story by borrowing aspects of photography, illustration, and typography to create visually rich compositions to keep viewers engaged.
Motion graphics are a creative way of delivering complex ideas in a simple way that anyone—from children to the elderly—can engage with and understand. Put simply, they’re highly accessible. And that’s what makes them such a potent marketing tool.
Here’s a 30-second demo of Mighty Fine Design Co.’s motion graphics work.
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What goes into creating a powerful motion graphics piece?
Of course, the benefits of motion graphics are only brought to their full potential when there’s a strong team behind the wheel. There are four key elements to achieving this. These are the staples of how we work with our clients at Mighty Fine Design Co: Creative Teamwork, Concepting, Storyboarding, Illustration, and of course, Animation.
Creative teamwork is where the magic begins. It’s when writers, designers, and creative directors come together to craft unique narratives for your brand and messaging that is easy enough to be understood by all. Next up, we begin concepting and start storyboarding. This is where we draft a script and decide the visual style of the motion graphic.
After the script is written, we find professional voiceover talent that speaks in your brand’s voice. Graphic designers then create visual assets in the illustration phase. We always stress the importance of having original, high-quality illustrations that are custom-made by our designers and illustrators. These high-quality assets are crucial to making your piece stand out and look sharp.
Finally, a motion designer breathes life into those assets and makes them move with animation. The entire process is overseen by a creative director to make sure your brand’s message stays on track and the final product is polished to its maximum potential — allowing you to reap the full benefits of motion graphics.
Why invest in motion graphics?
Video is the main direction the internet is taking when it comes to marketing. This is clear, as the number of businesses working it into their digital marketing strategies is no small amount. According to Cisco, 69% of all global consumer internet traffic was taken up by video in 2017.
They also predict that the number will spike up to 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2019. Of course, there’s a good reason for this, too. It’s because there are clear benefits of motion graphics — and those benefits bring results. According to Tubular Insights, 46% of consumers say they have made purchases as a result of watching a brand video on social media.
Now that’s some serious marketing magic!
And motion graphics stand at the top of effective video marketing material, for good reason. Let’s take a look.
Here’s what makes motion graphics an incredible marketing experience:
So we know that motion graphics work — but why? Let’s take a deeper dive into what the makeup of a successful piece looks like. Here’s the anatomy of what makes up the benefits of motion graphics an incredible marketing experience.
- Delivering complex ideas in an easy-to-understand way
- Concise and engaging
- Short and sweet pay off
- Value that can be repurposed on any digital platform
- Emotional connection
- Consume content effortlessly
- Limited only by imagination
Deliver complex ideas in an easy-to-understand way
When it comes to breaking down complex ideas for your customers and clients, motion graphics becomes your MVP. Ideas and concepts that would normally take a while to grasp by text alone can be understood within a minute with video. We know so because visual data is processed 60,000 times faster than text. This is one of the strongest reasons benefits of motion graphics, and why they are effective. They are able to present products, services, and ideas in such a way that becomes easily digestible for the viewer.
Concise and Engaging
With an excess of media cropping up at every corner of our digital lives, attention spans on the web have become shorter. Or as we like to see it, they have become more objective. Put simply, we don’t want to waste our time-consuming media that doesn’t interest us. This is another great thing about the benefits of motion graphics.
Successful motion graphic pieces are concise and engaging. From our experience and research, we have found that most marketing videos should be under two minutes. The shorter, the better. This keeps it short enough to keep your viewer’s attention throughout the video, while still fully explaining your product or service. In a study by Animoto, they found that 59.9% of consumers would be strongly deterred from watching a video that was too long.
Short and sweet pay off
Think about it in the shoes of the consumer. How much time are you willing to spend on a video that’s trying to sell you something? Chances are, not very long. Great motion graphic videos are always within a shorter time frame. Why? To avoid people falling off because the content has dragged on for too long.
And the best part about it?
Consumers are happy to share your content for you, with an overwhelming 97% saying they would share a video if it was informative or interesting to them. Free promotion — how’s that for the benefits of motion graphics? (That’s right, it’s gold.)
Creates value that can be re-purposed with any digital platform
This is something that isn’t immediately realized when thinking about the benefits of motion graphics. Of course, there are costs associated with making a successful motion graphic, which may seem expensive. However, The value that piece offers can extend far beyond the initial scope of usage.
For example, the motion graphic can be used to create engaging social media posts, or even included in blog articles. You can even use it in relevant presentations, emails, or events. In any related situation — whether on the web or offline — motion graphics become an invaluable resource and reference that’s specifically tailored to best suit your brand.
Emotional Connection
Motion graphics inspire a feeling in those that view them — and this can be tailored to whatever narrative you’re trying to create. Whether it be solemn or joyful, the tone of the piece will guide the perceptions of those watching it. Heavy statistics and data analysis can put a lot of people to sleep, but they don’t have to be a recipe for nap-time with motion graphics.
Another of the benefits of motion graphics is that they can elevate the emotional connection by bringing imagination and fun into the equation. Numbers and statistics become interesting because they’re presented in such a way that makes the viewer feel something about them. Not to mention, this is a great opportunity to create a unique experience for your brand, and for people to create emotional responses when they know the content is coming from you.
Emotion is critical in forming a bond with the viewers — and that’s one of the powerful benefits of motion graphics.
Consume content effortlessly
Motion graphics are extremely easy to consume. Especially, far more so than reading. As we’ve mentioned before, visual data is processed 60,000 times faster than text. Now that’s some serious information processing speed.
Motion graphics are a passive experience. What this means is that they can be consumed effortlessly, without the need to do anything but click the play button. Alternatively, on social media news feeds you can set it to autoplay, which research has shown to increase clickability.
What’s more, this all occurs while still on their own terms — convenience at its finest. For this reason, motion graphics are the most powerful marketing tool on social media. Compared to text & image, social video generates 1200% more shares. Just like Tiny Elvis says, “Man, that’s huge!”
Not limited by anything but imagination
Now for the fun part. The world is your oyster when it comes to motion graphics. Do you want a rhinoceros stampeding across the moon wearing your brand’s sports sneakers? No problem. How about a tap-dancing unicorn to sell your gourmet jelly beans? You got it. We can bring anything to the table with motion graphics, no matter how absurd it may seem. But that’s why people love watching motion graphics! Not to mention, this allows us to create visual metaphors to break down complex ideas.
Imagine if you were selling computer parts. And your product’s speed, in comparison to your competitors, was like a race between a jet plane and a skateboard.
Well, what’s stopping us from illustrating that point?
And that’s not to say you can’t keep things on the professional side and still be fun. With clever transitions and animation, we can find visually engaging ways to illustrate anything from heavy-duty statistics to corporate product introductions. The possibilities truly are endless!
Final Thoughts
As is evident, motion graphics are here to stay for the foreseeable future. Naturally, with an anatomical make-up as strong as we’ve discussed, it’s easy to see the marketing benefits of motion graphics. If you have any motion graphic needs, let us know how we can assist you. Mighty Fine Design Co. is a creative agency of creative directors, writers, illustrators, and motions designers — and we would be happy to help bring your ideas into motion.
