How to tell your brand story with animation

When it comes to telling your organization's founding story, mission and purpose, it has to connect with your audience and most importantly, be remembered. 

Which is why in our experience, animation is the best choice. Here's just a couple of reasons why:

1. Animation stimulates more of our senses than a page of text or a collection of images - through voice-overs, music, movement and graphics you can paint a full picture. 
2. Animation can stimulate emotion which leaves a longer lasting impression.
3. Animation allows you to visualize intangible ideas and concepts with ease.
4. Plus, it's often a lot easier, quicker and cheaper to produce than live action video! 

Here's an example of an awesome animated brand story created by our Sparkol Studio team for Medius. 

So, with all these benefits - how do you create your own animated brand story?

Whether you're creating your own animation with a DIY tool like VideoScribe, or working with a team of professional animators like Sparkol Studio here are the steps to follow...

1. Determine the core message to share or emotion to spark

First things first, you need to be sure of the message you want to convey. Whether it's the inspiration that kick started your company or your latest vision and mission statements, it's key to define exactly what you want your audience to leave knowing. 

This will help you create a stronger video that ultimately achieves your aims. Similarly, it's also helpful to think about the emotion you want to stimulate in your audience. From inspiration and motivation to purchasing decisions, consider what emotions and actions you want to spark as this will help you write a more effective script later on. 

2. Define your target audience 

The next step is to think about who you want to see this video. Is it your customers, prospective customers, employees, potential investors or stakeholders? Each of these groups of people will have different interests, concerns and motivations so the more detail you can capture about who they are the more you can tailor your video to meet their needs. 

3. Write your script 

This information will leave you in a great place to write your brand story script. Keeping in mind your objectives, core message and target audience. Focus on telling your story while answering your audience's concerns, showing them what the future looks like with you in it and addressing their needs. 

Some extra top tips for writing a compelling brand story script are:

1. Cut the jargon - keep your language simple and easy to understand.
2. Start with a bang - try using questions or asking your audience to visualize something to involve your audience from the start. 
3. Use vivid language to paint pictures and use analogies to simplify ideas.
4. After each draft, take a break and come back to it again, you’ll often see other things you can cut or rearrange to simplify it. 

4. Pick an animation style

Now it's time to start thinking about the visuals. First up is the animation style you'll be using. For this you have a number of options including 2D, 3D and mixed media. Each style has it's own strengths and so it's key to pick the option that's right for you.

For instance, if you already have a lot of photos and footage that you'd like to harness, mixed media is a great option. You'll be able to combine those assets with fresh animation to tell your story in an engaging way. See an example of this below 👇

On the other hand, if you don't already have assets to use, 2D and 3D animation are great choices because you can literally create your own brand new worlds. Just consider characters, colors and fonts that match your branding or brand message.  

5. Storyboard your visuals 

The next step is to combine your script and visuals in a storyboard. This will give you a great view of how your video is progressing, allow you to spot any gaps and help you assess whether the video will meet your needs. 

Plus, this doesn't have to be complicated - all you need to include is a section for each scene, the script associated with it and an indication of how the visuals will look.  

6. Create and refine!

Now's the fun part - putting it all together! If you're creating your own animation then this is the time to roll up your sleeves and get animating. If you're working with an animation studio, they'll do all that magic work for you. Delivering you a perfectly polished draft video to tweak and polish until it's ready to share with your audience ✨

To put these steps into action - start your free 7-day VideoScribe trial or get in contact with our team of animators at Sparkol Studio today 👇