Explainer Videos

Can you tell your company’s story effectively in 90 seconds?

No matter how slick your  pitch, trying to communicate quickly and simply is difficult. Because you don’t actually have 90 seconds. You’ve got 8 seconds, which is how long you have to grab, and keep, someone’s attention online. By 10 seconds they need to know what they’re seeing and why, or they’re gone. An explainer video benefits your website by telling a story that quickly connects with your customers. It entertains them while educating them about your product or services. And of course, you can promote it to your social media channels to reach a larger audience. But this is just the beginning!

Explainer video benefits

Explainer Videos make people buy

Studies show that adding a video about a product or services to a website is highly influential in the purchasing decision. Statistics vary from 73% to 144% depending on the particular survey, but the results always show video has a positive effect on sales.

Explaining your offering in a concise, fun and informative way is obviously a winner!

Explainer Videos are far more shareable

Usurv surveyed 1,000 adults in the UK and discovered that consumers are more likely to share (39%), comment (36%) and ‘like’ (56%) an online video than they are a text article. Further, more respondents said they engaged in these ways with online video more than with online articles.

Let us help you add an Explainer Video to your site

 

Video reaches Executives

Forbes published a study called Video in the C-Suite: Executives Embrace the Non-Text Web back in 2010. Key findings were that:

  • Video is becoming a critical information source for senior executives. More than 80% said they are watching more online video today than they were a year ago
  • Senior executives are also turning to video more frequently. Three-quarters (75%) of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly; more than half (52%) watch work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly
  • Work-related video can drive senior executives to take action. Overall, 65% have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video. Younger executives, however, may be more fully engaged with this type of media, and appear more likely to make a purchase, call a vendor, or respond to an ad.
  • The social element of online video is strong in the executive suite. More than half of senior executives share videos with colleagues at least weekly, and receive work-related videos as often. Younger executives appear very willing to share and view videos using social media.

So if you’re like our client WarwickNet and you’re targeting decision makers in a large organisation, a whiteboard explainer should definitely be a tool in your kit.

whiteboard animation

 

Videos increases time on page

When an enticing video is available above the fold on your home page, it increases the average time your customers spend there. They’ll give your video a few seconds to see if it captures their interest (and we can help you make one that does!) before scanning the rest of the page. Wistia did some data-crunching and discovered that people spent on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than those without. Since time spent on a page is one of Google’s key metrics, this can only help your site’s rankings.

If you’re going to have a video with a play option, our tip is to make sure the video thumbnail is enticing. The thumbnail should also be designed with the position it will appear within your website. If you have an autoplay video, make sure the sound is off – no one likes being blasted out on a first click – but make sure the unmute button is clearly visible.

See our portfolio of Explainer Videos

 

Captions or Subtitles Improve SEO

Discovery Digital Networks added subtitles to 125 of 334 videos published between January, 2013 and April, 2014. They then tracked the performance of those transcribed videos against the remaining 209 uncaptioned videos. They found an overall increase of 7.32% in views for captioned videos.

Taking this a step further, they wanted to confirm this increase was influenced by the closed caption files being indexed by YouTube’s search engine. So they searched for a phrase in the transcript of the video that did not appear in the video title, description, or tags. They discovered their videos ranked highly for that search string, confirming that YouTube indexes closed captions and factors them into search rank.

Subtitles make your video accessible to deaf or hard of hearing viewers, as well as those for whom English is a second language. Google rewards this kind of content with a higher ranking.

Also, with more people watching video on a device with the sound turned off, it makes sense to subtitle.

MST 50

 

Create clearer Calls To Action

Your video delivers a visual and audio call to action that your customers won’t miss, and different versions can point them to specific actions. For example, for one company we created a YouTube version where the CTA directed people to the website, while another version on their homepage suggested people signed up to their mailing list. We even added an arrow, showing where on the screen they would find the sign up box!

Ready to harness Explainer Video Benefits for your company?

We can help you create an explainer video that will win you new business.

Get in contact to find out more!

Why Choose Napoleon Creative to create your Explainer Video

We’ve created hundreds of hours of explainer videos over the last fifteen years, each one different. And for so many different kinds of products and services, from hair colour to car technology!

We’ve worked in so many different styles of explainer video, from simple line animation videos to time lapse drawing animation videos.

Our trademarked Discover Deck workshop to help you make sure you’re really honed your marketing message.

We balance the creativity of sketching and animating with our streamlined, structured production process so that we make your animation quickly.

We use a really great online review software which makes it simple for you to leave comments to help us progress.

We know the value of making sure the voice over is just right, and the video is supported by great sound effects. They can really bring the project alive.

We have a strict archiving system, which means if you need to update the animation you can.
Infosys – Client Infosys – Client - Video Production London Museum of London – Client Miso Tasty – Client Natural History Museum – Client Schawk – Client

Explainer Video FAQs

When clients come to us asking us to create an explainer video, there tends to be similar questions asked, so we’ve added the most frequently asked questions about our explainer videos below. If you have any other questions about our explainer video production service, or our video production services more generally, then please get in touch and we’d be happy talk about your project.

Do you help with the script?

Yes! Clients come to us at different stages in the process. Some have an idea of what they want to say, others have a full script already written. We always go through it with them to check that the script for the explainer video as lean as possible, giving a really strong message with a call to action. We also make sure it’s a visual script. By that, we mean we tell the story with picture rather than words wherever possible.

What kind of animation do you suggest?

This really depends on your audience, and your company’s tone of voice. Characters can be realistic, or they can be stylised and cartoony. We work with you to find out whether a little humour will be more fun, or we need a more realistic approach.

Who provides the voice?

We use a range of voice over artists, and we have people with all accents on our books. We’ve used English, Spanish, German, Swedish, Russian and Chinese speaking people on our aniations! We always use a ‘native’ speaker – ie someone who either grew up in that area, or has spend 5+ years living there. We don’t want any Allo Allo style accents!

How long does the explainer video animation take?

This largely depends on how much time you have to devote to the explainer video, and when you need it by. We’ll make sure we pick a style that will be executable within your budget and preferred time frame. For more information, see this post on ‘how long does animation take?’.

How many people does it take to make an explainer video animation?

We start with a copywriter who writes the script. Then we bring on the illustrators who create the images. Animators bring it together, then sound engineers create the sounds to go with it. For more information, read about ‘tight deadline animation’.

Our Explainer Video Service

Our explainer video service follows a 6 step process from preproduction all the way through to delivery of your completed explainer video.

Script

In this step we start by doing some research about the exp, so we know more about it, based on information you’ve given to us, and also our own investigations. We work with you to create a script, often starting with a Discovery Deck workshop.

Storyboard and Moodboard

We create a storyboard, which is a series of sketches that show you the action. We also create a moodboard that shows you how the explainer video will look.

Animatic

At this stage we’ll add the storyboard frames to a timeline and begin to make them move, so you can see how your film will flow. We’ll record a dummy voice over in the studio, so you can see how the project will work in principle.

Working Cut

Here we will start to have more complex animation starting to take shape, and you’re really let us know what you think. Individual scenes of the explainer video will start flowing together.

Final Cut

The animation is now finished, and we record the voice over once the script is signed off. We do a sound mix so the different voices are balanced, and we add sound effects to bring it to life, because if you can’t hear it you can’t see it!

Delivery

We then send you the end video files of the film. We can also provide a file for adding subtitles, and a version with subtitles burnt into the video.

At Napoleon Creative there are no Account Handlers or PA firewalls.

When you contact us you'll get straight through to our Creative Director, Gavin Ricketts.