When you call something exotic it immediately becomes ten times more exciting. Why would I want to go on a holiday when I could go on an exotic holiday? Food with exotic flavours sounds much more mouth-watering than normal food. Even animals.
Why would I want to go to a zoo with regular animals when I could go to one with exotic animals?
So imagine you were eating a sandwich and encountered an unusual crunchy, yet gooey texture. Looking under the lettuce to see half of a spider isn’t going to make you feel very good. But if it was half of an exotic spider…
Here to prevent the excitement of finding half of an exotic spider in your lunch is the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (AWE). The AWE needed help making a video series which would put people’s sandwich bug concerns to bed, so who better to ask than the sandwich fanatics here at Explanimate!
“Sandwich bug concerns” might not be exactly how the AWE worded it. But the message was the same. AWE wanted a video which would educate people on Australia’s biosecurity processes for the prevention and management of exotic pests entering Australia.
There was a lot of information to include. Way too much for one video. So, thank goodness the AWE was keen to divide and conquer, making this a seven video series.
Since seven videos on biosecurity could easily feel overly technical, we focused on keeping things simple, visual, and engaging.
We used everyday language in the script and kept the voiceover moderately paced to make sure the content was easy to follow.
But simplicity alone wouldn’t be enough - we needed to make it entertaining. That’s where animation and humour came in.
To keep the videos connected, we incorporated:
- A consistent colour scheme and character design across all videos.
- Recurring sequences and visual elements to build familiarity.
- A clear episode progression animation at the start of each video, showing where each video fit in the series and what came next.
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Biosecurity might not sound exciting, but our animation style made it fun.
- Bright colours and lighter tones helped maintain engagement while keeping the subject accessible and non-intimidating.
- Small comedic moments - like pests falling in love in the Import Risk Analysis video or mountains of Market Access Requests piling up - helped humanise the content and make it more entertaining to watch.
- Clear, minimalistic design ensured the focus remained on key information, without unnecessary distractions.
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Throughout the production process, we worked closely with AWE to refine the storytelling, pacing, and visual clarity.
We fine-tuned:
- Transitions between videos, ensuring smooth narrative flow.
- Visual consistency, reinforcing the sense of a cohesive series.
- Animation pacing, balancing engagement with information retention.
By carefully refining each element, we transformed dense biosecurity information into an engaging and educational viewing experience.
The AWE loved the final video series, which successfully educated viewers on Australia’s biosecurity processes in an accessible, engaging, and visually compelling way.
These videos help put the public’s biosecurity concerns to rest, reassuring them that Australia’s strict processes make it pretty difficult for exotic pests to enter the country... or their sandwiches.
That being said, we still check under the lettuce for domestic sandwich bugs. Just in case.
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