The association between animation and kids is strong. Many of us grow up watching cartoons for entertainment, and some of us were sat in front of the TV as youngsters for the mildly reviled ‘educational cartoons’. But the uses of animation for education are far more wide-reaching and a lot more entertaining than many realise, finding modern applications within work, hobbies, and new technologies, while still holding the power to teach much younger audiences the basics of life.
It’s 6:00 pm in 1990s Australia. You’re either in one of those buttoned-down families who insist on watching the 6 o’clock news every weeknight or, more likely, you’re watching The Simpsons. There are quite literally thousands of classic quotes from the first ten seasons of the long-running primetime animation that get bandied around by Australian young adults in day-to-day conversation today, and with its regular 25 year presence on Channel Ten its not hard to understand why. When a TV show grows up alongside you it burrows into your heart, with its quotes and references following you all your days like some sort of non giving up school guy.
There is indeed a Simpsons quote for every occasion, and as an animator and writer I’ve often been struck by how well the show’s dialogue relates to the animation experience. The subtle social commentary of classic Simpsons also lends itself to some hilarious insight on the workings of advertising, marketing, and design. Today I’ve put the two together and gathered just a few examples of quotes that relate to corporate animation, whether directly or indirectly. If you’re a long-time Simpsons fan hopefully you enjoy the references. If you’re not, hopefully you enjoy the soft sense of confusion you’re no doubt already experiencing. In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast. Thank you.
In such an oversaturated job market it can be tempting for companies to ask: Do we really need a recruitment campaign at all? The biggest flaw with this thinking is assuming that the best-suited employees will not only magically find your job ad, but that they will automatically want to work for a company they know nothing about. Good recruitment videos offer fast and effective company awareness specifically aimed at people within, or looking to get into, the field of work. So how do you go about crafting a video strong enough to nab your dream employees?
Ah yes, the corporate training video. More ridiculed than the recruitment video, and only slightly less reviled than the school project video. But little do most people know it doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, your training videos can be eye-catching, funny, or even – dare I say – interesting. Don’t believe it? Check out our eight tips for making great animated training videos and decide for yourself.
Every couple of years there seems to be a new fad in corporate video. When whiteboard animation first came swaggering onto the scene it too seemed like the kind of phenomenon that would enter with a blaze of glory and fade shortly after with not so much as a whimper. Yet here we are several years later and whiteboard animation is still going strong, like a reality TV show nobody quite understands the appeal of but everybody keeps on watching.
Surprisingly, the answer to this appeal lies largely in the psychology behind what we’re watching. There are several subconscious reasons we’re drawn toward whiteboard animation, and today we’re shedding a little light on how they fit together.
Even in the twilight years of cat videos, vloggers, and ice bucket challenges it can be hard to see how any online video platform could begin to compete with YouTube. As of 2017 their audience numbers were in the range of 1,300,000,000 people.
In recent years though we’ve seen the beginning of what may prove to be the fall of Rome — uhh, I mean YouTube — through unannounced changes to the way particular content is promoted to the average viewer. These changes, which define and elevate ‘advertiser friendly’ content at the cost of all else, have left even the most popular YouTubers short of views and looking for alternative platforms. The news is even worse for animated content, as YouTube’s ‘quantity is better than quality’ algorithms leave labour-intensive media like animation in the dust.
If your brand is one of many who look to animated explainer videos as an effective way to explain your products and services, it’s worthwhile knowing what other options you have when choosing a platform to host your brand’s videos.
If you’re lucky, the new year can bring with it new resolutions, a new slate, and new creative ideas. For the rest of us unlucky chumps, the vast opportunity of a new year can bring with it a crippling creative dry spell. A blank page is intimidating, especially when you’re coming up with ideas to promote your brand through video. Your company is relying on you, your customers are waiting on you, and your production choices depend on your idea. No pressure, right?
Well luckily we’ve got a stash of new year video ideas for your brand right here, waiting to be poached, appropriated, and otherwise taken advantage of. Have fun!
Whether you’re looking to fit your brand video in with the most successful explainers of late, or you’re looking to find out what’s popular so you can buck the trend, it’s important to know what’s out there, what’s popular, and what’s cliché to the point of staleness. Today we’re looking at just a few of the current trends in explainer animation within the visuals, the music, and the scriptwriting.
One of the first things you’ll likely do when planning any sort of business strategy is profile your audience. Who are your target demographics? What are their shared interests? Where do they spend their time? When your audience is defined by the city they live in it can create a clearer picture of the branding they might respond to… or it can segregate, divert, or confuse your idea of your target market.
Good ol’ perpetually sunny Brisbane is no exception to the rule, and given the city extends from the beachy east to the urban riverside to the rural outskirts, it can be hard to pinpoint what unites a Brisbane market. Today we’ve got three tips to help get your grounding with an audience of Brisbanites, and how this fits in with a campaign centred around animated explainer videos.
Ahh, Sydney. Home of Luna Park, AC/DC, that one revolving restaurant we all deny having dropped a few hundred bucks to eat at, and 42 Wallaby Way. Well, maybe not the last one.
With so many recognisable landmarks Sydney is not only the tourism capital of Australia, but also sits among the top-fifteen most visited cities in the world. But what if we want to discover the residents who choose to make their permanent home in the harbour city?
Trying to pin down the best way to present your brand a localised audience can be tricky amongst a transient tourist city. That’s why today we’re taking a look at three aspects of Sydneysider culture to help mould your brand message, and how to best present that message through animation.