Having a clearly defined brand identity for any business is fundamental when going ahead with any kind of marketing. Your brand identity is what helps you stand out from your competitors, and it also helps your audience get an understanding of who you are and what you offer. Your brand identity should centre around your audience, it should be something that resonates with them.
Many people opt for cheaper animated templates. Although these are a lot cheaper and faster to produce, often the level of customisation is limited resulting in the animation looking similar to others. Creating an animation from scratch really allows you to showcase your brand’s identity to the fullest and will also help you stand out from your competition. 76% of marketers say animated videos have helped them increase their profitability, so your animation is definitely something worth investing in.
In this blog, we’re going to go over some considerations you should make when branding your animation.
Apply your brands aesthetics
When creating your animation, it’s important that you are using your brand colour schemes, fonts, and logos throughout. Continuously using the same branding throughout all your marketing efforts builds brand familiarity with your audience, making your business more memorable.
Pay special attention to the colours that you are using in the animation as they have a huge role in the way your animation is perceived by your audience. Slight changes in tone can affect how your audience emotionally interprets the animation.
Choosing the right style of animation
There are many different styles of animation that you can use. One common misconception is that all animation looks ‘cartoony’ but that isn’t the case, animation can be made to look very professional. Some of the popular animation styles include 3D animation, motion graphics, and 2D animation.
The style of animation you end up choosing will have a big impact on the feel of the animation. Pick a style that aligns with your customers and something you feel they will relate to. You may want to employ character animation when you want to humanise your brand. Businesses will often opt for motion graphics when they want a more sophisticated style.
Animate your audience
If you do decide to use characters in your animation you should make them represent your audience. In order to better understand who your audience is you can create a customer persona or customer avatar.
A customer persona is a fictional character that represents your ideal customer. When you consider your customer persona, you need to think about customer demographics, behavioural patterns, motivations, and goals. Looking through your web analytics and existing customer base will help you develop a good idea of your customer persona.
Once you have all this information collected you can craft your animated character to resemble your customer persona. Doing this will mean your audience will immediately identify with the character placing their trust within them, they will get the sense that the animation was made specifically for them.
Consistent language
Language is an important consideration when looking at your branding, if you already have words or phrases you use to explain what your business offers, make to also be using it in your animation. Remember you are speaking directly to your audience so think about how they would talk and the language they would use.
When sharing your animation as part of a marketing campaign, make sure you also keep the language consistent in any copy you write.
In your animation, you may choose to use a voice-over. Just like the customer persona, the voice-over should represent your ideal customer. Choosing a voice actor that resonates with your audience is key. Pay particular attention to accents. If your audience is all from the same region you should probably use a voice actor from that area. If your brand is international picking a voice actor with an American accent may be best, as this is often a familiar accent to people from all over the world.
Use emotion and be authentic
The best way to appeal to your audience is to understand them on an emotional level. It’s important that you fully understand your audience’s pain points. Tapping into these pain points and addressing how your business can solve the issues your audience may face will develop a relationship of trust. Showing your buyers that you have a deep understanding of their problems will make them feel valued.
Be authentic and unique and you’re sure to stand out. Layout your brand values and let your customers know about your unique selling points. And keep adding value. The more you educate your customers and continue to help them get the best from your services and products, the more likely they are to stay with you