Why Your Case Study Needs An Animated Video

Case studies aren’t the most entertaining or engrossing things to read. Even if a case study directly involves you yourself, or your own product or business, it’s slow, hard work going through all the descriptions and discussions of the background, methodology, data, and analysis of the case. And when you put a case study out there for other people to read, in order to make an impression or drive certain points home, imagine how much more difficult it is for the audience to be drawn in. Many people will simply skim through the entire thing, in which case they’re probably missing a lot of what you really want them to see, and you and your case study aren’t making much of an impression.

Presenting your case study through a video, on the other hand, makes for a richer, more compelling experience. In a sense, it is of course only a summary – you can’t put your entire case study and all your data into a video – but unlike a text summary, a video isn’t necessarily superficial. With a video, you can dip in and out, zoom into particulars that you want to highlight, then zoom out and take a broader view, provide some analysis and conclusions, all in the space of a few minutes.

Whiteboard Animation vs Motion Graphics Animation

You’ve identified your audience, formulated your message, you know what it needs to achieve, and you’ve decided to create an animated explainer video. But you’re still a bit confused: there are so many animation styles around, and which one should you choose? Should you be looking for whiteboard animation services or digital 3D services? First of all, let’s narrow it down – in our opinion, it almost always comes down to either motion graphics or whiteboard animation. Due to the simplicity, elegance, beauty, and versatility of these two styles, it’s rare to find a concept or message that can be better communicated by any other style of animation.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a closer look at our two contenders.

What is whiteboard animation?

Whiteboard animation was originally a recording of the creation of a storyboard with pictures and text as an artist draws them on a whiteboard. The style made use of older styles such as time-lapse or stop-motion, but the focus was always the whiteboard – which is where the name comes from. Now, whiteboard animation has gotten more complex and uses a variety of techniques, including actual animation of the whiteboard doodles. The focus however remains on whiteboard drawings.

The Double-Whammy – Combining Storytelling and Animation

One of the things that define us as human beings is our affinity for stories. In every culture across the world, from childhood right into old age, from ancient cave art to the latest in animated media, storytelling is an integral part of human communication, record-keeping, instruction, and artistic expression. A story gets a message across in a way that hard facts and dry arguments simply cannot.

Facts and logical arguments can come later – in fact, you’ll never have the chance to flaunt them unless you grab your audience now. And the best way to do that is with a great story. A story forges an immediate emotional connection with your audience; it conveys a simple, concise message; and it engages your audience like nothing else can, eliciting immediate trust and action. It’s a lot more memorable than any other form of communication, and also a lot more subtle than a heavy-handed, overt message that will almost always be met with skepticism and resistance.

Native Video - Another Sign That Video Is Hot

It’s quite clear to anyone who’s been paying attention that video is a growing force in online content.Video content and video production services are more and more in demand, and any smart business knows that if it wants to grab eyeballs and engage with its audience, nothing can cut it like video can. But there’s another, relatively unnoticed change in the middle of this huge and obvious trend, and it’s one that underlines the importance of video. Not long ago, YouTube was pretty much the definition of online video. Everything else was not only secondary, but often inconvenient, and mostly ignored. Now, with both Facebook and Twitter focusing on native video, YouTube has competition.

For many of us who’ve grown up with YouTube, it’s strange to think that it’s only ten years old. On the other hand, in the online world, ten years is a long, long time. Many observers think that YouTube has reached its full potential. Anything it does now is more likely to be in the form of minor improvements rather than game-changing innovations. What’s game-changing is newer players putting their weight behind native video. With more and more people consuming video content on their mobile devices, and with more of them discovering and sharing this content on social networks, this was inevitable.

Video Content is King

The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

Video production services look all set to eclipse other online content production. Not long ago, the buzz- phrase in the online world was “Content is king”. Bill Gates was among the earliest to notice this trend, discussing it in his Content is King piece back in 1996. More recently, Seth Godin took this idea further, saying that “content marketing is the only  marketing left”. 

While there’s no doubt that content is still incredibly important, here’s the latest update: It’s been knocked off its throne, and video content has taken its place. Video content is quick and easy to consume, and it’s easy to share. Studies show that visitors stay longer on websites that have videos, they have better engagement with video content, and they’re able to find video content more easily through online searches.