Top Animated Infographic Videos
- Hussain Ziniya
- Apr 8
- 7 min read
Introduction to video marketing
Why invest in video marketing? That’s the burning question many marketers have. The answer lies in the human psyche. You see, the human brain is wired for visual content. Any visual cues, indications or signage will be easily retained by our brain.
Today, it is the most consumable type of content across all the mediums. Apps like Instagram or snapchat are filled with video content. And not just apps, even on the television screens, we consume most of our content via videos.
Videos allow us to tell stories in the most interesting manner. That’s why, video is the most powerful way to communicate marketing messages to audiences. It’s easy to share across any platform, making it a perfect tool for wide-reach campaigns.
Let’s see how video marketing is helping marketers all over the world;
Highlights:
What is an animated infographic?
Numbers move people. It gives them facts to rely on and base their decisions. Making the use of infographic videos is a unique way of leveraging the power videos to sell your USPs.
Infographics initially started out as static images. But as technology advanced, motion was introduced into it. Today, every infographic on online media is either a GIF or a video animation. Mostly videos.
If numbers can move people, imagine how moving your video will be with moving (animated) numbers? When you add motion to infographic representations, it makes the entire content more engaging and intuitive. It leaves a bigger impression.
That’s what animated infographics are all about, making data-driven marketing much more fun, effective and long-lasting with the help of storytelling.
No one likes consuming boring data… but animated infographics make it fun to consume huge volumes of data and make educated decisions. Combining the power of visual cues (illustrations and icons) and condensed data bites, animated infographic videos is the most effective way to make audiences retain information.
It works best for how-to videos, high-level product marketing videos, comparative-analysis driven marketing videos, as well as social cause videos.
Check out this video made by UNICEF; Exploring how the progress for children had taken a great leap backward in the USA, during the Great Recession that hit in 2008,. This video shows the main figures from UNICEF's Innocenti Report Card 12
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhIVtTphB0M
Things to keep in mind while making an infographic video
People understand text and illustrations combined together, way better than any other medium. A study reports that people follow directions with text and illustrations 323% better than just text!
And to nail that, you have to nail your video making process. So, let’s explore the critical things you need to keep in mind while making an infographic video.
Content:
It cannot be said enough times… content is king! Don’t start thinking visually just yet. You first need to create quality content that is based on thorough research. The content you are going to use needs to be fresh, relevant and genuine.
In fact, you can also place source links in the video posting caption or description. Plan out what your agenda of the video is, whether it’s a high-level marketing video or just an awareness video.
All your content planning and research should revolve around this agenda, so that will find on quality information to use in your infographic video.
Also, create a structure for all the copy (on-screen text) that will go along with it. All your copy/content should look and feel like a cohesive visual narrative, that can tell a strong story without a voice-over.
End-use:
You are serving a purpose here. who is the video‘s target audience and where will you be using it? When you factor in these parameters, you gain a lot of perspective on how exactly you should structure your content.
The key is to identify the crucial points and eliminate the rest. Remember, every data or content you find in your research can be highly tempting. It’s your responsibility to narrow down on the most important points as per your target audience.
Along with that, you also need to keep in the mind the duration of this video. People on online media barely have an attention span of 10-15 seconds. Online media is littered with video content! And your video needs to stand out!
It’s important to structure the entire screenplay in such a way that it engages the viewer right away! The right video will serve as a major boost to your social media presence as well.
Tweets with video see 10x more engagement than those without
LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share a video on the platform
Competitor research
This is how your animated infographic video can have an edge over others. Before you lockdown on your content, do a research on how popular brands in your domain are creating infographic GIFs or videos.
This will give you a sense of what works with audiences across online media and also help you gauge audience reaction to various types of infographic videos out there.
This is something really important to factor in your content strategy, as no matter how hard you try to innovate, there is always something to take inspiration from. It gives you a base for how to direct your ideation and also a benchmark for the quality of output your video needs to have.
Visual vocabulary:
Once you have your content, you need to start thinking visually. You need to create a theme (do not confuse this with design style) for the kind of icons and illustrations you want to show in the video.
Setting a central theme can be advantageous for your visualization, as it becomes easier for you to think of the right set of icons or illustrations for every scene. Building a visual vocabulary means creating a bank of ideas based on a similar theme
For example: Your theme can be Nature. The ideas can be icons for plants, stems, leaves or illustrations of forests, animals or flora.
IMAGE: https://i.gifer.com/7Efh.gif
Creating a visual idea bank helps you take inspiration from a vast amount of ideas and make the entire storyboarding process smoother.
Test frames:
Just like how wireframing is done while creating mobile applications, you need to wireframe your infographic video. What this means, is that you need to work on a few test frames/thumbnails to appropriate the placement of various elements like text, abbreviations, numbers, icons and illustrations.
Remember, an infographic video will have a lot of moving things at one particular moment. If the elements are not justified in their placement and have conflicting issues with other elements, like symmetry issues, it will make your entire video un-engaging and useless.
The viewer will feel that you are just dumping information on them, rather than engaging them into an experience. And you don’t want that. Create a few test frames for a few scenes and see how well can you organize your elements.
Visual metaphors
Since it is a visual treat for audiences, why not think beyond the context and make it more thought-provoking? Visual metaphors play an important role in making all animated marketing videos creative and awards-worthy.
Visual metaphors are just visuals (icons or illustrations) that make a simple message more attractive and retainable.
For example: Let’s say your video is taking about “data discovery” at one point of time. Using visual icons like magnifying glass, can make an instant connect with the audience.
This way, your video turns into a visual treat, rather than just an animated marketing video.
Style guideline
This is where your art director would start working on a few styles for the video. This means the styling of every visual element in the video; icons, texts or illustrations.
The important thing to keep in mind here is that the video should look aesthetically consistent with your brand guidelines. People should feel that this is a part of the same ecosystem.
They should feel they are interacting with the same brand when they visit your website or social media page. Your colour pallet, text fonts and secondary elements should be in sycn with your brand’s central design guidelines.
Excited to create your infographic video?
By now, you must be excited to start working on your animated infographic video. So, before you start cracking your ideas, let’s take a look at some leading examples that can help you in setting a bar for your next video.
Top animated infographic videos
YouTube marketing strategy:
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJsq5YDInRY
This is a video made to promote YouTube as a marketing platform to businesses. See how it brings in various visual metaphors to highlight key-points like global targeting, target audience and search exposure.
The entire video invokes a strong question in the minds of the marketers, via a simple visual story (narrative) that holds its ground strong on facts, benefits and results.
You can clearly imagine a product like a video editing tool or a CRM software, being marketed in this manner. This video works as a great reference for every industry.
Cashback World Infographic:
Video link: https://vimeo.com/441038743
This is a video made for Cashback World’s Cashback partner program. It explains how Cashback World Partner program can help the merchants who join their program to develop their business and gives a walkthrough of the benefits of joining the partner program.
As we see, the simple and clean design guide make every element in the video pop out effectively to highlight the particular message. With subtle use of icons and illustrations, the video visually creates a context for every message it’s trying to convey, making it easier to retain for the viewer.
As this is a novelty program being introduced for merchants, it starts off by building some background on how cashback program works, by using one-liner definitions and simple animations.
It then leads on with the partner program and highlights the USPs by bringing in the numbers and more detailed icons/illustrations, creating a subtle distinction between the start and the main product of the video.
In Conclusion:
Consumers are getting smarter day by day. Every brand is pushing out content in one form or the other (blog or video), to educate viewers about the USPs of their product or to create awareness.
With the vast variety of choices in the market for a particular kind of product or service, buyers are compelled to explore all the information and data available online regarding the same. Animated infographic videos make their job easier!
Such videos give consumers all the information they could need to take an unbiased and educated decision on their purchases. And this makes them happier, as they’re acknowledging the fact that they are making an informed decision, instead of just making a random purchase.
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