Johnson’s has been leading the way in baby toiletries for as long as I can remember. By using their marketing strategies cleverly, they have built a brand which connects with not only parents, but the children themselves. A strategy that they have used effectively before is to incorporate a lot of animation into their marketing campaigns.
The campaign was designed to be enjoyed by kids, who will then show their parents, or parents will show to them as it also educates them and shows them how fun a bathtime can be – when they use JOHNSON’S® Bubble Baby Bath & Wash,of course. They used bright colours and fun characters which reflect their branding and ethos to connect emotionally with children.
This animation is a perfect example of how tailoring your video to your target audience as well as incorporating your business’ branding and ethos can create an incredible piece of content for your marketing strategy.
But what about complex businesses? Animation is great for simplifying complex topics and turning the information into bite-size chunks or putting contextual visuals to intangible products, such as IT software.
How much easier is your business to understand when you are seeing the information being explained in front of you rather than trying to read pages full of jargon? This is exactly what Intel took advantage of when discussing complicated topics such as their systems, and although this animation is lacking a bit in terms of visual flair, the style is deliberately uncluttered, with every attempt being made to simplify things.
Similar to Johnson’s, Intel used their branding colours and tone of the business when creating their content. Having this very present throughout shows consistency and professionalism as well as allowing people to associate your content with your company.
You can see how Intel and Johnson’s have different target audiences. Intel has tailored theirs to adults in the business community looking to learn more about their services. If Intel used a childish animation to explain this it will likely not appeal to its customer base and have a negative effect on their marketing strategies.
MailChimp have also used a killer animation explainer to promote a new feature to their website. Using an eye-catching, slick and pacy video, is great to hold your viewer’s attention and increase view times. To support this energy they constantly refer to the benefits of their service, what their customers are actually getting out of it, this creates a positive feel to the video, meaning they feel good about the service.
It’s important to use animation to your advantage, after all, you can really do anything. MailChimp does this throughout the video by showing and explaining to their audience how the service actually works, this is a great sales-without-selling technique. Using this technique allows you to demonstrate how easy or effective your service is, making them want to use it.
The video ends on a positive bottom-line benefit, “helping you sell more stuff”, this allows your viewers to leave the video with a positive mindset about your brand and service, which will encourage them to buy into it.
Animation is a fun and exciting way to promote your business. McDonald’s took full advantage of their animation campaign and incorporated well-known cartoon characters into their video. Having characters that your audience already have an emotional connection with will create excitement and positivity for their audience (and happy customers make more sales?).
You may not have the money to licence superheroes, but it’s about creating familiarity to build a rapport with your audience. Do you target the kind of business execs that play golf? Try incorporating something relatable, like the frustration of hitting a good drive, only to be let down by your next approach shot.
In this clever marketing technique from McDonald’s, children and adults alike see the loved characters they watch on TV which creates familiarity and a buzz, meaning they want to keep watching. Having a mixed target audience can be tricky to tailor your videos to – but this is animation, where anything is possible – and making an interesting video such as this one that can appeal to children and adults alike has allowed McDonald’s to appeal to two of their key demographics simultaneously.
Check out how some other brands have used animation to promote their business:
Ebay:
Samsung:
Starbucks:
Coca-Cola:
