9 Actionable Tips From The Best Animated Adverts
Video marketing has become an important need in the whole business marketing strategy. It is now a vital business driver. But with various kinds of videos to choose from, business owners find it challenging to cut through the noise. Talking-heads or other boring videos are outdated and won’t do the tricks. This is why animated video adverts are taking over and filling the gap.
With animation, you can uniquely engage with your audience and pull the heartstrings and keep a catchy jingle in the back of your mind.
Companies that have the resources to hire a production crew will soon discover that animation is an affordable option to add some exciting video content to their marketing.
What is an animated advert?
An animated advert is a short 30-seconds-or-more video that conveys information about the products or services offered by a brand. It makes use of enchanting characters with a captivating storyline that can tug to the heartstrings of any audience.
Normally, these adverts begin by addressing a problem and quickly move on to provide the solution. After they captivated their viewers enough in the first few seconds, they go for a powerful call to action for the ending.
9 Amazingly Actionable Tips
1. McVitie’s: Sweeter Together
A major British biscuit company, McVitie’s, launched a £9.7m masterbrand campaign in early 2018, called ‘Sweeter Together’ to cement their position as the best biscuit brand in the UK.
They used 3D animation to show an increasingly melancholy crane operator that tries to connect with his co-workers on the ground below. However, despite his efforts, they ignore him until finally, he receives a cup of tea and some McVitie’s biscuits on the iron beam that he is moving.
This advert strongly connects with the audience because it shows how the smallest gestures can cause a positive impact on someone’s day. It shows McVitie’s as a brand that can enable everyday moments of human connection and bring people closer together.
2. Nespresso: on Ice
Coffee machine manufacturer, Nespresso, launched various Mediterranean-themed illustrations by Finish designer, Pietari Posti, in 2017 to promote their limited-edition iced coffee blends. The title of the campaign was ‘Nespresso on Ice’ and was later transformed into a stylish animated advert.
The clip lasts for 30 seconds and it takes the viewer on a luxuriating journey around the Mediterranean with the help of a holidaying woman, from a cliff-side infinity pool to a peaceful green bay, to the deck of a private yacht, all connected by a clinking glass of iced coffee.
This animated advert is both beautiful and also has a fantastic use of music and sound effects – with an upbeat and relaxing instrumental track alongside some of the sounds of summer – waves gently lapping, drinks pouring, ice cubes clinking, bushes rustling, birds and crickets chirping – this transports any viewer to a holiday environment.
3. Hendrick’s Gin: A Moving Picture
Hendrick’s have been running various intricate, Monty Python-style cut out animated adverts since 2014, playing on their obscure and eccentric identity. Even though they got established in 1999, the campaign’s nod to Victorian nostalgia gives the impression of a brand steeped in tradition.
Their 2015 video called ‘A Moving Picture’, gave the audience ‘an invitation to open up their minds to the peculiar.’ The camera regularly pans out for the entire 30-second clip, starting in the eye of a fish and slowly moving through various bizarre scenes; from a gentleman having fangs putting on an eyepatch and sipping from a cocktail glass to a mermaid inside a crystal ball on a table of mismatched Victorian characters.
In the advert, the female voiceover tells the audience to open their minds. This is reminiscent of early British broadcasting. The animated advert is effective because it bravely decides to own the fact that Hendrick’s Gin can be an acquired taste. They know that a small number of people love them rather than many merely liking them.
4. MoneySupermarket: Epic Action Man
At the beginning of this year, MoneySupermarket collaborated with Mother to reveal the latest character in their campaign that has been up since 2011 called ‘Save Money and Feel Epic’. This slogan is now universally recognized in households across Britain and Ireland, showing the success of this campaign.
They used stop-motion effects in their latest advert to comically showing an Action Man doll dancing along to the nineties disco track ‘Finally’ by CeCe Peniston. The commercial opens with Action Man crouched down in an active war zone. A voice from his walkie-talkie says, ‘Action Man, what’s your status? Over.’ And he replies by saying: ‘I just saved at MoneySupermarket, and now I feel epic!’
The rest of the commercial is an elaborate dance scene, satirizing Action Man’s traditionally macho persona dancing flamboyantly and a cast of male backing dancers, enjoying with Action Man tearing off his attire. At the end of the advert, a blonde Action Man hangs from a helicopter, and says, ‘Action Man, you’re so MoneySupermarket!’
5. Lyft: June: Life is Better When You Share the Ride
On-demand transport company, Lyft, collaborated with Academy Award-winning animator John Kahrs to release an amazing modern advert in 2016. The short, 7-minute movie called ‘June: Life is Better When You Share the Ride’ now has almost 8 million views on YouTube, which makes it to be among the most-watched adverts online in recent times.
This narrative-driven film breaks the mold of traditional TV animated adverts and tells the story of a lonely widow in South Chicago who is inspired to begin ‘sharing the ride’ and therefore also sharing her life. It has an original song ‘Movin’, written and performed by a Lyft driver who later became a recording artist, Sir the Baptist, who launched his music career after he connected with a Lyft passenger.
The advert begins with the protagonist, June, driving to the hair salon, where, while inside, her car is hit by a lorry. This causes a flashback to the time she met her husband, the owner of the car. With a helpful push from her daughter, she starts using Lyft.
When she finally buys a new car, a mix-up occurs where a passenger waiting for his Lyft driver mistakes her car for his ride and hops in. Then, after seeing a soldier miss his bus, she decides to give him a ride. She enjoys his company and decides to take the plunge and become a Lyft driver.
She enjoys meeting all kinds of new people and comes to be known affectionately on social media as ‘June Buggy’. Later in the advert, she crashes in the snow as she was going to pick up a passenger. When the passenger sees that she has stopped on the app’s GPS, he recruits some friends to go out into the snow and rescue her.
6. Android: Be Together, Not the Same
In 2016, Android aired their latest animated advert called ‘Be Together, Not the Same’ for the first time during the Academy Awards. The advert became a hit immediately due to its anti-bullying message, and was described as ‘the real winner of the Oscars.’
The 90-second advert set based on John Parr’s epic eighties hit, St Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) has traditional enemies rock, paper, and scissors, from the children’s game – the metaphor could hardly be clearer. But in this case, the rules were changed: rather than bullying each other, the characters are bullied by their kind.
For example, the advert starts with an anthropomorphic piece of paper on its first day at school. The hallway contains similarly anthropomorphic scissors staring back at it menacingly. Understandably, it is scared and walks slowly past them with its eyes averted, only to bump into three other pieces of paper who happened to be the real bullies.
Luckily, a scissors intervenes and scared them away, and they become friends. As they walked home, they met two rocks bullying another rock. Angered, the paper scares them away and the three of them walk off into the sunset together and become best friends and the words ‘be together, not the same’ appear in the sky above them.
7. Cadbury Screme Egg: Last Stand
Confectionery Company, Cadbury’s showed their limited-edition green Creme Egg yolk with an animated advert that pays homage to classic horror movies like Dawn of the Dead in the run-up to the Halloween of 2012.
The video, titled ‘Last Stand’, shows two regular Cadbury’s Creme Eggs making a daring escape from some zombie-like Halloween Creme Eggs. With the aid of a remote-control car, complete with whisk-scythed tires, they managed to rescue a fellow Creme Egg from danger and run a few zombies over as they run off, splatting their yolks all over their windshield.
Supported by a large cinematic score, they scramble up a shoelace to the safety of a rescue helicopter above. As the camera moves away, the final aerial shot shows three regular Cadbury’s Creme Eggs stranded on a barbeque lid next to the words ‘Get Them While You Last’.
Since Creme Egg sales always spike in the run-up to Easter, making a limited-edition egg for a holiday that falls at the opposite end of the year was a smart move. It gave people a reason to buy them at a time when sales would normally be poor.
8. NewYork-Presbyterian: Unmasking A Killer
Non-profit university hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian launched a campaign in 2016 that dealt with the complex problems of cancer and immunotherapy called ‘Unmasking a Killer’.
While working together with acclaimed Israeli artist, Noma Bar, it ambitiously tried to change the way medical advances can be explained to the audiences.
This 110-second advert was initially aired during Super Bowl 50 and it contains a continuously shape-shifting series of 2D images in Noma Bar’s deceptively simple, flat-color style, which visually shows the voiceover of the narrator.
9. Argos: Aliens #NameOurBaby
British retailer, Argos, aired various adverts from 2011 that was a combination of animation and live-action. The adverts followed the lives of a family of lovable, CGI aliens.
In this clip released in 2013, an alien couple, who fit in remarkably inconspicuously on Earth, learns they are pregnant – it’s their men that carry the baby.
We then follow them through all the steps that led to the big day; from the day they go for the ultrasound scan, to the first kicks, to the antenatal visits, to when they decorate the room of the baby until finally the baby is born.
To increase their social media interactions, Argos asked viewers to name the baby and tweet their ideas using the hashtag #NameOurBaby. According to Campaign magazine, this was one of the most recalled adverts at the time.
Conclusion
Animated videos are effective at engaging a broad audience and captivating them with a great storyline. It creates emotions that resonate with the viewers and shows a sense of friendliness for a brand. If you wish to creatively promote your business, you should enter the digital era by using animated adverts. We hope this post will help you get the ball rolling on some awesome ideas for your animated advert.
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