What is motion graphics and why should you use it for an explainer video?

25 November 2019

What is motion graphics video, and why should you be leveraging this kind of visual aid for marketing? As social media has pivoted firmly to video as a way to drive engagement, explainer videos that implement motion graphics have become one of the most cost-effective ways to produce consumable visual content.

What is an explainer video?

An explainer video does exactly what is sounds like – it explains a concept in a clear way using visual aids to help get the concept across. Your business can benefit by using explainer videos to answer common consumer questions and help them solve basic problems.

An explainer video is short, sweet, and to the point. It highlights a challenge, describes a solution, and ends with the benefits of your product or service. Explainer videos can be created using many different formats or styles, but for professional business marketing use, a product launch, or an internal corporate video, the best choice may be motion graphics integration.

What are motion graphics?

Motion graphics are considered a highly sophisticated animated style for explainer videos. What a motion graphics video is capable of includes summarising ideas in a clear, concise manner, then packaging them in an attractive format that can capture the viewers attention and keep it.

If you're trying to communicate information that is based on specific facts, numbers, statistics, or categories, motion graphics makes your task easier with clear visuals that will resonate with your viewers. You can synthesise even the dullest kinds of necessary information and turn them into interesting tidbits of real world applicable knowledge.

Why use motion graphics design?

There's a reason marketing is highly visual. People remember an image or clip much more clearly and for longer than they do text. Motion graphics allows you to take advantage of creative tools and create videos that are memorable, engaging, and capable of eliciting an emotional response through carefully designed visual prompts.

More to the point, however, is the fact that motion graphics design provides a more professional option for companies who need their explainer videos to have that extra veneer of professionalism. Motion graphics can help you create corporate videos that can be presented in the executive boardroom with confidence.

Where motion graphics fit into explainer video creation

You can use motions graphics for amazing explainer videos as a stand alone technique or in tandem with other popular styles. That's the beauty of video creation once you have the capability, you can mix and match styles for unique looking videos that best represent your brand.

Character animation

Being able to animate a character lets you make your brand more relatable. With animation, you can engage in storytelling one of the most powerful ways to get a visual message across. Mixing motion graphics with character animation can give your explainer videos even more impact.

Whiteboards

It becomes easier to explain complex concepts when you can show instead of tell. Whiteboard explainer videos are popular due to their ability to break down numbers and statistics easily. However, whiteboard videos can get boring. Adding motion graphics can spice up a whiteboard explainer video and make it more relatable and memorable.

Live action

Superimposing live action onto your motion graphic video gives you the chance to show the "face" of your organisation and build confidence in the viewer. This is perfect for highly formal verticals like finance, tech, or healthcare, when viewers want reassurance as to the authoritative value of the information being provided.

How can your organisation leverage motion graphics explainer videos?

Identifying opportunities for explainer videos is simple – look at your website's FAQs, your customers' feedback, and your help desk staff for inspiration. You'll be able to create a list of questions and problems that need the answers or solutions explained.

Once you've chosen your topics, the CMS media production team can help you develop the idea for your explainer video and use motion graphics to create it. You can then leverage your new media to position yourself as an authority, delivering much needed information to consumers seeking answers in your industry.

Motion graphics explainer videos for B2B

By using motion graphics, a highly professional video can be created for B2B use, allowing you to communicate your ideas and numbers clearly and effectively with powerful visual aids. These kinds of videos can be used as a presentation during a meeting or conference call, hosted on a webpage, or embedded in a B2B email.

Motion graphics explainer videos for B2C

Motion graphics is also ideal for creating relatable, "bite sized" content for consumers. Most B2C explainer videos are 30 to 60 seconds long, and easily shareable on social media or embedded in consumer facing blogs for easy consumption.

Are you ready to pivot to video? CMS is ready to help. Contact us for more information about motion graphics explainer videos and other media production options today.