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Exploring 8 top financial explainer videos: what makes them work

Mar 19, 2024
Exploring 8 top financial explainer videos: what makes them work Exploring 8 top financial explainer videos: what makes them work
Christina
Senior Account Executive

Visual finance guides are an excellent way to make complex things simple. A good dynamic animation can clearly explain in a few minutes what problem the product solves and why the viewer needs it. This is especially valuable in the financial industry, where the ability to convey complex information to the user simply and concisely can be a decisive factor. In this article, we will show 8 animated finance video examples, as well as look at how to evaluate the effectiveness of this marketing channel.

Summary

  1. The rise of financial explainer videos
  2. 8 Case studies of successful financial explainer videos
  3. How to identify an effective explainer video?
  4. Measuring the impact of animated financial videos
  5. How Blue Carrot can help your business

The rise of financial explainer videos

One of the first explainers in the world was created by Dropbox and Common Craft. In their video, the creators explained how the server worked and posted a single video on the site. In the first month, it was watched by 750,000 users, and in three years by 100 million. Today, the use of explainer videos has become a common practice, and for good reason.

Various studies confirm that video content is the driving force behind modern marketing:

  • 92% of marketers believe video will play an important role in marketing over the coming years. (Nizam A. “67 Video Marketing Stats You Need to Know for 2024 (Updated) – Lemonlight.” Lemonlight,  2023
  • Businesses can get 157% more organic traffic with video. (Ktama, “How to Use Videos to Generate SEO Results.” BrightEdge, 2019)

However, it all comes down to professional execution. Drawing on our own experience, for a financial explainer video to work as intended, it needs to take into account the fintech industry specifics and video production trends. Let’s take a look at 8 examples of good explainer videos to clearly show what we mean here.

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8 Case studies of successful financial explainer videos

1. MasterCard

MasterCard “By The Numbers” is a great example of an explainer video for financial services that keeps it simple in every aspect. The company broadcasts a simple message about its digital services. It is supported by minimalistic illustrations depicting scenes of simple everyday life adding an emotional trigger. Even the music in this video is as pleasant and carefree as possible. All this helps to engage users, put them in a positive mood, and present Mastercard services as an integral part of the life of an average city dweller.

2. Toggle

Here’s an example of an effective banking explainer video from our portfolio. The main emphasis here is put on storytelling and the client’s pain points. The video explains to customers in a pleasant voice how the product can solve the problem of big data accumulation in the financial industry. To keep the viewer’s attention, we used a beautiful visual sequence, as well as a hero symbolizing a journey into the unknown in the protective environment of a spaceship.

3. PayPal

The purpose of this series of financial services explainer videos was to show the ubiquity of PayPal. The company could have done this by simply presenting infographics with statistics about economic trends. However, the creators of the video went further. Each video is only a few seconds long and compares the number of stores that accept PayPal with all sorts of things; from the number of pigeons in New York City to the number of Americans named Bob. The brevity, funny tone, and single-focus message make these videos vivid and memorable. Add a great visual style and animation and you’ll get a recipe for a viral financial animation.

4. DNB

Here’s another example of engaging financial content created by Blue Carrot. The company’s goal was to communicate the message about its digital credit analysis tool. The video does an excellent job of communicating the main message in a clear and easy-to-understand way. From a visual point of view, the video first focuses the user’s attention on the central part, and towards the end, adds different shapes that go upwards to create a visual metaphor of growth.

5. TransferWise

Effective finance explainer videos should be simple but informative. This video combines simple visuals with a concise but informative story about the company. It does a great job of conveying TransferWise’s services, but that’s not the main point. What makes the motion graphics effective is they generate a clear understanding of the main point, the target audience’s pain points. From the very beginning, the video tells what the potential customer is worried about, and then explains how the product will help them forget about that problem once and for all.

6. ID Finance

ID Finance is a great example of how less is more. The text of the animation simply tells about the company’s services. However, the text doesn’t need to be engaging, as this role is completely taken over by the visual style. The creators of the video took the interaction of simple shapes as the main idea. The cubes on the screen are constantly moving, transforming, and mixing in unexpected ways perfectly illustrating what was said. Simple but dynamic music sets the rhythm for the movement and helps to concentrate the viewer’s attention.

7. RemitBee

Effective finance storytelling and good animation are powerful marketing tools. The distinctive feature of this video is a good and clear text with a cheerful voiceover, calling for action. The visual style is quite simple, but it has a distinctive feature that makes this video effective. From the very beginning to the end of the video, the main character, a small bee, is present on the screen. The bee is constantly moving, adding dynamics to the image, making viewers’ eyes follow it and directing them to the right elements.

8. American Express

This video does a great job of addressing a client’s potential pain points. The video provides practical advice on how to improve credit ratings. In a minute and a half, it teaches the viewer financial concepts and elegantly integrates the company’s services. A nice visual style, use of characters, and a quality voiceover complement the picture and leave a pleasant impression.

How to identify an effective explainer video?

The animated financial explainer videos above may seem different and have different purposes. However, they all have certain qualities that place them in our top 8. Each video contains one or more important qualities that distinguish them as an effective animation. Based on our experience, we highlight the following key characteristics:

  • Simplicity. The video should be short and clear. It should have minimal distracting elements so the viewer watches it to the end.
  • Single message. Educational financial videos should broadcast one clear idea. This way you ensure users will understand and remember it.
  • Understanding the audience. Creators of best explainer videos for banking clearly understand who their target audience is, what problems these people have, and how to build an understandable story that touches their trigger points.
  • The right hero. It is crucial to choose a hero for a viewer to associate with. This can be a typical representative of the target audience, an employee of the company, etc. However, this applies only if the characters play a significant role in the video, but this doesn’t happen very often. More frequently, characters play the role of a design element rather than someone the audience will associate themselves with.
  • Beautiful visuals. The video should be aesthetically pleasing to claim the interest of the audience and be aligned with company branding.
  • Call to action. At the end of explainer videos in the finance industry, there should always be a call to action. Interaction is the main indicator of effectiveness.

However, video effectiveness can also be measured in numbers. Let’s take a look at the metrics for evaluating video success.

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Measuring the impact of animated financial videos

Using quantitative metrics in assessing performance is a crucial step in any marketing campaign. They allow you to evaluate the cost-to-revenue ratio and estimate the return on investment (ROI) of a marketing channel. Let’s take a look at the key metrics that allow you to evaluate the success of finance visualizations.

View metrics
The most basic way to assess the success of a video is by the number of people who viewed it. With view data, you can assess the reach of your campaign.

  • Total views
    This is the total number of views of a video, including repeat views.
  • Unique views
    This metric identifies the number of individual users who viewed the video.
  • View duration
    This metric allows you to separate users who watched the whole video from those who turned it off in the first few seconds or turned it on accidentally.

Conversion metrics
Another important category of video marketing in finance is conversion metrics. They show whether the viewer took the desired action.

  • Conversions
    This metric reveals how many users took the desired action. This can be a subscription, purchase, click on a link, contact information, etc.
  • Conversion rate
    This is the ratio of the number of users who performed the desired action to the total number of views.

Social engagement metrics

Videos on social media get shared 12 times more than text and images combined. (Sanghavi  A., “50+ Effective Video Marketing Statistics For Growth in 2024” G2, 2024) The more users who respond to a video and share it with their friends, the more successful the marketing campaign is.

  • Likes and comments
    The more likes and comments, the more users are interested in your services.
  • Social shares
    This is the number of shares on social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Hashtag performance
    Quite often special hashtags are used along with the video. Their distribution on social media can also serve as a good indicator of a video’s success.

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How Blue Carrot can help your business

As you can see, making interactive financial videos is an art. It requires a high level of expertise, a deep understanding of the fintech innovations niche, and professional execution in terms of storyboard and visuals. Unless you have the skills and experience, you should entrust the creation of an explainer video to professionals who have the experience and skill, as well as examples of quality work. The Blue Carrot team has all of the above and is ready to deliver.

We are a team of professionals specializing in the visual presentation of financial concepts of any complexity, covering end-to-end video production including animation, illustration, scripting, voice-overs, and everything else related to animated video production. We have over 10 years of experience and more than 300 satisfied clients. Our approach combines best practices in short video production, relevant and eye-pleasing visual styles as well as the latest animation trends.

In this article, you’ve already seen a few examples of Blue Carrot’s work in the finance industry, but if you want more, check out our Case Studies. You can also check out our education and training video production guide to better understand how we work. If you’re ready or want more information, contact us and we’ll provide you with a full range of services to create an explainer video.

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