Product: Web design company that develops and markets websites and apps
Client: DreamCo Design, USA
Genre: animated promo video production
Duration: 70 seconds
Channels: website header and YouTube
Animated Promotional Video Case Study: Task Overview
The US-based creative marketing and web studio approached Blue Carrot to produce an original video. The idea was to stand out with an extraordinary animation concept, use it to share corporate values among potential customers, and strengthen DreamCo Design branding as a whole.
As a result, the company expected a new video to boost sales and bring them more loyal customers.
DreamCo Design required animated promotional video production, which meant we had to develop a video concept, offer animation styles, and proceed with storyboarding, style framing, animation, and sound production.
Since DreamCo Design focuses on serving medium-sized enterprises and small-size businesses based mainly in the USA, they needed to make their way in the highly competitive market of creative web and marketing agencies. As the primary style reference, we used an animated promotional video case study of the time and place where modern marketing and advertising started – the US in the mid-60s.
To not confuse our audience with what they see, we decided to opt for the classic cartoon format, making the whole video more engaging and amusing.
For more information on Blue Carrot marketing cartoon video production services, follow the link.
Animated Promotional Video Production: Key Challenges
If your corporate values and those of your client match, animated promo video production is often more accessible, faster, and even cheaper. The results of our cooperation with DreamCo Design confirm this hypothesis. However, this project hid several challenges for our creative team:
✅ The Classic Animation Rules
The video for DreamCo Design is a rare animated promotional video example. We used plenty of frame-by-frame animation or classic animation. Such a video created both peculiarity and complexity due to the need to clearly understand each scene’s attributes. Any changes to ready-made scenes result in the need to create a new scene from scratch.
✅ Meaningful ‘Vintage’ Approach
The choice to favor classic animation and post-war American aesthetics required careful preparation before getting into script and style frames. Our task was to develop a visual language that would spread nostalgic vibes and find a way to incorporate the modern things DreamCo Design offers to its clients, specifically internet marketing strategies, eCommerce, website development, and more.
✅ Staying in Line with an Overall Branding
Vintage-style branding helps brands stand out from competitors that hunt for trends and emphasize innovations. It also enables them to connect emotionally to an audience. DreamCo Design exploits retro style in its logo, website interfaces and communication on social media. As a result, we had to adhere to our client’s existing ‘retro’ concept. Explore more on this topic: Creating Characters for Explainer Videos: Tips & Tricks.
Animated Promo Video Production Workflow
Who worked on this video: creative producer, scriptwriter, storyboard illustrator, visual artist, motion designer, color editor, sound designer, voiceover artist
It took the Blue Carrot team about three months to create this promo video animation example from scratch. Together with the client, we went through all the key stages of project execution.
“As a rule, it takes no more than 6 weeks to create animated promo video production of this length and genre. But in this case, we’re talking about time-consuming classic animation where there is no other option than to create frames one-by-one.”
When working with brands, our team follows the transparency principles and the Waterfall workflow model. Each stage of our work, whether it is developing a script, working on style frames and illustrations, or selecting voice artists, ends with two rounds of client approvals.
This approach allows you to save time and budget by making edits on the fly rather than at the end of the project. This is crucial when any change means serious budget overruns and deadline violations.
The start of any project requires clarification of future video campaign details. In the case of DreamCo Design, we were dealing with a promotional and semi-explainer video for a website’s first screen. That defined the video length and word choice.
All in all, deeper knowledge of the client’s target audience, marketing objectives, competitive environment, and corporate principles helps to create a highly effective piece of animation. Explore more on building smart video campaigns here: Video Marketing ROI: Measurement Metrics and Improvement Methods.
Animated Promotional Video Example: Results and Takeaways
Video Results: DreamCo Design reported growth in conversions soon after adding a video to their main page header.
In brief, our customers were delighted with the collaboration with Blue Carrot. As planned, they posted the video on their website’s home page and also used it in their YouTube promo campaigns. DreamCo Design marketing executives said the company boosted conversions on its home page and received several new clients.
At Blue Carrot, we enjoy turning our work into animated promotional video case studies and polishing our services by analyzing each project experience. So here are a few takeaways concerning this particular project:
1️⃣ Working with a Client as a Team is Important
Closer communication between a customer and an animated promotional video production team leads to better results. Often, the most crucial insights concerning products or clients are clarified during informal or additional project discussions.
2️⃣ Opt for Classic Animation Only if You are Sure of Your Project Details
Classic frame-by-frame animation is one of the most expensive methods for producing videos. However, this is not entirely true. 3D animation involves complex object modeling. Objects can then be endlessly modified and moved in the frame. Editing 3D scenes is very easy.
In the case of classic 2D cartoons, you don’t spend time modeling objects. You draw them frame-by-frame. As a result, short 2D videos cost significantly less than 3D videos.
However, the problem is that it is impossible to edit classic animation frames. You can only create frames from scratch and replace other frames. That’s why classic animation is an excellent solution if you are confident in your story, style, and messages.
Not sure what KIND OF video you need?
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3️⃣ A website Header is the Best Place for your Video
The cartoon we created for DreamCo Design is multifunctional. The company can use the video to explain what it does and why it is trustworthy. It can also promote itself on social media and save budget on additional promo video production. Learn more about the strengths of these videos in this cheat sheet for brands: Animated Explainer Video Guide.
It is good to start communication with clients with a video as the most engaging online content format. As you can see, our video provides as many brand facts as possible in a minimum of time.
4️⃣ Stand Out with a Heartwarming Retro Approach
Retro vibes will not fit into every brand strategy, especially for something innovative like an app or website development. But sometimes, it is this trick that can set you apart from competitors.
Originality for the sake of originality is not our approach. Therefore, the vintage style allows us to connect brave advertising pioneers and DreamCo Design creative studio.
“The team at Blue Carrot met expectations, fulfilling the client’s vision. Their talented team is creative, collaborative, and communicative. Clients who remain transparent will have a successful partnership with their team.”
– Jay Correia
Owner at DreamCo
source: Clutch
Watch this project on Behance 👀
NOT SURE WHAT KIND OF VIDEO YOU NEED?
🥕 Answer a few questions and choose your format.
