About that “integration”

“Integrated” is a very satisfying word in marketing and advertising. For clients it can mean bringing together — consolidating — the integration of media and creative, for example. But it can also be expansive; taking an idea that lives in one media type and building on it, bringing it to life elsewhere, seeing how it stretches.

In 2019 we won the Integrated gong at the Campaign Big Awards, for Visit #ScottishTwitter. Personally I’d always seen the campaign as sort of experiential-plus; a physical installation at the heart, then video and OOH to compliment it. But hearing the judges wax lyrical about it made me realise the benefits of an integrated campaign that’s built out from an idea that — to start with at least — is an experience. The benefits of a campaign strategy that’s fundamentally engaging.

A ripple effect

Experiences, unlike much of paid media, aren’t interruptive. Engagement with an experience is on the audience’s terms. The media buy — the location rental — gets you less far than traditional channels; the production has to do more work. It needs to lead people in; it needs to hold them there, and infuse them with positive memories and good emotional responses. Then send them into the world ready to amplify the message. The price-per-engagement is high; unless visitors are smitten by it to such an extent that they’re willing to talk about it later, then it quickly becomes a very luxury option indeed.

Our goal with experiences, then, is always to reach a much broader audience than could ever visit it. But just dialling up the volume won’t succeed in this. Instead the communication of the message needs to happen in a participatory, inclusive way — a visitor should discover it, rather than be told it — which runs somewhat counter to a classic advertising approach. And that’s why building an integrated campaign out of an experiential idea gets so interesting.

Everything is an experience

The out-of-home for Scottish Twitter is kinda baffling. There’s some museum-type design in there, then a colour scheme and image cut-out that feels like a meme, all of which surrounds a Tweet, which is itself a silly joke. It feels like some jokesters on Twitter have taken over a National Trust campaign which, of course, is exactly the point , because that’s what the experience is all about; not hearing from Twitter the brand, but hearing from #ScottishTwitter the community. That’s worth walking off the street for. And in the out of home, it turned out to be worth taking photos of and even getting local press for.

The video’s authorship — even though it ends on the Twitter bird — was hotly debated on the subreddit that comments on #ScottishTwitter, to the extent that some posters thought it was an ad for the subreddit.

In short: do, don’t tell

Most advertising doesn’t communicate messages directly; it communicates through story, imagery, celebrity. Experiential ideas communicate through feeling and act. A promise that feels worth wasting time for, and the act of the idea existing in the real world at all (the “they did what??”) — a doing, not a telling. As you’re thinking about brand experiences again, ponder how this philosophy can move through all your media. (And why not have a chat with us about it?)

Building integrated campaigns on experiential: why it works was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When it comes to marketing digital products, there’s one major pitfall most brands are keen to avoid. Messaging that leans into the tech and away from the human heart of the product risks coming across as cold and alienating. Steering clear of this, though, is easier said than done.

At Flying Object we work with a lot of tech companies, and we’re proud to create campaigns that celebrate the impressive technology behind these brands, without forgetting the real people they need to speak to. Here’s a recent example, and some thoughts on why it works.

We were asked by tech company Onfido to create a piece of video content for the homepage of their website. Onfido build technology that enables businesses to verify people’s identities remotely using photo-based identity documents and artificial intelligence algorithms. These are used by companies like banks to set up new accounts.

The tech behind this product is complex, but the value it offers its customers is simple: Onfido allows businesses to feel safe and secure in the knowledge that they’re interacting with genuine, verified customers. This is the story we needed to tell, cutting through the world of digital identity banking which could easily be viewed as cold and off-putting.

Here are some of the ways we went about it:

• Feature real people

When you’re explaining a complicated product, it can be tempting to rely on abstract visuals and explainer graphics. But making sure to include humans and familiar objects from the everyday saves the world of the campaign becoming too cold and digital.

Onfido’s existing brand photography was based on warm, friendly-seeming portraits of real people. We chose to make use of these assets, and combine them with a refined but lighthearted style of animation. This allowed us to create an inviting world filled with characters that customers can relate to.

• And real textures

Developing our art direction, we made use of tactile, material textures to reinforce that human centred approach. Paper, wood and other recognisable elements from the real world ground the designs and help avoid an overly digital feel.

Our animation style brought in elements of collage, and played with space, depth and perspective to ensure a living, authentic feel.

When we want to bring illustrations to life, and pull back from that flat digital aesthetic, boiling is one of our favourite animation techniques to use. It’s that textured wobble you see in moments like this:

• Bring the fun

How better to counteract tech’s association with dry info and obscure messaging than by infusing a big dollop of fun into your content?

We made sure Onfido’s video was exciting and dynamic, by making sure movement was a central component. We borrowed the continuous blue line that features in their brand identity and built it into an animated motif representing Onfido’s role, drawing the scenes and reforming as the narrative progresses, connecting and uniting the other elements.

We made sure the line was organic and energetic, moving in a characterful style and varying in dimension, rather than uniform and vectored as you might expect from a digital product.

We love proving tech doesn’t have to be cold or difficult to understand, and we love working with brands who need help telling their human story. If this sounds like you, we’d love to connect.

How to market tech without losing the personal touch was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The key concepts in brand marketing, from a Flying Object point of view

A creative brief is one of the most important elements in any commercial creative process. When done well, it consolidates everything that the creative work needs to say and achieve into a short, easy to understand, clear document. It’s a spring board. A diving board. The best possible starting point.

It doesn’t just point clients, creatives and makers in the same direction. It provides a map in case everyone gets lost. If something really isn’t working? We all go back and investigate the creative brief. We recalibrate. We reconsider. Reformulate. And voila. A better spring board. Off we go!

An excellent creative brief is hard to write. This is a good thing. The process of writing it should be an investigation. It should make everyone involved think hard about their goals, strategy and message. What creative risks does everyone want to take? What responsibilities does everyone have? Ultimately, a creative brief should be concise (the clue’s in the name), focused and insightful.

At Flying Object we think there are three important things that should never be overlooked when writing an excellent creative brief. These are the questions we ask ourselves:

1. Why are we writing a creative brief?

It’s always good to know why we’re all here in the first place. Sometimes clients need help identifying their long term objectives or short term goals. Other times, brands might be faced with a problem or crisis that is hard to recognise without fresh perspective. Let’s not forget that some projects are simply a great opportunity. They deserve just as much brain wattage and attention as any other reason.

Why do we need an overall aim or objective? Some agencies will talk about ‘north stars’, or ‘red threads’. In many ways, this first step of the creative brief is everyone getting on board the same project. It sounds obvious, too obvious to be much of a tip. But if this step hasn’t been done effectively, it may prove difficult to get final sign off on creative work. Ask yourself at this point: what does success look like?

Something else to bear in mind: multiple client departments often have to collaborate when putting out communications. Even with smaller clients, there will be teams of people with completely different perspectives. Aligning internally is always a priority.

Bad example: We need to make a video for a conference with our largest clients to explain what our product does.

Good example: Our overall goal is to increase sales among large customers. We know that they often struggle to comprehend what exactly our product does, so the objective of this brief is to build understanding among this audience.

2. Who does your brand want to talk to? Why?

It’s always worth taking time to really think about the real people we want to hear our message. Yes they are audiences. But they’re also individuals with lives. So, where are they in their life? What’s going on culturally around them? What’s the biggest challenge we can think of when it comes to creating a dialogue with them?

We’ll make sure we really understand your audience’s media consumption patterns, and their awareness of your brand. We’ll ask ourselves: in all honesty, what are their feelings towards it? Popular culture and socio-political norms are in a state of constant fast moving flux, making it important to have self-awareness throughout the creative process.

What big hurdles are facing your audience right now? Not having awareness or empathy could cause our creative idea to be rejected, or even worse, cause offence. Which is why we always ask: what does a community want and need to happen in the world? How can we help or amplify their cause?

Bad example: Our audience is CTOs of big retail brands

Good example: Our audience is CTOs of big retail brands. They’re busy, and get pitched lots of products every week. Retail tech is moving very quickly and our audience worries about being left behind, but they are similarly concerned about investing heavily in something they don’t really understand, which doesn’t work out. Ultimately they want to work with people who understand their problems.

3. What’s the big message? What’s the news?

What is the ONE thing you need this video to say to that audience? What do you want them to take away and keep thinking about? Some people call it unique product insight, others call it news. We believe that there’s always time to keep talking around this. Keep refining. Because insights are powerful, and they can bring new perspectives to big audiences.

It’s also important to compare your brand’s big news to your competitors’ big news. Because if everyone’s sharing the same unique product insight then…. Yep. Sorry, but it’s back to the drawing board. It can feel annoying having to take a step backwards in a project. But ultimately it will ensure the work really stands out and makes an impact.

Can we do five product messages if a project is super cool? Well, yes. But it makes it harder for your audience to remember what you said. It also dilutes any conversation that might spring up. Keeping ideas simple helps them travel further than you ever imagined possible. So make up your mind about what you want to say, and stay confident.

Bad example: Please see product benefit matrix in the appendix.

Good example: Our product saves you money by simplifying the conversion process.

That’s it?

Well, no :) But it’s a good place to start. There are many other aspects to consider, from tone of voice to media placement. At Flying Object these are the cornerstones of our creative brief. The more sturdy our answers, the greater our confidence. Which means we’re on track to start making some amazing creative work.

Got a brief for us? Need help writing one?

How to write a creative brief was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The key concepts in brand marketing, from a Flying Object point of view

What makes a vodka good? Take Grey Goose: £39 for 70cl in Tesco, made from French wheat and spring water. Or Tesco’s own Imperial Vodka: £15.40 for a litre, and made from — well, it says “grain”. French wheat sounds better, right? Grey Goose must be more “good”.

Thing is, vodka — basically by definition — is tasteless. It’s ethanol and water, and whatever base grain, potato or other foodstuff you start with, the distillation process is designed to get you to that same place each time. As this rather great podcast explains, it’s actually regulated as such: the US code directing vodka defines it as being “without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color.”

So why is Grey Goose almost four times the price of Tesco Imperial? And why are people buying it? The difference is branding.

So what is a brand?

A brand is a wrapper for a product. It tells you what’s inside; makes a promise for the experience you’re going to have with the product, and tells you to how you’re going to feel about using it.

With Grey Goose and other premium vodkas — and premium brands across sectors, in fact — marketing, advertising and other brand building activity build out far beyond the core product — the liquid in the bottle, in our case. What you’re buying with Grey Goose isn’t just 70cl of ethanol and water, but an experience, a gift, a statement of your identity and aspirations — basically, more than just vodka.

In fact, Grey Goose itself started with an attempt to make a premium vodka — the creator, Sidney Frank, isn’t even French, but figured the caché of the country would be a good start for this upmarket, aspirational, and therefore expensive, brand.

Heuristics

All branding theory and strategy collides with the real world at the point where a customer is making a buying decision, like standing in front of a shelf at a supermarket — so to understand better, let’s think about this moment. As customers, we don’t tend to explore every option in front of us, and most of the time we can’t try out the product before buying anyway. So we resort to a bunch of mental shortcuts in our mind — “heuristics” — for what is good: good quality, good value, good to show off in front of people, etc.

For vodka, this might not mean recalling exactly the kind of french wheat used, but a general sense that Grey Goose is a high quality, well respected, product — something to pull proudly out of the freezer at the end of a dinner party, say. In the 90s, Stella Artois’s advertising said the quiet bit out loud, and the same applies here: Grey Goose is “reassuringly expensive”. This heuristic — this shortcut is built through advertising, sponsorship, availability at fancy bars, cinematic brand films, bottle design, and so on.

Of course, this heuristic means different things to different people; for some it’ll feel like a rare luxury, to bring to swanky parties; for others, an investment worth making regularly to keep up a certain lifestyle, perhaps. But this is mostly or entirely brand perception. Only for a few experts who can really tell the difference is a purchasing decision being made about the specific flavours of Grey Goose’s ethanol and water combination.

Thinking about the brand-product relationship

I’ve picked on Grey Goose because vodkas are famously similar products — in fact, Insead business school teaches branding with a vodka case study, complete with taste test. But the learnings are transferable, across sectors, across B2B and B2C, and across brands where there isn’t a “traditional” purchasing moment.

A key learning is about the relationship between product and brand marketing. Good brand marketing doesn’t forget about the product, but nor does it prioritise product details above brand storytelling.

Ultimately, you want to build compelling brand narratives — and create those heuristics — through activity built out from the product itself. So, when we work with Twitter, we focus on the very best Tweets, and stay really close to them even in our wildest creative flights of fancy. We are not moving away from the experience of the product, but nor are we telling people what exactly the Twitter product does. We’re simply showing it, and amplifying the very best experience of using it.

Or, with Life in a Day, a feature film crowdsourced through YouTube, we honed in on that unique element of the YouTube experience — this chance to see through other people’s eyes — and gave participants full creative freedom; we didn’t hire big-name influencers or script anything.

With these projects we build emotional resonance, that re-wires how people think about the brands, and the heuristics built around them. Much like selling premium vodka.

What is a brand? was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A live broadcast used to mean a hugely complex and technically demanding undertaking — but nowadays it can be far simpler to engage with your audience via live video.

Products such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live have made viewing live content on your phone almost ubiquitous, whilst Twitch has been one of the breakthrough creative platforms of the last few years. Here’s some things to think about when working out how live content can fit in to your marketing plans:

What sort of live show is right for me?

Broadcasting from a phone is a great, low budget way to bring your audience into an intimate or exclusive environment, whereas a traditional, multi-camera set up is best for those larger scale moments such as performances or panels. For the right project, 360 VR is an option, too.

Where should I broadcast?

This will depend very much on your existing audience — where do they normally interact with your brand? Drawing an audience to a new platform to watch your content live can be harder than the broadcast itself — so bring the content to them. It’s possible nowadays to broadcast to multiple platforms.

Why is this live?

We always try and ask ourselves this question when planning a project. Exclusive access, one-off moments, a sense of jeopardy or danger and fan engagement are good reasons to go live. If it could work just as well as a pre-recorded video, then it’s probably not the right idea for your live project.

Plan plan plan

Then plan some more. Even if you’re just going backstage with a phone for a sneak peak, planning your content to the finest detail will really help you make something compelling, engaging and re-watchable after the broadcast is over

If you think going live could be the right choice for your brief, or just want to find out more about how it all works, get in touch.

Going Live was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We get asked this a lot, so here’s a rough guide to timelines and budgets for video productions.

When you need it, and how much budget you have for it, are big practical considerations when commissioning video.

More money generally means better quality:

• more time honing the creative
• more (and more experienced) crew available for longer
• better kit
• talent (if applicable)
• music
• post-production facilities — you get the idea.

Meanwhile, leaving enough time to accomplish all the necessary steps is crucial, but keeping timelines tight and efficient means less money wasted on day rates and overtime.

Of course, time and money are tied up together too: sometimes money can buy you time saving solutions.

All this isn’t to say that video can’t be produced quickly and on a smaller budget — some of the best videos you’ve seen have been. But what time and money do is de-risk a project, and make sure that what you get at the end works for your audience, delivers on your goals, and fits your brand.

No really, how long and how much?

There isn’t a one size fits all answer to how much it costs to produce a video. There are so many variables to take into account! But we can give you some rough guideline figures to help shape your expectations.

A couple of caveats on timings:

• We’ve assumed prompt (2–3 days) feedback and responses from the client throughout.
• Try to avoid the rush timings — you may have to pay more for weekend rates and long days, and find that first choices on, say, crew, locations and so on aren’t available if you have a short timeframe.

And another on budget:

• Certain aspects of video and film production work are priced around usage licenses. The costs here assume online and event (ie, conference) usage — what we mostly work on. Should you make a YouTube video and then decide to run it as a TV ad, you will likely find there will be extra fees. In some areas, geographic usage and union memberships will trigger extra payments.

And a last thought for the road: these budgets below show a range, but exclude special requests. If you want Nicole Kidman and a Coldplay song as well, add a few million pounds to the numbers below.

How Much and How Long? was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you’re applying for creative jobs at the moment, especially at a junior level, you’re probably going to be up against a lot of other people. We found this when we posted a hire for a Junior Graphic Designer — we had about 350 applications, at a standard that was on average much higher than we expected.

While this is great for us, it’s a challenge for applicants to stand out. It took us several weeks to work through all the applications and, due to the volume, it’s not possible to feed back individually to everyone. So we wanted to share some general thoughts, and let you know what was going through our heads as we reviewed all the portfolios, CVs and covering letters.

Big caveat: this is our own experience; other agencies and studios might be doing things differently. Our process was that one person reviewed every application and rated them, and then two more people took a look through the best-rated ~100 to select interview candidates. Other places will work differently!

Portfolios:

• Tell a story. This is a communications role at the end of the day — so, communicate. Use your work to tell us who you are and what you’re capable of. Mix up what you put in it — commercial work, degree show work, side hustles.

• Think about format : We found that slide portfolios were generally easier to navigate through and tell stories with than online portfolios, unless your website is really well put together (some were, some weren’t). A big list of pictures on Behance is difficult to work through and get a sense of someone from. If you’re sending video, put it unlisted on YouTube or password-protected on Vimeo, rather than huge downloads from Dropbox or as a massive file in your portfolio.
• Explain why, don’t just show what : Is the work a response to a brief — even if you set it yourself? What are you trying to do with it? How did you get there? All this is great context.

• Explain your role : Was this a solo job or part of a team? What was your role on that team? What parts did you do? All kinds of work are interesting to potential hirers, but they’d appreciate knowing what, exactly, you did.
• Longer is better than short : Ultimately you don’t know what the reviewer is looking for (they might not be 100% sure, either). Don’t send War and Peace, but including more work gives you more chances to pique their interest.
• Don’t bury it or make it self-destruct : If the job ad asks for a portfolio, send one. Don’t make it a hard-to-find link on page 2 of a PDF CV. And please don’t use WeTransfer without thinking about link expiry — the links stop working by default after a couple of weeks.​​​​​​​

Applications in general:

• Read the instructions : We asked for portfolios and for applicants to do a quick task, picking some advertising work and online content they liked. A lot of people didn’t do this task, and as a result, didn’t look particularly engaged in the process.

​​​​​​​

• First impressions count. We didn’t down-mark anyone using “To whom it may concern”, but by looking at our website, and noticing there’s a name (mine) to address queries to in the job description, should lead you to think that a “Hey Adele” or similar might be more on-brand for us. Oh, and — check spelling, and make sure that if you address an agency in your cover letter, it’s the one that you’re applying to now, not one copied from another application.
• Get to the point : When it comes to cover letters, more isn’t better. Think of the old saying: “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”. What points are you trying to get across? Focus on those.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• What’s interesting in a CV? Your interests (old fashioned, perhaps, but we’re not all business, all the time); software skills, but be honest about level, this is something that can be developed. Less interesting: your GCSEs. Try to get your core CV on one side of A4.
• Don’t overthink this : At the end of the day, employers want to see your work, your previous experience, and get a sense of who you are. I’m sure there’s loads of blogs explaining how to stand out by using tricks, but if they don’t help you do those three things well, ignore them. You do you.

Applying for creative jobs: advice we’d give after reviewing 350 applications was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Making original, high quality animations for our clients is one of our favourite things to do at Flying Object. If it’s your first time working with us, or you’re thinking about dipping a toe into the world of animation, here’s what to expect.

1. The Brief.

First up: unpacking your brief. We make sure we know your brand and strategy inside out. If you don’t have a fully formed idea of what you want, we can even write it with you. This helps us determine the right tone and visual style for your message. We’ll usually present it back to you as a treatment for sign-off.

2. Road Map

The project producer will talk to you about your deadlines. They need to know about your stakeholders, and the length of time you need for feedback loops and sign-offs as well. We’ll create a clear timeline mapping out key milestones and the delivery date. You’ll also see a costing which, once signed off, becomes our budget.

Budget + timeline + creative treatment = our roadmap for the project.

3. Talent

There are so many different styles of animation from hand-drawn to stop-motion. Finding the right artists to gel with your vision is a key moment in the process. We scale up to fill roles like illustrator, animator and sound designer based on your particular needs.

4. Script

Meanwhile, we develop the script, led by an ace copywriter. We’ll also have an eagle-eyed producer on-hand making sure the scope of the script sits within our budget and timeframe. We’ll incorporate your feedback as we go, and you have final sign off.

5. Voice Over

A great voice brings a script to life. We’ll cast an actor from our network of agencies. The recording can be remote or in a studio; we’ll direct the talent, and recommend you sit in, IRL or virtually.

6. Animation Treatment

With the voice track in place, we work with the animators to provide a treatment and style frames. These normally include examples of key features like character drawings and a colour palette.

7. Music

The right music track paces the story, shapes its emotional rhythms, and helps you feel the right feels. We know it when we hear it. The final choice will be cut to the voice over.

8. Storyboarding

Once the script has been storyboarded, you’ll see things start to take shape. An animatic shows how things will move and frames transition, set to the audio track. You’ll get the opportunity to feed back, but it’s important to remember that sign off on these is final. Unlike shooting filmed footage, there won’t be much opportunity to change things around once we’ve locked them in.

9. Animation

Down to business with the animation proper. Depending on the personal practice of your animator, you might see some frames of progress as we go. Ideally though, with storyboards locked in, this is your chance to sit back and let the magic happen.

10. Final Sound Mix

The last touch to an animation is usually the sound effects. Hearing them come together adds an extra dimension that rounds the audio and visuals into a cohesive whole. Last of all, the audio track will be professionally mixed so that everything sounds polished to perfection.

Now you’re primed and ready, you can get the ball rolling right over here.

How do we make animations? was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Back in August of 2020 we published a research report with Wellcome looking into the ways young people successfully managed their mental health during the Covid-19 lockdown. We developed several inventive methods of capturing the young participants’ experience, and learnt a lot about their resilience and creativity — from creating art, to taking up new skills, to connecting with family members. You can read more about it here.

The report was a success, but we knew there were other more emotive and accessible ways to share what we’d learned. We wanted to create an artwork which could communicate our findings, appeal to a young audience online and work on a bigger screen for events and festivals.

Creativity and Science

Exploring the ways in which art can challenge or inspire the public to engage with health science is an important part of Wellcome’s mission, where mental health is a key focus.

In creating our report, we heard an incredibly diverse range of perspectives: participants from 32 cities in 15 countries told us about their experience of the pandemic. Each testimony was unique, but as we spoke to more people, certain themes began to emerge.

Perhaps the most interesting was that this time had not been wholly negative — that while young people had started from a place of fear and uncertainty, they had learnt new things about themselves and what they “needed” in times of potential anxiety.

This dovetailed with Wellcome’s own work on “active ingredients” — the things young people can proactively and positively use to help manage their mental health.

As we brought this narrative thread to life, we looked to find the universal story of collective experience whilst also honouring each of the individuals and their own unique experience.

What We Did

We decided to harness the empathetic and expressive power of spoken-word poetry, and bring it to life with sensitive visuals. The result is our animated film Something New.

We understand young audiences online seeking to learn about mental health. They’re interested in personal stories told creatively. They want to see diverse perspectives represented. They look for authenticity, and know it when they see it.

With all this in mind, we reached out to South African poet Koleka Putuma and invited her to write a poem inspired by our research. The resulting recording of the poem, performed by Koleka, became the basis of our film. A team of creatives added visuals and sound that complemented and enlarged upon Koleka’s words, capturing the expansive potential of the material.

Why does it work?

The findings of the research have been translated into content that is bright, creative and designed to meet its audience on the online platforms they favour.

The creative team engaged with the research and respected its subjects. Because Koleka sat with our findings and committed to honouring them, her poem is able to authentically represent the participants and give voice to their insights.

By entrusting our participants’ testimonies to a talented and diverse team of creatives, we facilitated their collaboration on a piece of work designed to amplify the voices of the young people and represent the paradoxical spirit of their story — at once personal and collective.

Something New was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When is animation a good idea?

When you have a complicated message to get across
Animation can often suit a brief where complex ideas need to be simplified and presented in a more enjoyable, accessible way. You’re not bound by the constraints of reality as you are with live video. Want your video to contain sentient objects or graphs that talk? That can be arranged. You’re completely free to harness the power of whatever visual metaphor might work for your messaging.

When you really want to make a connection

You know your audience and what they want better than anyone. If you think they would appreciate something stylized — whether that be human and personal, or humorous and quirky — working with an animator who can nail your desired aesthetic can help you craft something they will really connect with. The sky’s the limit when it comes to the visuals, and the tone of your brand can completely dictate the aesthetic.

When you want to evoke a strong emotion

Animated visuals can be an amazing tool for creating heightened emotion and, as a result, it’s an incredibly evocative medium. Working with the right artist and communicating how you want a viewer to feel when they’re watching your video can create wonderful results, whether it’s a positive, inspirational vibe that you want, or a more sensitive, subdued tone.

When you want to cut through the noise and hold your audience’s attention

Attention spans get shorter every day and digitally-literate consumers grow more and more used to the glut of video content filling their newsfeed. If you need to make an impression in a space that’s typically a little cynical, or where consumers are used to seeing hundreds of ads, it can be useful to leverage the connotations of an original and well-crafted animation as more authentically creative. Of course, there are a lot of flat, 2D motion graphics explainers floating around social media. But, if your animation is high quality and beautifully executed, its legitimacy as an art form can lend your campaign credibility and catch the attention of even the most seasoned scroller.

When you need something to come together remotely

In a perfect world, you make important choices about your marketing strategy from a purely creative perspective. Accordingly, the decision to commission an animation should be based on the clear benefits it will bring to your strategy. However, it’s sometimes necessary to prioritise practical considerations. On occasions when filming is out of the question, your team is working remotely, or your clients or colleagues are based abroad, working with animation can be a great choice. Many animators have a home studio set-up and the creative team you employ will be able to manage production virtually. At Flying Object, we continued to create animated video throughout the coronavirus lockdown with no need for in-person contact.

When you need a smaller budget to stretch a long way

There’s a misconception that animation is expensive. People hear “animation”, think Pixar or Aardman, and assume the whole thing takes months and a huge team. But creating something impactful and well-crafted doesn’t have to be expensive. There are a number of creative solutions to streamline and simplify without compromising on effectiveness. As a result, animation productions are often more economical than film shoots.

Ultimately, if you’re going to make animated video a part of your marketing strategy, you need to make sure it truly makes sense for your brief — and not just that you saw another brand put out a cool animation and thought it would be fun. That being said, working with animation offers tons of benefits and the process can be shaped to fit your unique needs. At Flying Object, we’re used to walking our clients through the variety of different approaches you can take to creating video content, and the talented animators we work with are full of exciting ideas to help bring your vision to life. If you’d like to explore your options, give us a shout.

Animation: Is it the right fit for your brief? was originally published in Flying Object on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.