Corporate Video: Animation vs. Live Action
Corporate videos have become a necessity in marketing plans because of their effectiveness to communicate a message. Deciding which type of video is best to convey your branded message is critical to how your viewers will interpret your message. From the start, it’s important to consider who your audience is, what message you want to get across to them, where your video will be published and most importantly, the overall goal of your video.
There are many different styles of video that all serve a unique purpose to the viewer. The first consideration when choosing a video style is live action vs. animated video. The style of video that you select will set the tone for your video marketing strategy. Depending on your content and your overall goal, select a video option that will meet your needs.
Corporate Video: Animation
For corporate videos, animation is most popularly used to educate and inform viewers. An animated explainer video is perfect for marketing complex products of services that can be difficult to explain. What your company is explaining may not be tangible and, animation has the ability to create these illustrations. For example, if you were to be informing viewers on “the cloud” – your video still needs to attach a visual to the concept.
There are some perks that come with selecting animation for your corporate video. Firstly, animation will help you stretch your budget further because it can be easily edited, updated and repurposed as new content down the line. Making changes to an existing animation is simple compared to getting back on set for a live shoot. Secondly, the amount of creativity for your corporate video message is limitless in the animated world. Objects and characters can have personality and you have total control over the environment and look of your video.
The only downside to animation is that there are many steps along the way. When considering the time it takes to approve illustrations, voice overs, and the music or sound effects in your video, make sure to put extra time aside on your calendar to review the rough, fine, and final cuts.
Here’s a list of the different types of animation styles to choose from:
2D Motion Graphic Animation
The most traditional style of animation, where the height and width of illustrations are the focus of the video.
3D Animation
All 3 digital dimensions (height, width, and depth) create a more realistic illustration on screen.
Fast Draw
“Whiteboard animations” and “quick draws” convey your message through text and images being drawn by hand on a white background.
Kinetic Typography Animation
Incorporate “moving text” into an animation to tell a story by bringing your script to life on screen word for word.
Stop Motion
This animation technique physically moves an object so that is appears to move on its own.
A mix of live action and animated video is a crowd favorite.
This allows someone to speak on behalf of your company with animated bumpers, logos, text, and even characters on the screen. This style allows the video to be entertaining and informative.
Corporate Video : Live Action
Live action videos are beneficial to any corporate marketing team. They can help to highlight your company’s culture and humanize your brand by association with real people. A live action video can bring personality to any generic corporate business messaging.
The main perk to shooting a live action video is authenticity. This is a bonus when it comes to creating an extremely detailed and appealing piece for a marketing campaign. Live action videos are the best way to develop personable relationships, entertain viewers at events, and make sure your message is relatable.
Of course, one downside to live video could be budget and flexibility. A live action video can be more expensive than animation when considering cast, crew, location fees, video and lighting equipment, hair, makeup and much more.
Popular Styles of Live Action Video:
Broadcast or web commercials
Customer testimonials
Case studies
Event promo or highlight reel
Company culture video
So, what do you think? What option will you choose for your next corporate marketing video? Hopefully we were able to provide you with some tips on how to choose the style of video that’s right for you! Throw us a comment if you have an idea for a different style of video!
Published September 2, 2015
Revised April 22, 2019
Very well differentiation between the two types of videos. Animation has many varieties such as Motion Graphics, Whiteboard, Infographics etc.
on the other side, the Live action is done by people themselves. I think both are equally liked by the audience and people are working on both things. Thanks for sharing the article it’s very well written though.
how to do a fast draw is a great whiteboard animation video production.
Whiteboard animation video is a best type of all animation
Very interesting article -love it! Both, animation and live action are great for corporate video production. I think it is more important to determine your goals
Hi Aram,
Thanks for your input and glad that you enjoyed the blog post. Video is a great marketing asset because it can be integrated into new or existing marketing campaigns to fit the needs of any organization. You’re right! It is important to determine what the goal of the business is and create a strategy that reflects that goal.
I think this is one of the most significant information for me. And i’m glad reading your article. Thank for sharing!
We’re happy you liked it! (:
Thanks a lot for the article.Thanks Again. Really Cool.
We’re glad you liked it!