Whiteboard animation explainer videos have become super popular, especially in recent years. But why are explainer videos so effective? It’s quite simple: visual tools and animations make the message pop! They grab attention instantly and keep it, unlike boring old text. By bringing both simple and complex subjects to life, even the dullest content becomes fascinating. As viewers stay glued to the screen, explainer videos deliver the message like nothing else can!
Answering the question "Are explainer videos effective?" is a breeze with some fun examples. Remember when VHS tapes of The Lion King kept us or our kids entertained for hours? Or that iconic Jane Fonda workout video from the 1980s? The 80s might seem like ancient history, but videos are still a huge part of our lives. The word "video" comes from the Latin ‘videre,’ meaning ‘to see.’ Nowadays, videos are more ingrained in our daily routines than ever. Just last week, I learned the best way to turn a wooden pallet into a planter from a video. And I'm not the only one; YouTube, the web’s second-largest search engine, hit the milestone of one billion hours watched per day back in 2017.
This familiarity makes explainer videos, and animated explainer videos especially, the perfect way to communicate with viewers, whether they are clients, customers, the general public, or anyone in between. Our brains are finely tuned to absorb information from visual content. Videos can explain and share content rapidly in entertaining and novel ways – making that information enter our heads and stay there – which is a useful attribute, and most importantly they can do this while weaving in storytelling. It’s no wonder then that explainer videos are so effective. Animated explainer videos take this effectiveness to a new level, giving you the freedom and scope to present anything.
Famous commercial examples include the animated explainers used by Dropbox while in an educational setting the RSA Animates which transformed academic and complex subjects into engaging, entertaining, memorable, and arguably the best animated explainer videos which combined have had more than 100,000,000 views.
What is an explainer video?
An explainer video takes your vision, message, and story and transforms them into a visual storytelling feast that combines visual thinking and inspiring communication. Whiteboard animation explainer videos do this by blending a carefully written script, rich illustrations, engaging and smooth animations, and a well-chosen voiceover. This powerful combination captures your complexity and depth, serving it up perfectly to your audience.
So, are explainer videos effective? Absolutely! These videos turn complex ideas into easily digestible and captivating content, making sure your audience not only understands but also remembers your message.
Given the instant attention that explainer videos can capture, it's easy to understand why they are so effective. Whiteboard animation explainer videos, in particular, stand out from 'talking head' and other types of videos, making them the perfect choice for sharing complex or dry content in an engaging and understandable way.
But how do explainer videos work exactly? From a creative standpoint, animated explainer videos provide a blank canvas to fill with your personality and ideas. They offer a creative freedom that can bring to life almost anything you can imagine. This freedom allows you to use whiteboard animation explainer videos to present abstract or complex ideas and connect key points seamlessly. You can create ideal illustrations, characters, scenes, and visual metaphors to tell your story and resonate with your audience. This is what truly makes explainer videos effective. Several popular formats include:
Product explainers and demonstrations
Particularly if your product isn’t something which camera footage can do justice to, animated explainer videos can bridge the gap by presenting complex processes in a clear and understandable way or turning something more abstract into more accessible visuals. Another reason why explainer videos are effective is that they also allow you to build a strong connection with your audience, for these more abstract products. Great examples from the early days of explainer videos include that famous explainer for Dropbox and an early advert for Spotify.
Videos for social media and raising awareness
Animated explainers have three core strengths that make them perfect for this. Given that they can pack in a lot of information using the four pillars of communication - audio, visual and text and animation - it’s easy to see how and why explainer videos are effective at conveying the desired message to the target audience. They can deliver this information in a powerful and engaging way by using storytelling, making your message and video entertaining and shareable.
We conducted whiteboard animation research with Professor Richard Wiseman and found that, compared with a ‘talking head’ video, the animated explainer video was 33% more entertaining and viewers were 66% more likely to share it. We have created these explainer animations for people looking to make a splash on social media and raise awareness.
We created this video for The Cares Family, a charity fighting loneliness, to use on their social media channels.
Made for The Royal Society, this video raises awareness about the careers science opens up.
Report summaries and pitching tools
Like a good espresso, an explainer video makes information engaging, concentrated, and, importantly, memorable. This is why explainer videos are effective for sharing summaries or overviews of important but detailed reports, delivering call-to-actions, or pitching ideas in our increasingly virtual world. Whiteboard animation explainer videos, in particular, excel at breaking down complex information into visually appealing and easily digestible content. Writing for Horton International, Managing Partner Ani Närhi highlights the importance of summaries, explaining:
"Being able to summarize has become a skill that is more important than ever in today’s information overflow."
This animation summarises a report by More In Common and invites viewers to get more involved.
This animation for BlueVolt pitches their services to potential clients.
Homepage and corporate explainers
Establishing your identity, values and mission has always been important, and in a world where websites increasingly replace networking events, a new strategy is needed. Enter animated explainer videos, the tireless champion of you and your story. Whether they are sitting on your homepage, used in corporate materials or fighting your corner at virtual (or physical) events, animated explainer videos showcase your USPs, personality, story so far and what it is you can do for people. They are great at this, allowing you to include your unique style at every level - from the choice of words in the script, to who records your voiceover and the illustrations or characters featuring in the video itself.
This is our own homepage explainer video. We love it because it captures who we are, what we do and why.
This video introduces the Berkhamsted school and the education they provide.
How effective are explainer videos?
There are plenty of stats that show just how effective an explainer video can be, and the results are pretty impressive. But let's be honest, the real magic happens when you see how audiences react to them. The true power of explainer videos, especially whiteboard animation explainer videos, is in how people engage and connect with them. So, let's dive into two fun examples that highlight the amazing impact a professional explainer video can have on an audience.
The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development
"...this is the parenting/discipline style I was talking about. Great short video that gives you the gist."
"This is what I was telling you about last time!"
We made this animated explainer video as part of a series for The Karyn Purvis Institute. Since it was released in 2017, the Facebook version alone has moved viewers to post these comments and 164 more. These comments show the powerful connection the video made with its audience. Many share the video with others or start conversations about what it discusses. The Facebook version of this video has been viewed more than 270,000 times.
Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA Animate
"I love the visuals in this - it helps people who are visual learners to grasp the ideas he spoke super easily!"
"As a new teacher, this video really inspires me to make a difference in my own school. It won't be easy, definitely but the idea is there."
It has been a privilege to work with world class thinkers like Sir Ken Robinson, who we sadly lost last year. We created this animated explainer video as part of the The RSA Animates series. Released back in 2010, the YouTube version of this animated explainer has had almost 7000 comments and 16,656,739 views. The comments above, and so many others, show the impact of the video as an informational tool, source of inspiration and the power of the animated style.
What is the secret behind an explainer video’s effectiveness?
Why are explainer videos so effective? What’s the secret behind their success? The answer comes in two parts.
First, the versatility of explainer videos is a major factor in their effectiveness. They are perfect for conferences, monitors, smartphones, and tablets. They can spread the word through YouTube, websites, or social media platforms, meaning you can reach your audience wherever they spend their time.
The second part of their success lies in the creative process. At their core, animated explainer videos tell stories. From the first picture books we encounter as children to the latest novels or Netflix series, our brains are hardwired to understand and absorb stories. By using illustrations, animations, onscreen text, and voiceovers, an explainer video caters to various learning preferences. Plus, with whiteboard animation, the whiteboard and the hand establish a learning mindset.
This combination makes explainer videos engaging, memorable, and able to connect on emotional and intellectual levels, allowing you to share your message far and wide.
What are the benefits of animated explainer videos?
Professional animated explainer videos are the gifts that keep on giving. But perhaps nothing can explain why explainer videos are effective as the findings of our research with Professor Richard Wiseman, that we’ve already spoken about. And the way animated explainers make your message memorable, entertaining, and engaging, nothing else can. These qualities are great individually, but they also give animated explainer videos several strengths.
By being seen as more entertaining by viewers, animated explainers are able to hold a viewers’ attention in a world which only gets more distracting
The creative freedom and use of tools like visual metaphors allow you to make complex subjects easy to understand
Drawing on that entertainment factor, it is easier to communicate important or dry subjects such as policy changes
By using a script, voiceover, onscreen text, illustration and animation, animated explainers are able to deliver a lot of information in a small amount of time - while making it meaningful and memorable
Animated explainers are active, not passive. Whether it ends in a call to action or acts as the start of a bigger conversation, they give an audience everything they need to know and the next steps to use it
Animated explainers allow you to feature on YouTube, the world’s second biggest search engine
These benefits help explain why explainer videos are effective and also why the 2021 Wyzowl State of Video Marketing report found that 87% of marketers reported that video provided a positive return on investment. Learn more about whiteboard animation!
Supercharging stories is our passion, we’re an animated explainer video production company and we’ve brought stories to the screen for organisations like TED-Ed, the BBC, iKEA, eBay, Deloitte and the Ministry of Justice. In that time, we’ve loved working on a whole host of ideas, ranging from big abstract theories to book and product explainers. Each video is a chance to apply our creative skills and visual thinking, and for us to learn more. We create whiteboard animation explainer videos because they make information and ideas accessible to much bigger audiences.
Sharing knowledge is our passion, and we’d love to talk to you about your story and the video you want to create. Book a discovery call today!
When done well, the ingredients in an explainer video combine to create powerful animations that inform, entertain, inspire and stay with viewers. In this post, we look at how they are made.