How many uses can you think of for a paperclip? It’s an old question, almost a cliché at this point, but you can’t argue that there are a lot of answers. Some of the best uses we’ve seen include chainmail armour (well 22,000 paperclips), a guitar pick and a sundial. However, we think it’s time for revamp of this classic question! How many uses are there for an explainer video?

In this post we’ll look at twelve, but there are a lot. In the business world alone, you can design the perfect explainer video to tackle almost any challenge or fill any niche. And after all the possible uses, there is no shortage of options of explainer video types to choose from. Watch this space; explainer videos really are the new paperclips.

Explainer video uses

We have been making explainer videos since 2004 and during that time we’ve worked on a lot of projects. Out of them and the many possibilities there are for explainer videos, these are twelve of our favourites.

1 - Onboarding

Getting onboarding right is important. Getting your team off to the right start makes a big difference in how they adjust, feel and contribute. Whether it’s done in person or remotely, it takes careful planning and good staff resources. Enter explainer videos, explaining the key aspects of a role or company while also providing plenty of opportunities to inject your personality and values. A well-made explainer video can serve you for many years and it provides something a new member of the team can revisit again and again as they settle in.

2 - Telling your story

Businesses are full of stories; it could be the story of how your business was founded or the story of your company’s successes and achievements. Sharing these stories is important; they invite people in your team or the public into the ethos of your business and provide a human and relatable dimension to your business. Explainer videos are an ideal way to tell these stories. They combine engaging narratives with memorable and entertaining visual thinking.

3 - Landing page explainers

Landing pages have an important job. They need to get your message across and convince people to move to take the next step. This is no small feat, so your landing pages have to be in top shape. A great way of doing this is to include an explainer video. Not only do they supercharge messages, informing viewers and leaving a lasting impact, research by Wistia has found that people spent on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without. This gives you extra time to land your messages and convince people to follow your call to action.

4 - Product and service explainers

Google has found that 68% of YouTube users watched YouTube to help make a purchase decision. It shows the value and visibility that an explainer video can bring you and your product or service. It’s not just visibility however, explainer videos (and animated explainer videos especially) are great at making information accessible, presenting it in a detailed and layered way. The combination of visuals, text and voiceover allows for lots to be said in a short amount of time.

5 - Sharing research, reports and books

Research plays a big role in the way we understand the world. It’s important to talk about it and its findings, but that isn’t always easy when the research itself is complex or very information rich. This is another setting where explainer videos shine. Through that combination of visuals, voiceover and onscreen text, they are able to provide full and in-depth understanding that provides space for context and nuance. What’s more, they are able to do this in an engaging, memorable and shareable way - allowing your research to be well understood by a broad audience.

6 - Updating old content

Content that captures your essence and message and resonates with your audience really is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s a great asset and can keep spreading the word for many years. When classic pieces of content start to look a little tired, explainer videos provide a great way to give them a fresh new look. We have written more about converting old content into an explainer video here. Explainer videos provide many ways to share and adapt content, and if you choose an animated explainer video, the options increase even more. Going hand in hand with these options is the popularity of video, Cisco found that the consumption of video has gone up 17-fold since 2012.

7 - Engaging audiences on social media

Social media is a bustling world with 4.48 billion users around the world. When it comes to raising awareness or sharing a message, this makes it an incredible place to do this. It also makes it a very crowded and noisy place. An explainer video is a great way of overcoming these challenges and sharing your message in a way that engages, informs and entertains. One quality of explainer videos that comes in very handy here is their ability to hold someone’s attention despite other distractions. Building on this, our animated explainer video research showed that animated explainers were much more likely to be shared than ‘talking head’ videos.

8 - Pitching in a digital world

Covid forced the world to go remote, and when it comes to pitching, that actually brought some pros. For many, virtual pitching has created better dialogues and more focussed meetings. It has also removed travel barriers and opened up more markets. Pitching in a digital world has also shown the power of good content. When it comes to content, explainer videos are the perfect choice for pitches. By using multiple information streams, they can communicate a lot of information quickly - making it engaging, moving and memorable at the same time.

9 - Adding another level to live and virtual events

Explainer videos are amazing at supercharging stories and sharing information, making them a perfect feature for events whether in-person or virtual. We have made several videos with this use in mind, and they have proved great at introducing the themes and topics that underpin events as whole. By getting everyone on the same page, they help to prime attendees for the talks and discussions to come. They also become part of your events legacy. This is a very effective tool for in-person events, but this importance increases dramatically when the event is virtual.

10 - Sharing important takeaways from big meetings

There are meetings, and there are MEETINGS; the kind where policies or procedures that will affect the whole business are shared. It’s often essential that everyone takes these on board and incorporates them into their work. After the initial announcement, explainer videos are ready to be your assistants as they explain and remind staff again and again. Using the strengths we’ve mentioned above, an explainer video can explain your messages, make them memorable and make them actionable. This method also comes in very handy when it comes to informing anyone that may have missed the meeting, or people that join the organisation later.

11 - Explaining podcast ideas and sharing moments

From moments of deep insight and learning to the criminally captivating and the laugh out loud, podcasts provide a lot of things to a lot of people - 155 million in the US alone according to research on PodcastInsights.com. However, sharing these moments more broadly and in their full glory can be tricky. Explainer videos can help, especially animated explainer videos. Their ability to visualise the complex and abstract, and to capture emotion and personality, makes them a perfect choice to capture podcast moments or big ideas in a very shareable format.

12 - Explaining key details in court cases

This last one is niche and might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think the words ‘explainer video’, but we have made an animated explainer video for use in a court case. The case involved some complex evidence which it was vital was fully understood. We created a whiteboard animation which not only used strengths such as explaining the complex in an accessible way, it also used the ability of whiteboard animation to layer and connect ideas to explain key points and show how they related to each other and the bigger picture. This combination of skills makes animated explainer videos very effective in situations like this.

Explainer video examples we like

There are a lot of amazing explainer videos that have been made, and here we have picked out four explainer video examples that we enjoy a lot.

Adidas X Parley - Run For The Oceans

We really enjoy the way this explainer video fuses camera footage and animation to promote their range of shoes, the threat our oceans face from plastic and the way they are helping to tackle it. The video is bold and dynamic.

Slack - Work, Simplified

This animated explainer video from Slack really captures the pain of office life. It shows the early starts, the rushing, the meetings, the chaos of notes, emails - all from different places. It then shows the calm that comes from using Slack. This video does a good job emphasising with the problem and presenting a solution.

Squarespace - Create Your Own Space

We love the way this explainer video for Squarespace captures the essence and energy of the personal stories that are told through their website. It’s a great way to make an abstract product feel emotive, real and engaging.

The Royal Society - Why A Career In Science Is For Me

We must confess, this is an animated explainer video that we made. What we love about it is the message. The video uses the narrative, visual thinking and voiceover to inspire the next generation of scientists, including students who may not have at first considered the sciences. We are firm believers in using explainer videos to inspire and share vital ideas and messages.

What should an explainer video include?

Every recipe has some room to add your own special touches. It’s important; these are the things that allow you to make it feel like you and get your message across. There are a few things though, in every recipe, that need to be there if it’s going to work. We’ve been making explainer videos since 2004 and in that time we’ve learnt a few things

• Planning - it might sound obvious, but getting a plan and a vision in place at the start can save a lot of painful and expensive moments later on. Working out your message, your audience, where the video will be used and what to include or not before starting production is essential.

• Humour, emotion or cultural references - depending on your subject, some of these may not be appropriate, but their inclusion can take the engagement, relatability and entertainment of your explainer video to the next level. This is important because it has a big impact on your video and the way your message is received.

• Visual thinking - this has extra relevance if you are making an animated explainer video, but whatever type of explainer video you are making, tailoring the visuals, sets, props and characters to the story you are telling and the audience you are appealing to is another key part of the recipe.

• Personality - explainer videos allow you to give your business or brand a human element, no matter how big or small it is. Including your personality through the video style, characters, tone, voiceover etc. allows you to communicate who you are and give viewers an extra way of connecting with you.

• Storytelling - another point that might sound obvious, but our brains are wired for stories. They engage us, entertain us and make everything more memorable. It’s essential that you work out what your story is and what the best way to tell it is.

Explainer videos can achieve amazing things; they can take a message far and wide, reach many audiences, inspire people, raise awareness about issues or give your product or service the thorough explanation it deserves. Cognitive have been making animated explainer videos since 2004, and we developed the whiteboard animation style while creating the RSA Animates.

Bringing stories, ideas, services and products to audiences in a tailored and bespoke way is our passion. We’d love to talk to you about the ways an animated explainer video could help you, contact us today!