Have you ever had that awkward moment, when you’re talking to someone you know well now and someone from your past turns up? A past when you might have been slightly different to the crafted and honed person you consider yourself today. You’re talking about Aristotle and suddenly in the same moment you’re asked if you’re still collecting Pokémon cards and want to trade. Who can say what Aristotle would have thought about Pokémon cards (something about the doctrine of forms maybe), but we’re pretty sure they are two worlds that shouldn’t collide.

It’s a moment that really shows the importance of voice, in the way we choose to present and express ourselves, and it isn’t just chance encounters with old school friends that highlight this. Businesses everywhere think hard about their voice and how to present it to the world. Carefully considered and crafted, it’s important to express your business voice in a way that does it justice and captures it fully, and this is where whiteboard videos can help.

What goes into your business voice?

Before you think about how to express your business’s voice and personality, it’s important to think about what could feed into it and anything you might make that uses it. As founders of the whiteboard video medium, our points will focus on this but they also apply more widely. We look at how to make a whiteboard video here.

Your history

The history of your business can play a major role in the way your express yourself. You might have decades of experience, which gives you an expert position in your industry, but you might also be a young company that is able to use your newness to support your points and business offerings.

Your brand

Creating a brand which is unique, well known and instantly comes to mind when your audience think about a certain topic takes a lot of work and it’s an achievement to be proud of. Whether you have created this, or are on the way to doing so, including key aspects such as colours, logos and tone are key considerations in how you express yourself.

Values and goals

These go to the heart of your business and get reflected in some way at every stage of your organisation and communications. These are crucial, they guide your business and define how people see you. The way you weave these into your business voice and corporate storytelling has a big impact on the way you express your voice.

Iconic staff and mascots

Over the years there have been many people and mascots that have become part of our everyday lives; we’re looking at you, Henry Hoover! If you have a staff member, your founder for instance, or a beloved mascot of your own, then including these in your storytelling and voice allows people to connect with you and your brand and values more strongly.

Whiteboard videos are full of opportunities to include these, in direct, subtle and creative ways. This is just one reason we love the medium and we had the opportunity to combine everything we’ve talked about here into a whiteboard video for WeTransfer.

Now we’ll dive into how whiteboard videos let you express business voice in a nuanced, engaging and memorable way.

Storytelling

In the same way you probably don’t think of circuit boards first when you look at your smartphone, scripts might not be the first thing that come to mind when you think about a whiteboard video - but they’re there and they’re essential. Scripts are the first stage of a whiteboard videoanimation and allow you to literally write your story. Creating a well-crafted script is a great way to get the key parts of your voice into your whiteboard video, as this script is the foundation for everything else.

As well as allowing you to cover all your key points, your script allows you to refine the way you express yourself even further. Firstly, the words you use say a lot about your personality and set the tone of the whiteboard video from an early stage. Secondly, the narrative structure you use to tell your story or frame your message makes all the difference.

Our brains are experts at interpreting stories, so the way you tell it is important. Are you solving a problem or telling the story of your company’s journey? Are you sharing some concrete findings or offering a range of solutions? These are all different narratives and picking the right one allows you to embed your voice into the very fabric of the whole video. There are a lot of options but this article offers some great narrative suggestions.

And of course, there is the trusty call to action. Again, the choice of words gives you a great chance to include your personality, and what you’re asking (or not) will likely be driven by your business goals. Calls to action work well in whiteboard videos because they create good engagement and connection with viewers.

We were honoured to work with Professor Richard Wiseman, Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, on a piece of research comparing ‘talking head’ videos and whiteboard videos and found that compared with ‘talking head’ videos, whiteboard videos were:

• 66% more likely to be shared

• resulted in a 15% increase in information retention

• were rated 33% more entertaining

The visual thinking

This is where all the visual storytelling happens and your business voice takes shape. Like sleepy brains receiving a morning coffee, all the ideas written into the script are transformed into rich and dynamic visuals. Classic examples like the RSA Animates series show the level of engagement and success that can be reached through this transformation.

Since launching in 2010, the series has had over 100,000,000 views and as the creatives behind the series, we are very proud of the response the animations have had and the amount of people that have been reached by these ideas.

Illustrations

Illustrations and the scenes, props and details they create bring your words to the screen. The joy of whiteboard videos is that they offer a blank canvas, so if you can imagine it, then it can become part of your video. Not only does this mean you can explain your idea or share your message visually using custom made illustrations, it also allows you to include your voice even further.

From the illustration style to the illustrations themselves, you can weave your personality and tone throughout the video, creating illustrations that are highly recognisable, relatable and signify directly or indirectly who you are and what you stand for.

Characters

Illustrations don’t come much more relatable than characters. The characters you include say a lot about you and give you lots of potential to express your voice. You can base your characters on well-known people in your business or reflect you and your audience more broadly.

There is plenty to think about:

• who are they?

• what are they doing, wearing and representing?

• what setting are they are in?

The answers to all the questions give you opportunities to include your voice and your personality.

Colours, logos and brand guidelines

The visual aspect of a whiteboard video is ripe with opportunities to express yourself and as well as more creative interpretations, don’t forget about the more obvious. Your brand is important, the unique fingerprint that sets you apart from competitors, so celebrate it. Your colour choices for the accent colour of your animation are powerful way of anchoring it into your identity and way you use your logo gives you lots of options.

You could feature it at the start or end of your whiteboard video, or incorporate it into the storytelling itself as a central part of the visual storytelling. Brand guidelines allow you to go further; your choice of references to include or avoid and your of choice font all help establish your voice and the overall tone of the video.

Scenes and locations

The places where we spend our time say a lot about us and that extends to the scenes and location used in whiteboard videos. Obviously, in your whiteboard video these will be influenced by the story you are telling or the message you are sharing, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used to express you and your voice at the same time.

From the location itself to smaller details like names, there are plenty of opportunities to sprinkle in your personality.

Onscreen text

This is the place where the visual thinking, brand and the script cross over most closely. Onscreen text can be big and bold or more subtle and it’s a good way of emphasising key points or giving more thorough explanations where needed. From the style you choose for your text to the words you choose, it allows you to express important aspects of your voice like values.

Animation

Animation breathes life into all of this, stitching sections and scenes together as your story unfolds. Animation has a lot to offer you as you add your voice into your whiteboard video. As well as taking the viewer from scene to scene, animation can be used to add moments of charm and detail. It could be the facial expression of a character, the way a prop moves or the way text appears on screen.

The voiceover and sound

One of whiteboard video’s greatest strengths is that it appeals to multiple intelligences and learning preferences. We’ve covered visual–spatial and kinesthetic, which brings us to auditory. The audio part of a whiteboard video is no exception when it comes to providing plenty of opportunities to express yourself. 

The voiceover 

The voiceover sees that script coming into its own again, as your carefully crafted words are given an actual voice. This is a massive opportunity to present your personality and identity. The voiceover artist you use might be a well-known part of the team or a professional voiceover artist, but either way, choosing a voice with the right the sound, style and tone is a golden opportunity to tell people who you are. 

Music 

Like food shopping when hungry, using music requires a little extra consideration. It can improve engagement and add to the appeal of your video, but it can also distract viewers or make it harder to focus on the message of your whiteboard video. If you do decide to use music and you use it well, it is another great way of expressing your voice - adding to the tone and atmosphere of the video. 

Sound effects 

Like onscreen text, sound effects can boost engagement while highlighting and emphasising key moments and points in your narrative. And like music, the sounds you choose and the way you use them can help establish tone and feel within your video, making sound effects another good avenue for the expression of your business voice and personality. 

Whiteboard videos are such a great vehicle for your voice, as well as your message, because can to connect with audiences at a deeper level, engaging viewers while also being memorable. This means after embedding your essence into your whiteboard video at every stage, you and your personality can resonate and stay with people. This blog explains more about how to make a whiteboard video. 

Whiteboard video animation is our passion, we love using it to bring both the ideas and personality of organisations to life and wide audiences. If you would like to show the world who you are through whiteboard animation, contact us today!