When it comes to educating and engaging with your audience, no other medium even comes close to being as effective as video marketing. The beauty of video marketing is that it allows you to not only get the content of your message across, but you can tightly control the tone and style of how that content is delivered.
If you’re considering making a video, you may be going back and forth between shooting it live action or creating an animated video. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that dilemma; both styles have their perks and drawbacks. Keep these things in mind as your deciding what type of video you want to create.
When to Use Live Action Videos
Live action videos are a great way to showcase a tangible product or service. If you’re selling, say, a vacuum cleaner, a live action video can demonstrate its benefits in a way that an animated video could not. Watching an animated vacuum cleaner suck up animated particles isn’t nearly as convincing as watching the real thing in action.
On the other hand, live action videos have some limitations. It’s hard to convey abstract ideas, such as cloud-based services, using a live action video. In instances where an intangible product or service is being provided, live action videos may not be effective.
The Benefits of Animated Videos
Animated videos are awesome for conveying abstract or conceptual ideas and services. These types of videos are well-suited for companies that provide web services that may be difficult to sum up by an actor working from a script. They also don’t have the limitations that live action videos do. Do you want to incorporate a cape-clad pig flying over a cityscape? No problem! With animated videos, you’re only limited by your own imagination.
Animated videos are also easy to brand. You can incorporate the same fonts, styles, colors and themes that are on your website into your video, providing consistency across marketing materials.
As your products and services evolve, it’s very easy to edit animated videos to keep them up-to-date, making them a great long-term marketing tool. Editing a live action video is significantly more difficult and likely won’t have the same seamless results.
Summing It Up
Both live action and animated videos have their areas in which they shine. By considering the message that you want to convey (along with a few other factors like budget, time constraints, and resources), you can decide which style is best suited for you.
