How to Power Your Brand Through 2D Animation

With 2d animation, your stories are unleashed into a world of possibilities through a combination of storytelling, technology, and art.

2d animation offers a level of creative control that allows for pinpoint accuracy in telling your story and delivering a message that breaks through the clutter and elevates your marketing. With 2d animation, if you can think it, it can be drawn, animated and brought to life.

What is 2d Animation?

2d animation combines scenes and characters inside of a two-dimensional space. This is in contrast to 3d animation where digital models of characters and environments are built inside of a fully realized three-dimensional virtual world.

With the computer and internet revolution came powerful technologies for processing animation. For instance, rigging allows for an animator to create only 2 frames of a sequence that includes the beginning and final frame. The computer then auto-populates the other frames in between to create fluid motion.

As powerful technologies for processing animation continued to evolve, so did its application. What was once used exclusively for cinematic purposes was adopted by large brands such as Coca Cola, Apple, Ford, etc.

In this article, we explore the benefits of 2D animation and how to use it in your video marketing strategy to unleash the potential of your brand and drive you closer to achieving your business goals.

Be Anywhere and Do Anything

Utilizing 2D animation is a great way of demonstrating a business, product, or service that is abstract or conceptual. You can be anywhere and depict anything through the power of illustration. This allows you multiple avenues of creativity in order to get the message across about your business.

A popular video type for 2d animation is the animated explainer video. 2D animated explainer videos are exceptional at taking complex concepts and delivering them with crystal clarity. They do so by combining powerful visuals and sounds within a dynamic story. While the viewer is fully engaged, a bite-sized description of the business, product or service is delivered to the viewer in a way that is more digestible. 

The viewer feels entertained and clearly grasps more about the business, product or service.

Your Perfect Pitch

We live in a world of ultra-short attention spans. That means that your business pitch needs to be concise and impactful. When you craft a 2d animated video, it is your perfect pitch every single time. Careful attention is paid to developing a script that communicates a compelling story while also articulating the description and benefits of your business, product, service, idea or concept.

The story is the hook that pulls the viewer into your video. Viewers can then more clearly understand the product, service, idea or concept more quickly and effectively.

Pushing the Boundaries While Staying On-Brand

2D animation makes it easy to reinforce and ultimately elevate your brand. By using similar colors, styles, and themes, your animation can mesh seamlessly with your brand guidelines. In fact, stylistic illustrations that make up the 2d animated video can even add a fresh dimension to your current marketing. Often the addition of animation can soften an ultra corporate brand and make it feel more approachable and inviting.

You can also develop character illustrations that serve a greater purpose in driving your marketing message and achieving business goals. For example, think of classic mascots such as Cap’n Crunch, the Charmin Bear, The Geico Gecko, Tony the Tiger. For Marketing Reel, we have Ollie the Octopus.

A smart and engaging animation can catch fire with your audience. When you explore and think outside of the box, your ideas and aesthetics have the potential to resonate deeply with your audience. When you do hit the creative mark, you can produce campaigns surrounding that style that are compelling and drive business goals forward.

2D Animation for Your Business

Increased Time on Page

2D animation is great when placed on a landing page so that a prospect can watch and contemplate the various available solutions. Typically, a prospect will stay longer on a page with an explainer video opposed to one without and more time on a page means greater engagement in the other elements on the landing page.

Increased Conversions

A 2d animation is proven to impact your business bottom line as well. HubSpot reports that “after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. When you make the investment in an animated video, you invest in the power of video and the future potential of your brand.

How does a 2d animation come together?

The core of an impactful 2D animation is the willingness to push the boundaries of creativity while still staying within the parameters of your brand colors, styles and themes.

Script Phase: You have your business service or product that you want to get across to your ideal target customers. The objective is to use the power of storytelling to hook your viewer in so that they stay long enough to learn about the benefits of what you are promoting.

Storyboard & Illustrations: This is where the script comes to life through black and white drawings that depict the characters and settings. The storyboard showcases each scene of the script and is a snapshot of how the final animation will look. The storyboard is then saturated with colors that are in line with your brand.

Animation: Use animation techniques such as rigging to transform the the storyboard/illustrations into fluid motion.

Voiceover: Choosing the right voiceover artist is a large part of the success of an animated video. The voice tonality should fit into the messaging of the animation and the emotion that you are looking to convey. The voice should also match the target demographic.

Music/Sound FX: Add final touches such as sound effects and music, which heighten the viewer’s sensations by accentuating the intended emotion of the scene.

In Conclusion

2d animation for businesses combines the skills of storytellers, copywriters, directors, illustrators, animators, voiceover artists, and sound designers. It is a collaboration that produces videos that entertain, educate, and move a target audience towards common business goals.

To learn more about the world of videos, read our free guide, “How to Win With Video in 2022“.