What We Learned About Explainer Videos In 2018

WOW! It’s been a busy 5 years for Ydraw. We launched interactive videos, ypaint, #ygrams, 2.5D animation, live with animation, cardboard videos, and blackboard animation videos, to name a few. We also improved our 2D and 3D styles. Don’t believe us? Check out the demo reel.

In 2018, we’ve been making the switch from explainer videos, to stories! If you want the full details on why, you can read this blog post.

We focused on generating leads, traffic, and sales with stories. Ydraw spent thousands on creating YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram ads. We wanted to create a simple system that would help our clients generate more traffic, leads, and sales with their videos.

Here are some things you should be doing in 2019 with your videos

Video Advertising Ideas Class 101

1. Instagram Ads

I want to show you some of our Instagram videos. We usually test our creations on our own company first and then push them out to our customers.

Here’s our 30 second Instagram ad we did for Ydraw. We took a video we already had and cut it down to 30 seconds. We can do the same for you.

It worked! Here’s a simple screenshot of the results. (note: we did run this over the holiday season which can get expensive. Costs have since come down.)

This simple ad has generated over 142 direct leads. The power of Instagram comes with the comments and sharing. I will discuss this more later.

Here are a couple more examples of Instagram video ads. Below them is a webinar I recorded that goes into more detail about Instagram ads.

Instagram Sponsored Ad Webinar

2. Facebook Ads

Just like Instagram ads, you ought to be running Facebook video ads. Here’s why.

I have been running Facebook ads for years. So far the numbers have been great! The screenshot above is a simple ad I created.
Spend: $218.17
Leads: 31
Reach: 17,687

3. Youtube Ads

I am still in love with YouTube! If you’re not using YouTube for ranking and video ads, wake up…haha!

Please make it a priority in 2019.

Here is a fun YouTube Video Ad we created for a carpet cleaning company.

There is so much more to come on this subject so stay tuned for more.

Explainer Videos Your Key to Unlocking Success

Explainer Videos Your Key to Unlocking Success

 

Explainer Videos Your Key to Unlocking Success

Explainer videos are an indispensable ingredient in presenting your brand or organization. Whether you’re a start-up company, a big name corporation, or a non-profit organization, explainer videos are extremely useful in getting your point across.

The intention of an explainer video is to inform viewers of an idea or to explain what your product or service does.

We all know it can be hard to capture attention with dense writing, so these videos are usually fun, simplistic, upbeat and are about 2-3 minutes long.

Explainer videos are simple, easy, affordable and effective.

The entertaining nature of an explainer video makes it easier for viewers to retain the information.

According to the Global Video Index of 2015, research shows that people are likely to only remember 10% of any information they hear. Yet if paired with a relevant image, they retain 65% of that same information 3 days later.

Also, a recent survey by Video Rascal shows that 85% of people are more likely the purchase a product once they view a correlating explainer video.

These are just two statistics of mounting research supporting their relevance.

Explainer videos are eye-catching, especially when found on the landing page of a website. They grab the attention of site visitors as well as Google.

Adding a video to your website increases your ranking with Google, which in turn can bring more traffic to your site. Oftentimes when a consumer seeks out to understand something new, they’ve already made the decision to purchase it.

Don’t end up scaring away potential new customers with too much text!

Reading a few paragraphs can be boring and is often skipped over for the more comfortable choice of watching a video.

More and more companies are choosing explainer videos as their elevator pitch. Some of these videos are even going viral.

While there is no proven formula to get a video to go viral, you definitely can’t achieve viral status without a video.

You’ve probably seen the Dollar Shave Club’s controversial explainer video about how – ahem – great their blades are. Currently, their video has almost 22 million views.

That is a great example of an entertaining and very memorable (to say the least) video that has been shared over all platforms of social media.

These videos are a great way to help your fans and future fans to evangelize you. Help them share your glory! Give them the content worthy of being spread to the masses and to the furthest corners of the earth.

Word of mouth advertising spreads much easier these days, so what better way to inspire your faithful followers than by giving them the exact content you want them to share?

Creating the actual content for your explainer video is up to you. Take time to really think about what you want to say, and put yourself on the other side of the screen as you write your script.

There are unlimited ways to portray your message, but remember–the simpler the better. The goal of an explainer video is to get your point across and have the viewer remember your message.

So use your imagination, have fun, and boost your online presence!

Unlock success with explainer videos today.

Thank you for reading Explainer Videos Your Key to Unlocking Success

For more information, click here.

How The 76ers Work With Ydraw To Add To Their Legacy – Case Study

How The 76ers Work With Ydraw To Add To Their Legacy – Case Study

On-court legends share their off-court stories and see them come alive!

Backstory

The Philadelphia 76ers—one of America’s oldest basketball franchises—has a rich history including three NBA championships, and has been home to many of the greatest players in the sport.

For decades, the Sixers have thrilled fans with the on-court show of force from the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson, Darryl Dawkins, and Dikembe Mutombo. And have recognized and developed the skills of young talent—such as World B. Free.

The Opportunity

Less known to fans, however, are the off-court, more “human” antics of these superstars. What stories and memories do the players share when they’re not talking basketball?

The Philadelphia 76ers management was aware of the wealth of stories and experiences—many of them humorous—shared by players over the years. In fact, some have become woven into the cultural fabric of the team—but are unknown to the average fan.

They asked themselves, “What if we could share these stories? Would the fans appreciate them?”

That’s when they contacted Ydraw.

The Idea

The plan was to collaborate with these sport legends—letting them candidly tell stories and share memories—and have Ydraw weave storytelling together with fun animations to make the stories come alive.

The Constraint

The Sixers’ management, aware that the budget was tight, decided the piece would have to be short and act as a “test” to see if their idea would be received and enjoyed by fans. They chose to go with a story that World B. Free tells about how Dr. J got the rookie into, and then out of trouble with the police.

The Result

When the Sixers’ released the two-and-a-half minute Ydraw video—a combination of live interview with clever animation—it became an instant classic. It was spread virally on Twitter and posted on the 76ers’ website, YouTube, and picked up by ESPN. The demand was so high for more, that the 76ers found the resources to order half a dozen more videos from Ydraw.

_______________________________

Ydraw wants to tell your story. We are an Explainer Video Company that loves creating inspiring videos.

Ydraw + Your Message = Amazing Results.

Are you ready to get started?

info@ydraw.com

The Rise Of Video Marketing Ideas and How To Make It Stop

The Rise Of Video Marketing Ideas and How To Make It Stop

We love our customers and appreciate the business you all have given us. Without you, we would not be eating.

You would think that after creating animation videos for five years our ideas would run out, but they have not. Success breeds more success, and animation video creation only breeds more video ideas. It’s racking our brains and we just have to make it stop.

You’re going to help us…lol

Over the last year we have come up with some glorious ideas that will certainly go “viral” or at least put you on the map.

For our happy customers, we are going to present you with three video styles and ideas that could change your business forever. These ideas can be adjusted, changed, or adapted to your business, so my hope is that your marketing director will take a look and maybe bring us back some more ideas.

Now, I must warn you that these ideas do not come cheap, nor are they going to be simple. It’s going to take a big budget and for this to work you are going to have to let our professional animators do what they do best:

Create amazing stuff!

I will tell you whom these video ideas are not for…

  • · Companies with a very tight budget. (Sorry, it’s going to take a lot of time and teamwork. This does not come cheap.)
  • · Companies that have a hard time pushing the envelope.
  • · Companies who worry about offending every Tom, Dick and Harry on the planet. These videos will be loved by most, but there will be haters. There always are.

So lets jump in.

I am going to give you examples of these ideas so that you can see what type of traction they have received in the past. Remember, the reason for sharing our ideas is to spark a few ideas of your own.

Video Campaign Number 1

“Fart On A Plane”

All of us have experienced the misery that comes with plane travel. It ranks among the worst experiences – next to death. Personally, I feel like we are being treated like a bunch of lost sheep and I am sure airline workers feel like we are a bunch of dumb lost sheep.

We want to create a series of funny videos. (Five of them to be exact.) These videos are going to show the different scenarios that happen on a plane. It’s something we all relate to and it will bring a smile to the face of the audience.

The kicker is, after each video we will have branding and a message that applies to your company. It’s marketing without the audience knowing.

Here are some great examples:

Have you ever heard of “Dumb Ways To Die?”

It was a video created by Metro Train Station that has over 100 million views, but it doesn’t stop there. The campaign we would create would mimic theirs in that we would create.

  • · Characters
    · YouTube channel
    · Custom song
    · Website
    · 5 videos
    · Marketing banner ads
    · Coloring books
    · Merchandise
    · **Maybe an app**

Check out their video:

And here is their website:

https://shop.dumbwaystodie.com/

Can either of these examples be applied to your business? “Fart On A Plane” could be perfect for a Net Jets, Magellan Jets, Flex Jets, or a private plane company looking to show the misery of commercial plane travel.

What are the pain points of your business that the audience can relate to?

Video Idea Number 2

“Training Like You Have Never Seen Before”

Have you ever seen “The Bottom of the Ninth?” I’m guessing you have not. It is probably one of the cooler ideas I have seen, but it did not get any traction due to lack of marketing and lack of usefulness.

This style of video is 3D, with 2D elements encompassing a comic book feel.

Take a look:

This style would be perfect for a training video series. Could you imagine being trained by videos and a comic book style pamphlet?

Your audience would not forget it!

They could watch the training video series on their phone, at any time, or they could read the comic style pamphlet. It would be the most effective training ever done on planet earth.

A year or two ago we created a training video for The Cosmopolitan and it was a huge success. I think it is time we push the envelope a bit and really create a training video style that will be recognized by companies all around the world.

We can do this; we just need the right customer to make it happen.

Video Idea Number 3

“Still Coming Up With A Title”

If you have been with Ydraw for a while you will know that we love the Chipotle video.

I have written about it a couple of times before. Check it out below:

They nailed the message and were rewarded with millions of views. We want to create something like this for your company. Once again they took the pain point of the audience and exploited it.

Did you see the poor cow?

Now can you see the challenge that we are facing? We have some amazing writers, Disney animators, and editors, who want to be stretched to the limit.

Currently we are doing a full campaign for National Safety Council. They had the budget and we were able to let our artists create. It has stretched them a bit, but they still have hidden talents that we have yet to see.

Video-Marketing-Ideas-number-2

Video-Marketing-Ideas

Here are some screen shots and scenes.

Let’s chat and discuss ways to make this happen. It’s for the greater good. If these video ideas do not stop soon we might have to start creating them on our own.

It’s our job to build it, and the audience will come… lol

Hope you enjoyed…

The Rise Of Video Marketing Ideas and How To Make It Stop

5 Reasons why Whiteboard Explainer Videos are so effective.

Sometimes it doesn’t work to just tell your audience how your company can be essential to their business plan and how they need you so they can live a long and fruitful life. There are a lot of ads that are patronizing to the audience with incredibly dull narratives and poor acting. Perhaps by explaining what you do will persuade consumers better than any actor pretending to care about your company ever could. But here’s the problem, sitting and explaining your company is boring. It’s not engaging, it’s uninspired and it’s so very boring. Like, Jane Austen narrated by Ben Stein boring. So how do you balance out an entertaining video and explaining your company’s concepts and ideas?

Whiteboard explainer videos, of course! Let’s go through why.

  • ILLUSTRATIONS CAN HELP CONVEY COMPLEX CONCEPTS EASIER. Visual concepts are a driving force that allows your audience to grasp your ideas easier. The perfect example are the before and after pictures of meth addicts, though grisly they may be. The before pictures shows a healthy person who doesn’t seem to have any effects of drug abuse. The after pictures show the devastating and shocking effect that meth has on the human body. It appears as though the life had been sucked out of them. Without having to go into detail on how the drug has this effect, or why the person started to take the drug, the story of how it destroys you is clearly presented instantly.

picturewords

  • WATCHING THE CREATION OF THE VISUALS IS CAPTIVATING. As the artist creates characters, environment and situations, the viewer is watching the story unfold in front of them. The simplicity of being able to watch that process pulls in the viewer and in turn they are keen on watching to see what comes next. Being able to see the illustration come to life adds a human touch to the video. Rather than having a polished animation from start to finish, the viewer gets to connect with the person behind the drawing. Knowing there is somebody behind that pen lets the viewer know there are people behind the drawing, just like there are people behind your company.

artisthand

  • SIMPLE AND AFFORDABLE. Without having to use a crowded infographic that can come across more complex than it intends to be, a whiteboard animation is simple and tells your story without having to assault your viewer with statistics and mission statements. Perhaps the thing that stops most people from using video for their company is the cost. Luckily whiteboard explainer videos are incredibly cost effective and can reach a large number of people quickly.

infographic

  • USING NARRATIVE CAN PERSUADE AND MOTIVATE VIEWERS. Any parent knows the influence any kids TV show has on their children. Why when I was a lad, I too became a victim of Saturday morning television shows and for about 2 years straight dressed up like Pee Wee Herman…. EVERYDAY. It happened, deal with it. Just because the audience you have are now older and wiser doesn’t mean they can’t be persuaded by an engaging video. A study by LaMarre and Landreville in 2009 found that the difference of watching a film that reenacted a historical event and a documentary on the same subject had similar levels of issue interest and engagement with the narrative presented. Fictional stories are as effective as factual stories in persuading and shifting ideas related to the narrative. Both can be engaging and compelling experience for the viewer.
  • EASY TO DISTRIBUTE. Distribution of digital video is incredibly simple. A video can be uploaded to a many platforms an infinite amount of times. It can be sent in an email to consumers or link to your YouTube account. The entire world can take part of your company and the video can work its magic every hour of every day. Reaching your audience has been easier than ever.

socialmedia

A promotional video using whiteboard animation can present a complex subject matter into something that can be easily understood while being entertaining. That entertaining video can retain a high engagement rate and rack up views to direct consumers to your company. It’s simple, affordable, it’s easy to distribute to your clients and perhaps you’ll be able to have some free time to catch some Pee Wee Herman yourself. If that’s your thing, it’s certainly mine.