A Digital Animation On Your Website Can Build Brand Recognition

Digital Media and Animation have become two of the fastest growing industries in the world. They currently represent 43.8% of the total global revenue for all forms of commercial and industrial computer graphics. In a recent report, Australia's Federal Government identified the Digital Content Industry as the fastest growing sector globally. It has an estimated value to the Australian economy of $21 billion, contributes 3.5% to Australia's GDP and employs 300,000 people.

No longer is animation something that you switch on television on a Saturday morning when you want the kids to keep quiet while you have a sleep-in. Corporate websites are developing their own personalized moving animation to attract, engage and demonstrate to their clients and visitors. Animation can be a simple, easy, cost-effective way of adding that something 'extra' to your website, making it more interesting and giving you an opportunity to speak to viewers about your company in a fun, easy to understand manner.

Most Common Objectives For Animation:

• Building brand recognition
• Product or service information
• Advertising

Make Yourself Memorable

Animation can be used to create a memorable online marketing experience, making your website stand out from the competitors' pages and pages of content. If an animation is interesting or even light-hearted or humorous, it can generate positive feelings towards your company. It leaves visitors with a smile on their face or a thought on their mind, and this will eventually lead their thoughts (and hopefully smiles!) back to you.

Your moving animation could be something as simple as a moving logo, to something more complex has a fully animated and interactive website or movie designed to tell a story. Maybe it could be a viral email campaign. All of these can be used to tell the story of your company or service, and create a memorable user experience that encourages the site visitor to bookmark and spread the word.

One must consider the primary objectives of the website. First of all is the primary objective of the website to promote and convey the company brand? If so how will animation on a website achieve this? Will it achieve it?

Inform, Interest & Inspire

Of course an animation can be incredibly useful in giving information about the product or service that your website is offering, or perhaps your company's Unique Selling Point. The idea is to use the animated video to convey important information that may be a little too difficult (or expensive) to convey through simple images, texts or live videos. An animation can be effective in expressing the 'feel' of a service, product, or company that can often get lost in text - and which could well be the thing that makes that one person choose you over others. A moving animation, through providing information, can help sell your product or service, and ultimately generate more revenue.

Often a company has so many products or services that it is difficult to convey all of that information using just text and imagery. This is when video can be very effective. For example, real estate websites are increasingly using animated 'fly-through' to allow the visitor to 'see' the property and move around inside it. Similarly, event websites often feature 'virtual tours' of the properties that they rent out for weddings and events which the viewer can virtually walk through and get a feel for the place they will potentially rent out.

Sell In A New Way

And of course moving animation can be used for general advertising. Rather than filling your website with advertisements that have visitors averting their eyes quicker than they can say 'another ad', sell your product or service in an interesting, exciting way with your animation. Save your text space for valuable information, and make use of the decision a visitor made to click 'Play' - up-sell, cross-sell or simply sell what you have to offer in a way people haven't seen before.

Tell Me How

To get an idea of what to use animation for on your business' website, have a think about what you would like to use it for. What is the primary objective of the website - is it to promote and convey the company brand? If so, then how will animation on a website achieve this? What sort of visitors do you want to attract and what would they like to see - something informative, or something humorous?

Different forms of moving animation can convey different things. Some examples are:

• A logo that moves or interacts with the viewer
• A slide show of images highlighting your products or services
• 'How to' or 'Help' videos or a product information video
• Animated banners, that advertise important features of the website or third party websites
• Interactive and animated navigation systems

Each has its perks and can be useful if used in the correct way. An animated slideshow, for example, can display numerous examples of your products or services, allowing the viewer to see multiple images on the one page without having to search, click, or scroll. People love 'how to' videos, as their immense popularity on YouTube clearly demonstrates. If they're animated, then they are all the more interesting and unique to your company's brand. They can even feature an 'avatar', whereby an animated likeness of your person is created and used to get your message across.

Get Your Creative Thinking Cap On

A moving animation can be what makes your website stand out from the rest. It can assist in defining your business brand, and make for a memorable experience for visitors to your website. Contact iQuantum today for more information on creating a moving animation that is personalized to your company.

To learn more about the different forms of digital animation terminology, check out our FAQs.