Animated video Vs Live video for your next online marketing scheme

The online video trend is going absolutely nuts! There’s so much great content out there that you might even be feeling a little overwhelmed about what kind of video your business should create!

It’s a little bit like asking ‘cats vs dogs’, ‘apples vs oranges’ or ‘tea vs coffee’.

Personally, if you ask me I’m more of a dog,apples and coffee kind of person, but whatever! You get it.

Animated video compared to a live production video comes down to what you specifically need to showcase in your online marketing video, what your goals are and who your audience is. Both however do have different pros and cons, so that’s exactly what I’m going to create for you. (Drumroll please…)

A PRO’S AND CON’S LIST!

We’ll start with animation shall we.

There’s different kinds of animation you can go for that you can read about here on one of our earlier blog posts. But for the most part, all animation videos have the same strengths and weaknesses.

ANIMATED VIDEO

PRO

They’re simple and straight forward.

There’s a reason why there’s such a thing as explainer animations. It’s because one of animation’s strengths lies in its ability to express complicated ideas quickly and easily. Or in other words, they are great at explaining things. 

If you want to get across a tricky idea or complex subject, animation can be far better

PRO

You can really ‘brand’ your business with animation.

All animation has some sort of style, no matter whether it’s 2D, 3D, hand-drawn, whiteboard style or hyper-realistic. You’ve basically got a blank canvas with a variety of different options to choose from, to express your business brand.

PRO

Any location that can be imagined can be represented

With exotic or dangerous locations posing all sorts of budgetary and health and safety issues for a conventional film shoot. With animation, any environment that can be drawn or rendered on an animator’s monitor can be realized and brought to life.

No need to stress if you’ve got a boring looking office!

PRO

It’s (mostly) easier to make changes at any given time.

Do you still have some changes you want to make to your animated video, even at the very end of the production process? Or do you want to return to it in 6 months’ time and alter some of the information? Not a problem with animation! But re-shooting a live action video would be a lengthy and expensive headache

PRO

They’re generally less expensive.

Less people, less equipment and a shorter time period needed to create an animated video.

CON

Consumers don’t know the people behind the business.

If your business requires the public to really trust and feel comfortable with who you are, then an animated video can lack a personal touch.

We’re all instinctively drawn to real human faces, especially when they show real human emotion, and it’s an effect you just can’t achieve in animation. You can portray it in animation, but it’s still not the real deal.

CON

Options are limitless.

This is also definitely a pro, but some people work better to certain guidelines and considering you can basically do anything, it’s going to be harder to think of a successful concept.

Check out our animation videos here 

LIVE VIDEO PRODUCTION

PRO

They’re more personal.

If you want to make your business appear more human, you can’t beat a live action video featuring real people. When you can see a person’s face and listen to their story, their message immediately becomes more genuine and convincing. These types of ‘real people’ videos are great if you have a direct product or service that consumers will physically want to see.

PRO

They show real life practices.

As previously mentioned, an animated video is great at explaining complicated ideas. But depending on what exactly you’re explaining, a video of someone going through the exact step by step process could be more successful.

For example, in a training video shown to your team to teach them a certain manoeuvre, a live action reenactment may be both easier for them to understand and more likely to be remembered.

PRO

You can directly film your online marketing video to be LIVE or you can also choose to edit.

With so many social media apps now having the ability to just stream live, you can use this as a tool to create your ‘online video’. I mean theres Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat just to name a few. Given that the concept is slightly different to fully creating a big promotional or explainer video, it’s still a great option that is very cost effective.

On the other hand, there is the opportunity to shoot real life videos and have them edited to be an intriguing corporate video production. These are definitely designed to be longer and more professional.

CON

They’re generally more expensive.

Again, more professionals, more equipment, harder time schedules to adhere to etc, the price will usually bump up.

CON

They’re restricted by reality.

With an animated video you can basically achieve any sort of idea you can ever imagine, real life videos are restricted to what you can access. Whether that be location, equipment, interviewees, scheduling the right people in on the right days to be filmed etc, it can easily get quite complicated, hard and limited.

Essentially, with live productions you can’t have unicorns bounding over rainbows if thats what your business requires. Unless you really want to blow your budget that is.

Check out our corporate video productions here

Gemma Rowley.