Shaun the Sheep and Marketing with Animation

By Karen Cioffi

I’ve watched silent movies before. And, a couple of the ‘oldie’ cartoons (e.g., Tom and Jerry) that had no talking. But, I would never have thought a full length movie for kids would work in today’s dwindling attention span society.

Well, I was wrong.

Shaun the Sheep has NO talking. No captions either.

The entire 1 hour and 25 minute cartoon movie conveyed the-grass-is-greener concept, conflict, obstacles, heroism, loyalty, and emotions. And, it did it all through actions, through animation.

I took my grandsons to the movie and the theater had lots of other grandparents with their grandchildren. Every child was captivated, the adults too. In fact, you forgot there were no words – no dialogue.

My 9 year old grandson who has ADD paid attention through the entire movie – and, he didn’t want to go in the first place, thinking it was a baby movie.

I was amazed, not only that it held his attention, but it help my attention. Me, who is always thinking of what I have to do next.

Quite an accomplishment.

This is the power of animation.

And, just imagine if an hour and a half animated movie can hold children’s attention, think how it will hold your readers’ and visitors’ attention on your website in short focused clips.

But, aside from my own viewpoints of Shaun the Sheep, there is research that backs up animation’s benefit in content marketing and inbound marketing.

Some Statistics

According to TippingpointLabs.com

  • People are 64% - 85% more likely to purchase your product or service after watching an animation/video – that’s a significant boost to your conversions.
  • Visit lengths are another factor that gets a boost. Visitors will stay on your site at least two minutes longer with animation/video.
  • And, there’s the power of YouTube. You're 53x more likely to get on Google's first-page for search results by embedding video on your site. (1)

Along with this, Shooting Business states that, “Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL are among the hundreds of Search Engines that give priority listings to websites that host video content.” (2) Taking advantage of tags, descriptions, and any other kind of SEO strategies allowed when publishing the video is another avenue of search visibility.

If this isn’t enough incentive to jump on the animation bandwagon, think about the social media marketing aspect. Sharing and clickthrough rates are increased significantly with video.

Animated videos can be humorous, serious, emotional, and educational.

Using animation in your marketing, specifically your content marketing, is a win-win strategy that you should be taking advantage of.

For the icing on the cake, according to Hubspot:

  • Ninety percent of the information the brain receives is visual.
  • The brain processes visual information 60,000 faster than text.
  • Videos in posts get 3X the inbound links than posts with only text.
  • Animation (visual content) increases engagement. (3)

If you’d like to try your hand at a free animation tool, go to PowToon.com and click on the FREE option. (I’m NOT an affiliate, I just think it’s a great marketing tool.)

If you’d like to get one done without the headache of creating it yourself, check out AWD’s Animation Service.

References:

(1) http://www.slideshare.net/tpldrew/steal-this-slide-ecommerce-video-conversion-rates-statistics
(2) http://www.shootingbusiness.com/web-video-statistics/
(3) http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33423/19-Reasons-You-Should-Include-Visual-Content-in-Your-Marketing-Data.aspx



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This article was originally published at:
http://www.articlewritingdoctor.com/2015/08/shaun-the-sheep-and-marketing-with-animation/ #ContentMarketing

8 comments:

Heidiwriter said...

This is quite interesting! LIke you, I never would've thought such a thing would work!

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Heidi, as I was reading this, I thought it is also the power of storytelling, an art as ancient as homo sapiens and their kin sitting around a fire to eat and entertain themselves. We are hardwired for it! (-:

Karen Cioffi said...

It was an experience. Even my 6 year old grandson sat through the entire movie. And, these are two rough and tumble boys.

Karen Cioffi said...

Carolyn, you're absolutely right. It is the power of storytelling. The facial expressions and actions were enough to get the story across.

Unknown said...

"People are 64% - 85% more likely to purchase your product or service after watching an animation/video – that’s a significant boost to your conversions."

Wow, I never realized it was that significant. I suppose the question then is how do you get more people to watch your video ad? I would think most people probably don't watch them at all.

Fred | seoorganic

Karen Cioffi said...

Fred, thanks for stopping by. Getting traffic is where inbound marketing comes into play. I think if the video or animation is short enough, people will watch.

Joan Y. Edwards said...

Dear Karen,
Thanks for sharing! Powtoon seems like it would be not only fun but very helpful.

Never Give Up
Joan

Karen Cioffi said...

Hey, Joan, hope all is well! You do feel a sense of accomplishment when you create an animation. Thanks for stopping by

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