How to Make an Explainer Video Memorable

Explainer videos are versatile enough to fit in most marketing campaigns. Regardless of your specific goals, well-made videos that explain your products or services can deliver superb and consistent results. By balancing entertainment with information delivery, you can engage your audience within seconds, hold their attention and deliver your key marketing message. The explainer video can be as short as 30 seconds and as long as 10 minutes.

For a brand video to be successful, your brand name and key message must remain with your audience. After all, the last thing you want after creating amazing video content is for your brand to go unremembered.

But how do you implant the brand in the memory of viewers? How do you make a piece of video content that can’t be forgotten?

Key message: Keep your brand “present” throughout the piece by using structural, storytelling, and audiovisual techniques that are memorable. In this piece, we’ll cover some of the most effective approaches. Do it right, and you can rest assured that your brand will remain in your audience’s mind long after the video has ended.

Characters

Resist the temptation to create characters that look like you. Instead, try to make them mirror your target audience. That’s a fairly common practice of professional video companies – and it works well.

Ask yourself: What do they want? How do they look and sound? How do they behave? This way, your viewers can empathize with the characters and feel as though the message is directed to them.

Remember the human touch. Even when using animation – or especially then – it’s essential to make those protagonists as human as possible. If they seem too robotic or fake, your video will quickly fall into oblivion.

Color

In video, details matter, because they affect the overall impression. Make sure every detail in your video reflects your brand’s identity, especially the color palette.

Think about the tonalities of your logo, your stories, and website, and make sure to implement them throughout your video. Viewers will absorb a cohesive message that they’ll recall whenever they come across your color palette. This is especially important for businesses that are just getting started, and need to make a lasting impression on their growing audience.

Several studies determined that color is the visual component people remember most about a brand, followed by shapes and symbols. Research has also found that color increases brand recognition by up to 80% and that 60% of the time, people will decide if they like or dislike a message based on color alone.

The script

The core messages of a compelling video will (ideally) be established during pre-production as the script is being developed.

To make your brand memorable, make sure to include words that easily resonate in your audience’s minds. Prioritize words and phrases that contain emotional meaning and directly relate to the essence of your brand. Keep the language taut. Use active and relatable verbs. Avoid general and wishy-washy terms that people say or hear all the time, but don’t overcomplicate it either. Once you find the correct balance between being original and being relatable, you’ll have it. Before you sign-off on the script, read it aloud and see if it sounds right.  Almost always, you’ll make significant changes based on how the script sounds.

Also, don’t forget to create a structure that builds momentum: First introduce the problem your potential customer might have (also called ‘the what’). Then, offer the solution your brand has (the ‘how’). In the end, explain why the audience should choose your brand over your competitors (the ‘why’).

Following this classic structure gives you ample opportunity to engage in effective branding to bring your message to the viewers.

Entertainment

A good laugh is always appreciated, even when you are marketing products or services that could be portrayed as “boring” in the wrong hands. Humor – when used wisely – is like a magic spark that can make any piece of content striking and memorable. Self-deprecating humor works best. Cute also works well, especially on social media. A mascot helps the memory. It’s almost always a good idea to carry over visual elements from print campaigns to reinforce imagery.

If your video is funny and entertaining, your viewers won’t be able to keep it to themselves. They’ll want to share the video on their social media channels and — who knows? — maybe make it viral. Humor or other entertainment element will give your video more chances to continue to circulate on social media and remain in your audience’s mind.

Logos

Lastly, think about the most obvious, useful, and easily misused piece of branding you can add to a video: your brand’s logo.

As you may know, people don’t like to feel pressured or pestered by marketers trying to push an agenda. When working to improve your video’s branding, be careful with your logo’s placement. It’s crucial to know when and how to use it to maximize its effectiveness. Employ the logo shrewdly.

The structure mentioned before – the ‘what,’ the ‘how’ and the ‘why’- structures the video into three acts.  The second act, the “how,” is where you SHOW, not just tell, how your product works and solves the problem. That’s the best moment to introduce your brand’s logo. Why not before? Because ‘the what’ or introduction is there to engage with your viewers and make them pay attention. It often focuses on their pain points.

Once they are interested, you position your brand as the solution – the reliever of pain points. That’s when your logo appears.

Conclusion

You have a product or service, to introduce to the world and you decide to use an explainer video to do so. Great choice! But if a great product is featured in mediocre video, the product will be quickly forgotten.

With a high-quality explainer video, you can make a great brand impression that remains with your potential customers after they finish watching. Implementing these practices will go a long way to ensure that happens.