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Iva Kitipova

Sep 14
0
creative brief

Why Is the Creative Brief So Important and How to Write a Good One?

By | Explainer Videos

A brief introduction

All creative projects start with a creative brief, in which the client presents guidelines to the creative team: scriptwriters, with their final product. And just like with maps, if he brief is unclear, misleading, or incomplete, the treasure might remain buried under countless frustrated emails, revisions, and lost time. 

This article will help you compile a brief that outlines your goals in a way that will help the creative team dig out a gem of an explainer video. 

 

X Marks the Spot

Start from where the treasure is buried and work your way back. Visualize the desired end result of your explainer video –  thousands of people knowing your brand, a swarm of new clients running to your stores,  million new downloads of your app. Take the time to clear your goals, discuss them with your employees, managers, or co-workers. Ask yourself – what is the main problem you want to solve or the main question you want to answer.

After you have figured out what you are trying to achieve, let’s see how you can go about it.

 

Hear ye, hear ye!

Another important aspect you need to clearly communicate with the creative team is your target audience. Think about the people who will be watching your video – are they professionals in your field or laymen, regular everyday folk, or big-time important investors? This will help the scriptwriter sort out the correct tone of the video and the designer – the right style. Describe this in your brief, do you want your animation to have a light-hearted, humorous spirit or would you rather it be serious and straight-to-the-point? Or you might want to evoke a deep emotion from your viewers.

 

Explain Yourself

Describe your product, service, or business, even if you don’t want to include it in the video. In order to make the perfect explainer video for you first, we need to have you all figured out ourselves. Don’t just mention that you fix cars – tell us how you do it step-by-step. Don’t be afraid to get into the details, but stay away from advertisement talk. We need to know the facts!

 

Focus

After you’ve described what you do, tell us what is the most important thing people should know about your business. List your strongest points, what sets you apart from the competition, and what the main focus of the video should be – is it that you’re shipping worldwide, or that you’re open on Sundays; maybe you have 24/7 customer care, or your prices are the lowest on the market. The main message might also be your mission statement or the guarantees you give your prospective clients.

As explainer videos are usually quite short, concentrate on just a few bullet points. Think of it like this – if your viewer could only remember three or four things from the video, what would you want them to be.

 

Visuals

Send us your logo, mascot, corporate colors, preferred typeface – anything that makes your brand design recognizable and unique to you. In terms of style, you need to be specific – find another video you might like and share it as a reference. You can check out our portfolio or visit our YouTube channel for inspiration. 

 

The devil is in the detail

Besides the main points listed above, you might also want to include additional guidelines in your brief so that the creative team can get the full picture. Here are some things you may want to consider adding:

 

  • Do you want a voice-over script or just visuals
  • Is your brand slogan mentioned at the end of the video
  • Are there any characters and what do they look like
  • Is there  a call to action and what it might be

 

All in all, the more detailed your brief is, the better the creative team can understand your wants and needs. Of course, our talented team will be happy to collaborate with you on your project if you don’t have everything figured out just yet. Get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to discuss ideas and directions!

Aug 20
0

How to Write a Kickass Explainer Video Script for Your Business?

By | Explainer Videos

The script is the backbone of every explainer video – it gives it a subject and a tone, and it drives the narrative and the animation. Depending on the goals, the brand, and the target audience, each explainer video is different, so there is no one size fits all when it comes to the script. That being said, there are some common elements that we need to cover when writing any script. Read on to see how you too can write a killer script!

 

It’s the thought that counts

 

Before you start writing, you need to think about your goals. I don’t necessarily mean your life’s aspirations, but rather what you want to achieve with your explainer animation.

To help you pinpoint your goal, let’s talk about the three main categories of videos in terms of intent:

Educational – these videos serve to explain something relevant to your business, without mentioning your business at all. Say you work with cryptocurrency and you want to spark the interest of people who don’t even know what a blockchain is.

You can use this type of educational animation to introduce people to your general area of expertise before you deep-dive into the details of your particular business.

Spreading the word – your goal here is to increase brand awareness and introduce your product or service to untapped audiences. You can include things like what inspired you in the beginning, how many years of expertise you have, where you operate, and what sets you apart. Think of it as an about us page, mission statement, and “why us” – all in one catchy explainer video.

Selling – this is basically an animated advertisement where you are entirely focused on the product and its main selling points. You want people to be stoked on what you’re offering, so shine the spotlight on the most attractive features of your business.

Most explainer videos are not strictly in one category or another, but rather in a mix of two or all three to a certain extent. Still, understanding what your primary goal is will help you determine your main focus when crafting your script.

 

You Talkin’ to Me?

 

Establish your target audience. The more detailed image you have for who is going to see the video, the better you can pinpoint the right tone for your script. Try to picture your viewer –  their age, occupation, mindset, how they talk. This will help you write a script that speaks directly to them. Like this video we did, aimed at college students, who find it hard to study for math exams (but then again, who doesn’t):

 

The Five Elements

 

After you’ve done the preliminary work, it’s time to commit it to writing. As with every creative endeavor, there is no wrong way to go about developing your script. But if you are not an experienced copywriter, I would strongly advise you to follow this basic structure:

  • Problem

Regardless of its goal, each explainer video deals with a particular “problem” – identify what problem you want to solve with the video or the service it is about. Put yourself in the shoes of your listener – understand what keeps them up at night. Or even tell them about a problem they never even knew they had.

  • Solution

Now that you know what’s bothering your viewer, it’s time to put their worries at rest. This can be your product or action they can take, or finding out that your business exists. Let them know that what you offer is just the medicine they need.

  • How it works

You’ve made your big claims, now it’s time to back them up with actual facts. Give the viewer an insight into the mechanics of what you do. You don’t have to bore them with unnecessary details – be short and to the point. Your audience wants to know the basics of how things work, not prepare for an exam.

  • Benefits

Tell people how they can benefit from what you’re talking about. Remember that people are most interested in what’s in it for them – not how awesome you are. You might offer the best product or service on the planet, but your viewers need to see it as a life-changer for them. 

  • Call to action

Sum it all up with a CTA – a call to action, prompting your viewer to do something. This can be the company slogan, a mention of the site, option to click somewhere, or to simply try something first-hand. The CTA gives the video a good conclusion and it delicately (hopefully) pushes the audience in the right direction.

Although the methods mentioned above are tried and tested, nothing is set in stone. For your unique video, you can always choose a different route. For example, you can do brand awareness, without even mentioning your brand:

or you can rely entirely on the power of animation and not include a single spoken word:

Kashu’s awesome writers can create a wide variety of scripts, tailored to your brand, goals, and target viewers. If you want to save yourself the time and hassle, simply contact us and get the perfect script written for you!

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