Hello there, fellow marketers! ✌️ Today, we’re going to talk about promotional videos, and specifically, the pros and cons of two popular types - animated and live action.

Animated and live action videos both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and it ultimately boils down to what suits your brand and your message best. Let’s dive in and check out what they are!

##Animated Videos

🌟 PROS

📱 Engages with younger audiences: Animated videos are perfect for audiences who prefer modern media, like video games, comics, and animation. This type of video is often seen as creative and entertaining, capturing the attention of younger viewers.

🌈 Colourful and vibrant: Animated videos are perfect for a brand that wants to show off the aesthetic of their brand through the use of colours, texture and an overall artistic approach. This can grab the viewer’s attention quickly when scrolling on social media and disrupt the normal consumer behaviour, which is perfect to make them stop and pay attention.

💡 Tells complex stories effectively: Animated videos provide the best way to communicate complicated themes, ideas, and data in an entertaining and understandable method. Animations can show up every single piece of information, emphasising something that wouldn’t be possible to show accurately in live action videos, for example, a product’s functionality.

🌟 CONS

🤖 Less human connection: As they are fictional and not based on human emotions, character and feelings, some audiences may struggle to connect with an animated video. In some cases, it could lead to the opposite effect and make them feel disconnected or unsympathetic.

👴🏼 Slow development and production timeline: The animated video production process can be quite slow, even if you have an experienced team of animators working for you. Each detail needs to be perfect, and it may take many iterations to create a polished final version.

📲 Limited to more reduced-screen sizes: While animation videos are generally made for tiny screens, they could be much harder to comprehend when used on a more significant screen, such as a TV. They can also be challenging to use in videos when using actors with different backgrounds or trying to combine other video types with an animated ones.

An animated image of a person typing on a computer

##Live Action Videos

🌟 PROS

🎭 Feels real and relatable: Live-action videos can bring a human touch to your brand and create a strong bond between your brand and your target audience. The actors can connect with audiences and make them believe that the people in the video are real, it can also help to quickly build trust and credibility.

🎥 Quicker turnaround: By creating a video with real people, things can be done more simply by just capturing the moment of reality. You don’t have to waste time on animations, and there’s no need to rely on post-production work, which means the video can be produced quickly.

📈 Scalability: Live-action videos can be turned into a series of promotional videos that can be distributed across different platforms. If you are creating a live event or product, it can be recorded and shared with multiple audiences that are not able to experience the live event, for example on social media.

🌟 CONS

🎭 One mistake is all it takes: While live-action videos can be more relatable than animated ones, this type of video is incredibly challenging to execute. A single mistake, lighting, script or coffee spilling on an actor can lead to wasted takes and resources, time and money.

📊 Less able to communicate complex ideas: Live-action videos are usually better-suited for more straightforward experiences, like to sell a brand’s lifestyle and product experience. It’s not really ideal to explain technology features or any other detailed information. In short: you cannot show everything with live action videos.

🎬 Limited creative freedom: Unlike animated videos, where you can create any scene, colour, and background you like, live-action videos are limited and more straightforward. You have to stay within the limits of human-made realities.

A live-action video of a sunset by the beach

At the end of the day, both animated and live-action videos both have their benefits and possibilities. The choice should be based on what you want to achieve and what you need to communicate. It’s essential to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.

As a visual marketer, you need to know what videos suit your brand to create an optimal experience for your target audience. Keep in mind that experimenting could also be a helpful plan to find out what works and doesn’t work best for your goals. 🤞

An image of two crossed cameras with a clapboard in front and different props in the background