Today, we’ll be discussing where and how you could find inspiration for your ongoing or upcoming explainer video project.
Perhaps you’re in the middle of delivering a hasty project or trying too hard to push yourself through a creative block just so you can be done with this explainer video that you’re currently working on.
Either way, you don’t have to worry, because this blog is about overcoming these hurdles and finding new inspiration for your content creation!
We’ll not only share five videos with you for inspiration, but we’ll also discuss how you can overcome the creative block so it never happens again!
In the current digital culture, video content has become so common that you are likely to scroll through hundreds of videos every day, targeting diverse niches, industries, and demographics.
With so much content being produced, it becomes quite hard to keep track of the quality and find longevity and replay value in these videos.
What’s an Explainer video?
As the terminology indicates, an explainer video is an animated video (commonly) created to explain a service, product, or procedure.
Most service-based and product-based businesses, SAAS enterprises, e-learning platforms, and government agencies have utilized explainer videos to get their message across.
5 Best explainer video examples for Inspiration
You got an animated explainer video project, you’re on the clock, and you don’t know what to do?
Don’t worry, we have got your back.
Here are a few of the videos that can help you come up with ideas of your own and break the creative block curse.
Zendesk – Zendesk Overview Demo
So, this is one of the simpler videos from Zendesk. It’s an explainer video that goes over the basics of Zendeesk and how it works.
It explains its features and defines how it helps you simplify your support and expand your business.
You can use a similar approach while producing your videos, keeping things simple, highlighting the features, and explaining how they benefit you.
Take a look at this video here:
Sydney Water TV (It’s amazing what water can do)
It’s not easy to create an awareness ad about “Saving Water.”
These public service messages are often too boring and instantly lose viewers. However, Sydney Water has done a great job of making the video captivating.
The duration is short (30 seconds), and the opening lines are so good and catchy, delivered with a strong voiceover.
You can try and add these elements to your explainer videos and make them interesting even when the topic is boring and mundane.
Watch the video here:
It’s amazing what water can do
Fiverr (The Fiverr Journey)
Unlike other videos on this list, Fiverr’s explainer video isn’t solely based on animation.
It’s a combination of live-action and creative animation. They used multiple relevant examples of personal and business branding and how finding freelancers on Fiverr can build your business and multiply revenue.
You can use the same approach utilizing real-life or close-to-real-life scenarios and tell a story from their perspective. If done correctly, it makes for a good and engaging video.
Watch the full video here:
Twilio (What is Twilio?)
Twilio’s explainer video is a great example of how artistic animations can get viewers hooked in an instant.
The purpose of this video is to inform the audience about what Twilio exactly does and how businesses can use it.
The video is about 110 seconds long (almost 2 minutes), so it goes in-depth about the features of Twilio and how you can engage with your customers on each platform.
This one’s really inspirational for all my animators out there who are struggling to come up with ideas. I’m sure you’ll find something worth working on after watching this video.
Watch the video here:
Zendesk – WTF is Zendesk
Okay, I lied when I said Fiverr’s video is the only video on the list with live-action.
This video of Zendesk is too good not to include in this list because it’s original, artistic, and truly out of the box.
I don’t have much to say about this one; just watch it, and you’ll be entertained.
Watch: WTF is Zendesk?
5 Things to keep in mind while creating an Explainer video
When working on an animated explainer video, it is important to remember a few of these key features so you don’t lose track of the basics while creating:
Length of the video:
The ideal length for an explainer video is considered to be anywhere between 30 seconds and around 2 minutes. Keeping your video under two minutes keeps the audience engaged and hooked.
However, some topics do require an in-depth explanation and therefore need a longer script. Just make sure that you’re not ragging the video in any way and add valuable information, humor, or anything exciting between short intervals to keep the audience engaged and entertained.
Your target audience:
Before making an explainer video, it is important to note that your target audience should be predefined. Working on an idea beforehand will lead to multiple changes and revisions, and it’ll hinder its execution.
Your approach should be clear from the start. If an explainer video is meant for kids, make sure to keep it colorful, exciting, and fun. It seems like a no-brainer, but creators often get so worked up around their idea that they forget what their target audience is. Keep that in mind.
Theme or message behind your video:
A video without a vision is not worth watching or creating, for that matter.
A message or a storyline is an essential element for your explainer videos; think of it as you welcoming the audience into your mini-theater. Now it’s on the animators and creative directors to put everyone on the edge of their seats.
Granted, explainer videos are not as intense, but explaining a topic or service using a metaphor or adding a storyline could do wonders for your video!
It’s time you get in your creative bag and write something out of the box.
Hitting the right beats:
A good video is incomplete without the right beat. Music is the soul of your videos.
Imagine Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar without Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack – probably still a classic but won’t hit the same.
Music just brings everything together. A groovy beat or a smooth and captivating voiceover (if needed) does the job.
There are many free platforms where you can find beats based on the tone of your video; you can also search through genre, mood, and type.
Good luck finding the right track for your animated explainer videos.
Keep it simple:
I feel the need to reiterate this point again and again because we all have been victims of this at some stage.
You come up with a great idea, work on it, build on it, expand your resources, and improvise, and what happens is that you move far away from the original idea, or if you’re working for a client, you no longer align with their brand and vision.
There’s a simple way to avoid it: outline!
It sounds basic, but most writers and creative heads seem to miss this step. It’s easy to create a layout for your project and save you the trouble of having it done all over again.
An outline is just a rough structure or a list of what you want to do and what aspects you need to cover to deliver the project.
Now that you know what to keep in mind while creating explainer videos, in the next section we’ll discuss what practices you can adopt and tips you can use to overcome and avoid the creative block.
Here’s how you can overcome the creative block
Overcoming the creative block is not easy, and what I mean by that is performing even the most simple tasks with rigid consistency is challenging.
Buckle up, guys. I’m about to drop the most cliché yet practical sentence that’ll cure your creative block.
“Inspiration Exists, But It Has to Find You Working.”
- Pablo Picasso
The point is that to overcome a creative block, all you have to do is work. You have to be consistently looking for ideas. You can’t sit back and wait for ideas to come to you; you have to go out and look for inspiration.
Constantly be present at your work desk and sharpen your skills; collaborate with people from your domain as well as people who know nothing about your line of work.
It helps bring a fresh perspective, which might give you that “Eureka” moment. They can help you without even knowing what they are doing.
I hope this helps you overcome your creative block and gets you inspired to create some new content.
