Video infographics: an introduction.

Data and statistics are an inevitable asset for everyone. (Marketers, Journalists, Teachers etc). It is a valuable insight which poses to be a foundation of every decision you take. There is a voluminous amount of data present but no proper method to relay this valuable information to the audience.

Video infographics is the new tool that surpasses the traditional powerpoint presentations and elaborate infographics. It is a combination of “video” and “infographics”, the two powerful tools of conveying information. It breathes life into the boring presentations and make information appealing, consumable and retainable.

Animaker’s Video Infographics: First look

Animaker has come all over again with new features, an extended library, updated assets, enhanced User Interface and many more exciting effects.

The latest theme has

Maps:

This category comes handy for journalists. Tiled animation, icon animation, destination animation etc are the types of maps offered in this section. You can select two locations and animate it parallelly too.

Charts:

Line charts, pie charts, Bar graphs. Dotted graphs, Area map, Numbers, Currency, tables…. There is a huge set of charts available in the library section. The data can be manipulated and customized by a single click.

Pre animated assets:

Now your animation becomes easier. Animaker has included a vast number of pre-animated lines, shapes, icons that adds professionalism in your work, yet take it less effort.

Other Features:

Your video can seem more alive with a new set of inspirational and merry bgms. All genres of music files are available in the updated set.

That is not all. This is just a dime’s worth.

Make most of the latest theme of Animaker’s Video Infographics. The good news is that you can work collaboratively on all the themes of Animaker to make best use of all the available options. To get started, Click here.

His life changed when he was offered a job by a well paying corporate company in computer graphics soon after completing his Masters in Visual Arts.

Moloy fell in love with the subject and started thinking, what can be done with computer graphics but he also realized that he was not the one who is going to take part in the rat race of corporate employment.

He regularly browsed the internet trends and aware of the advent of video. He noticed that businesses were looking forward to creating short videos to explain their product or services. Realizing the potential of that demand he quit his job in 2008 and launched his own company PixelGenio.com.

PixelGenio is all about creating amazing animated explainer videos for business concepts. They help businesses to explain their product or services to their customers in a very fun and interesting way…something, that people would like to engage to.

At the start, their biggest hurdle was that no one knew about them. They struggled about 3 years working on low budget freelance projects. His efforts enhanced the online presence of his website and enabled it to show up on Google searches. At present they have achieved a page rank of 2.

Moloy says:

At PixelGenio.com we prefer to keep it small so that we can focus on quality rather than on volume. I do not want PixelGenio to turn into corporate company with robots all around

We provide services to businesses all around the globe. With the advent of internet technologies like skype, gmail and FTP, we are able to maintain a very smooth communication with overseas clients.

With continuous improvement in online presence, they wish promote more reputed brands and can work towards creating amazing animated videos!

The campaign is based around a short film, ‘Welcome to Airbnb’, and this video campaign sets out to explain what Airbnb does, exactly, in the most charming way possible.

Now see their behind the scenes peek at the making of “Welcome to Airbnb” video. Hope you enjoy the ride.

To produce this video, they spent five weeks 30 people building an 85-square-meter train set, with more than 2,400 craftsmen-hours spent creating the landscape. Also the work used 20 square meters of plywood, 12 liters of glue and more than 160 sheets of polyboard.

“The whole idea behind is to portray the world as a smaller place. It includes places from Australia, and from other parts of the world,” an Airbnb person said.

Then how its possible! you have this question in mind? But not certainly, we gonna talk about a video making tool. You may heard about several free and paid tools online that can help you create something that really stand out.

An up-and-coming online tool (Its in Beta version) help you to hold your viewers attention and make them feel wow, called “Animaker”. the company says its main purpose is to help everyone create video of studio quality.

First Look: Do videos right!

Animaker is a “Click and Choose. Drag and Drop. Edit and Play. DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Animated video making app” and its fully free for early accesses.

With Animaker, start producing online videos for internal business communication, content marketing, presentation, Explainer video, Demo video, social media marketing, e-Learning, video advertising, video Resume, Support/FAQ via video, and more purposes.

Using this cloud based app, you can choose your theme which has huge number of characters, actions, expressions, Screen Effects, Call outs, Number, backgrounds, properties, Sound Effects and Background Musics. However its does not end with the pre-created themes. A simple upload tool provides you an option to import your own assets and can save in “My Library” section.

Once you finished with video making, you can download files as mp4 format in both HD and SD quality. Animaker offers unlimited video creation, unlimited hosting and playback, and also you can enjoy sharing with your social networks from the website itself.

That’s a wrap now. If you would love to try with this app, get an early access here.

      Are you adding wings to your exciting project or product which you have been working for some time, and preparing it for a startup launch? If yes, then it’s an awesome idea! But if you intend to do in the next two month, then it is somewhat a tricky and tedious task. However adopting some smart and proficient strategies, will alleviate your burden, and help you to have your launch even at the earliest, wondering how? Well, this article throws some light on it.

1. Know your target audience

      You need to know your target crowd, if you say that your product is meant for all people, then perhaps you are lazy or fooling yourself. You need to make a scrupulous research and find out who would be the early purchasers of your product. You have to identify people who would select your product over something which they have previously experienced. You need to identify and know your competitors’ strength and weakness and show your target people in what way your product stands unique from your contestants.

2. Dispatch an eye – catching teaser

      Tease your audience with a compelling and attention grabbing campaign in the next few weeks. Code name, your teaser ads with some peculiar names and post it across all leading social networking platforms like face book, twitter, Google+ for the next 8 weeks, and create the required hype for your product. Keep your viewers under suspense by putting some blurred image of your logo or product image with “coming soon” signs. Make them think what is this all about? You can also share your products with your friends, followers, fans, in leading kick starter community platforms and get a good pitch.

3. Promote a thought provoking launch

      Another effective strategy to promote your launch is by using your own platform (blog or podcast) to tell the audience how to launch a product by using your launch as case study. A word of caution at this juncture you need to highlight on your product feature and not on your launch.

4. Would you wish to blow your own trumpet or allow others to do?

      If you happen to own a blog, podcast or any other platform, then you would probably be doing some guest host or blogger performance. But wouldn’t it be a great idea if you become the guest on your own blog? All you need to do is switch sides, and ask any of your guests, friends or some local celebrities to interview you for the next 8 weeks. You can do some workouts for your guest hosts, by preparing some queries which they can ask you.

5. Be lean

      Staying lean in the initial stages is highly recommended. Be innovative and focus on your objective like reaching the desired target audience, consumers, revenues, etc. Investing huge amount of money on your project can be a liability. So remain lean and when you start envisaging optimistic metrics, you can scale up.

6. Seed funding option – Angel or VC

      Have a startup launch with minimal investment, by opting for an Angel investor or by mobilizing funds among your friends and relatives. A significant benefit which you have by this type of funding is you can be the boss of your startup. The angel investors will not ask for any equity shares or a place in the board. However if you are confident that your product would give you the desired results, then you can go for a large scale, fully committed VC investment. But please be aware, a VC will not behave like an Angel, they will proclaim for a place in the board and also for the shares. So you need to play your card carefully while dealing with seed funding.

7. Protect your product

      Another vital aspect you need to do is to patent your project or product. There are probabilities, where another individual in the other corner of the world would have conceived and developed a project or product that would have some resemblance to your invention. Hence in order to avoid unnecessary complications; it is advisable to patent your product, so that you can have absolute control over your startup when it hogs the limelight. If you are resident of US, you can apply for patent at the USPTO (United States Patents and Trademark Office).

8. Flexible business plan

      Devise your plan. This is not does not mean that you have to consider the revenue, you are going to generate. It is about your internal plan; how you are going to take your start up to the finish. When you wake up the next day, your plan may keep on changing; hence have some flexibility in your plan. When you are taking a leap, you may either soar to the desired heights or simply crash down, but you will not able to figure out, if you do not take any action.

9. Have a good rapport with your co-founder & workforce

      If any of your friends or relatives happened to be co-founders for your project or product, then you need to have a healthy rapport with them so that your startup launch turns out to be a success. Likewise you need to be careful when you are hiring people, we all are aware of the story of the Apple founder, Steve jobs. He was fired in a power struggle by people whom he hired. A few years later, Jobs was again welcomed by Apple, and that’s a different story. For a successful launch, you need to mobilize the appropriate workforce. Try to hire great talents and just get out for their way. Do not hinder often while they work and make them get irritated. Simply delegate the duties, and from a distance keep a constant vigil on them.

10. Video marketing – proficient tool for your startup launch

      Nowadays, the inboxes of angel investors and VCs are crammed with tons of startup proposals, so when you present them with lengthy text based proposal briefing about your product or project they get bored and may ignore you. “Less is more”, having a short and attractive 60 sec business explainer video that briefs about your product or project creates a profound impact on the investors. Moreover it also helps you to reach your targeted audience in a swift and efficient manner. Availing the services of leading customer friendly and affordable agencies like Bode Animation helps you to get quality, storytelling business explainer videos. These animated videos engage and educates the target audience about your product and helps you to get beneficial outcomes.

      When VCs are hunting for the next Google, Facebook, or Twitter, some entrepreneurs create lengthy PowerPoint’s that leaving investors bored and make them feel their pitches unrealistic.

      Your pitch deck is a great snapshot of your company story, so you need to prepare your company’s financial or business model compelling and eye catchy to get the deal done.

      Silly question it may sound, but do you think that an investor would benefit from seeing a visual presentation of your business model? Or is “visually less” and keeping to a text based investment proposal, more?

      Out of ten, six VCs tell that they are bored to read text; they skipped text and missed some potential startups. In reverse case startups with 2 minute, explainer video has a great chance of winning VCs mind.

‘No’ to Text’s: (Explainer videos have the Power)

      You’ve finished developing your product or service and you’ve ready to dive into your business venture.

      Then ask yourself,

      Why would VCs listen to your pitch?

      How do you set yourself apart?

      How to make investors to sit up and take notice?

      Because, every VCs Inbox is overflowing with pitches and investors see hundreds of companies, entrepreneurs, and products everyday.

      There is always heavy competition. If your presentation with boring text and is not attractive, then? Even a strong business model will find itself pushing at a closed door.

      We may all feel that hearing someone’s talk is more personal experience rather than reading a bunch of text.

      We cannot ignore the real fact that there are many VCs out there who aren’t interested in reading, instead they would like to watch. VCs hate anything that puts them to sleep, and texts often do.

      Investors are more apt to remember your pitch if you give them the basis in a way that they can relate. “Tell them a story.”

      “You should always have a fully refined, bulletproof story.”

      Having an effective pitch is more important than ever, as venture capital remains relatively scarce and within the first 30 seconds they will decide whether to continue listening or turn to Twitter and ignore you.

      Then even a strong business model, justified with hard textual data will find itself pushing at a closed door.

      Video presentation of your business is something of real value, makes tangible impact and that’s something different investors don’t see everyday.

A Sure-Fire way: Animated Explainer Videos

      Investors file the most business plans in their trash folder, when they receiving that as lengthy and boring. Creating your points as visual as possible can be a sure-fire way of beginning a path that will lead you to venture capital firms.

      Imagine this situation. You spent hours for preparing a well-polished slide deck, which covers even a minor detail of your business. The moment when you start launch your presentation in front of VCs, you hear they saying,

      “Jack, I have to catch a flight. Can you tell me what you’ve in 2 minutes?” The way you handle this question will decides your success. How do you handle this situation?

      Win this situation with a 2 minute explainer video. Investors like teams that have a product ready to show, start out with a demo, and get straight into who it is for.

      Entertaining explainer videos are less time consuming, less eye straining, easier to understand and gives astonishing life to your product.

      Animated Explainer videos,

• Gains the viewer’s interest
• Simplifies complex business ideas
• Offers solution for the problems
• Memorable
• Triggers conversion rates
• Increases popularity
• Budget friendly

Statistically a well-scripted explainer video is more conveying, entertaining, funny, and most importantly informative and engaging way that text would never be able to do.

In the context of raising business funding from investors, the pitch via video saves your time and money without substantially reducing the positive impact that can be experienced during a well-executed ‘in person’ investor pitch.

A promotional video is very effective, especially when you are trying to raise investment for a particular product that requires a visual presentation of it and is hard to describe in the written medium.

Presenting video pitch is also assures a potential investor of your credibility by visually demonstrating your individual character and creativeness behind your business proposal.

      You may already familiar with all the advantages of having a good explainer videos, like ranks your website better in Google search, increasing conversion rates, clarifying your product and boosting your sales. So, we are not going to bore you again with these points.

      Now, then what we are going to talk about? A lot of people are shocked when they hear about the cost of an explainer video for the first time. Without knowing the production process, how much resources involved in it, especially video quality and its instant credibility many of us is misunderstanding that the price is too high.

      Well, we understand that the main problem for most startup is the cost of explainer video. So this article will help you to justify how much a proper explainer video cost along with its production process and explains you, How should we invest a right amount?

An Obvious Question: How much Costs?

      Is the first and foremost question when we enquire about the explainer videos.

      It is actually difficult to place a figure on how much an explainer video would cost, as it has different client and each one having different requirements and that could be unique. So it really based on the length of the video and the animation style it involves.

      However, we know people would like to know the price before hearing rest things about an explainer videos. so a typical explainer video will cost about $1000 to $5000 per minute, at the same time you should keep in mind that a sophisticated animation video cost can go as high as $10, 000 per minute.

      Have you ever think about the difference between $1000 explainer video and a $10, 000 one? Then what about the difference between $10, 000 explainer video and $100, 000 TV spot? The truth is, “You Get What you Pay For”. But creating a video is not always cheap.

      The below figured video production process are the possible expense and that will help you to understand the questions,

      How the video production budget split up works? And, Where the cost are going?

      In general, a 60-90 seconds explainer video takes 4-8 weeks to complete.

• Research and Brainstorming (4-7 days)
• Story and scripting (4-7 days)
• Voice production and Recording (1-2 days)
• Storyboarding (7-10 days)
• Animation and Production (10-12 days)
• Sound effects & Music design (3-5 days)
• Delivery and Promotion (2-4 days)

Are you Investing right amount?

      Before investing money on explainer video, it’s essential to understand how much can be the right amount and what happens if we don’t invest a proper amount.

      A professionally made explainer videos are trending big now, because they are most likely in between 60-90 seconds and explaining your product for users to grasp features and its advantages. However, explainer videos only work if they’re done in a better way.

      A poorly designed explainer video with the consideration of reducing the cost can have adverse effects alone and leaves the viewer confused and turned off. Even we can create an explainer video for just $5. Template makes this possible but they may not have a license to sub-license it to you.

      A minimum budgeted video doesn’t mean that you are saving money, because you are most likely going to end up and having to do things twice which can’t only cost you money but also time and resources.

      If you try pushing the production houses to get a lowest cost explainer video, sometimes you might be unhappy with your video you receive finally.

Ready to Invest? If not:

      When producing a video, production houses don’t do just animation, they really care about producing a video for you that will be more effective, and not only explaining your products, they will also explains the pain of your ideal customers and how your product /service will solve that pain.

      So if you are interested to have an explainer video and still you feel not having sufficient money to invest then don’t go for it. Because a poorly designed low budget video may hurt your customers more than not having one at all.

1. Keep It Short

      The first and most important tip you have to follow is to keep the script short. The ideal length for an internet video is two minutes so don’t exceed it. The shorter it is, the more likely it is to attract viewers.

2. Start with the Message

      Put the message you want to deliver in the beginning of the video so the viewer is hooked immediately. Delaying it might cause the viewers to lose interest and click away.

3. Be Conversational

      Make the script formal but the tone should be conversational. The viewer shouldn’t think of it as information overload. Rather, the viewers have to be addressed in a friendly manner.

4. Empathize

      The key to forming a connection with your audience is by empathizing. Place yourself in the viewer’s shows when you are writing the script and imagine yourself viewing the video.

5. Don’t Fluff It Up!

      The length constraint makes it all the more important for you to keep the script fluff-free. Include only the message and other vital information you have to convey, nothing else.

6. Include Some Humor

      Internet users have a short attention span. Believe it or not, they can get bored during a two-minute video. Adding some humor to the video helps keep the viewers engaged and more importantly awake!

7. Brand It

      The video is for a new business, not an established brand. Hence, it is the perfect medium for you to create a brand presence. Make sure the video speaks for your brand and not just for you.

8. Solve a Problem

      People love getting solutions to the everyday problems they face. Be the problem solver by raising a problem in the video and then telling them how to solve it. The best way to go about doing this is explaining how your products can improve their lives and solve their problems.

9. Pace Yourself

      Keep the word count of the video limited to what a listener can digest within the given time frame. One of the reasons people lose interest is because the speaker is going too fast. Learn to pace yourself.

10. Add Call to Action

      It is very important that your video conclude with a call to action. Get the viewers to visit a website, call a number, join a Facebook page, etc. If you don’t add a call to action, the people are likely to shut the browser down once the video is over.

      These are 10 tips on writing an explainer video script for your new startup. There is no doubt that explainer videos are great for lead generation and increasing sales but only if they are made effectively. Getting the script right is your first step towards achieving that!

Figure Your Message Out

      An extremely important tip for writing a viral video marketing script is to know exactly what you have to say. Often people have ideas that they want to convey to their audience but it does not have a definite shape. The idea keeps floating around in their mind and they try to put it on paper. With such a disjointed mindset, it is impossible for you to convey your message properly. So, before writing decide on what you want to say and exactly how you want to say it.

Choose the Type

      There are several types of videos you can make for your business, including animated, live action and music only. You have to decide the type of video you want to make so that the script is written accordingly. There are different considerations for the various types of viral videos which is why your decision is crucial. Make sure the type you choose works well with your intended audience.

Read Video Scripts

      You can gain valuable insight into how viral videos are written by reading scripts. This is extremely important if you have no prior experience of writing scripts for videos, viral or otherwise. You will get to see the kind of writing which is required and the guidelines that have to be followed. In short, this helps you get an idea of how viral videos are written. Also watch the videos for which the scripts have been written to have a better idea of how the writing is portrayed on screen.

Write the Script

      Once you are done with reading scripts, it is time to start writing. In the beginning, you can take the luxury of jotting down whatever comes to mind. You don’t have to follow a formal structure or be clear. Simply writing the draft gets you started off with the process. You will develop a flow after a while and the words will come flying out.

Read & Edit It

      The ideal length for a viral video is two minutes, which means roughly 300 words. Read the draft you have written to make sure there is no fluff or content that offers no value to the viewer. Edit it and cut down the wordage and verbosity. A catchy and punchy viral video requires a concise script which carries the message for the business and other vital information, nothing else. This is the kind of script that helps you engage the audience.

      These are actionable steps you can follow to write a killer viral video script.

1. The Language

      Write your video in the language your audience is familiar with. You cannot use technical or business jargon with laymen. They wouldn’t have any inkling what you are talking about and are likely to turn the video off than watch it till the end. It is a classic example of the message getting lost in translation. This is most important for businesses in professions with their distinctive vocabularies, like medicine and law.

2. The Content

      An explainer video is meant to explain something. There is a difference between explaining to the audience what your business and its products do and praising them. People can see through the self-praise immediately and you don’t retain credibility in their eyes. Focus on the content and make it valuable to the viewer. In short, the content should compel people to watch the video.

3. The Length

      The length of your script is a double-edged sword. You have to make sure the video is not too long as the audience would lose interest and click away. At the same time, you have to ensure the number of words being spoken by the narrator/actor is easily comprehendible for the audience. Talking too fast or being verbose is not the way to go about improving your written script.

4. The Medium

      Animated videos seem to work for all ages but an infographic is unlikely to attract young audiences. There are several types of videos you can choose from and the script has to be written accordingly. You have to decide whether there will be spoken dialogue or the information would be in the form of text and images only.

5. The Message

      You have to work out the message you want to convey to the audience. There is a difference between saying you are the best at what you do and that you can solve the problems the viewers have. The viewers are more likely to be impressed by the latter. The message should be the basis of the script and included in the first few lines.

6. The Call to Action

      Last, but certainly not the least, you need to put in a call to action. Else, you don’t have anything to gain. You have to ask the audience to do something. They are likely to just close the video and move on to something else if you don’t do so. Ask them to visit your website, join your Facebook page, call you, etc.

      This is a script writing checklist you can follow when writing an explainer video for your business. These are the 6 things any great script must have.