Building an entire business model around animated explainer videos? The meditation app Headspace shows you how. We'll detail in this article how the company uses animation creatively to familiarize more people with its app and with the topic of meditation.
Purchasing an app is similar to buying anything online: Many users are skeptical at first. The anonymity of an online presence, coupled with the potential for fraud, make buyers wary—and understandably so. For this reason, it’s worth building rapport and trust with potential customers right off the bat by giving your company an accessible, recognizable “face” for your brand.
One study, in particular, shows how well-suited videos are for this purpose: 57% of users gain more trust in a company by watching videos and are therefore more likely to click “buy.”
Creative explainer video: Beginning meditation with Headspace.
This positive effect of videos has been successfully utilized by the meditation app Headspace. Whether on the website or in the app: the characteristic, playful animations accompany the user every step of the way.
A visit to the homepage: Headspace welcomes its users with friendly animations.
Headspace: Meditating made easy with the help of explainer videos.
Headspace has set the goal of making meditation achievable for everyday life and thus "improving the health and satisfaction of the world.” Everything you need for this can be found in the app: from short sessions during breaks to hundreds of different meditations, sorted by topics such as “sleep,” “fear," or “self-confidence.”
The meditation is clearly presented as a learning process which, comparable to muscle training, requires practice and patience. And right from the start: entertaining animated explainer videos that guide the user through the entire meditation experience.
That's the way to do it: Headspace explains the first steps of meditation.
All videos follow a similar pattern. The lively characters are confronted with an everyday problem with which many viewers can identify. Skillfully-created animations and meaningful metaphors explain how each problem can be solved through meditation. The videos are always adapted to the same color pallets as on the website and in the app.
But it's not just the friendly characters that matter. Many users are especially impressed by the pleasant, relaxing voice-over featured in the videos, which is recorded by co-founder Andy Puddicombe himself. He explains: "I think the fact that most of my voice recordings are improvised makes a big difference. So they give a more natural and dialogue-oriented impression."
And that's what a good explainer video is all about: An individual and easily recognizable video style with inspiring animations, an authentic speaker, and a perfectly-coordinated audio backdrop.
Headspace also uses its animations outside of its explainer videos.
As Headspace users quickly realize, the colorful characters not only run through the many explainer videos, but through the entire business model. The animations also appear on landing pages, in blog posts, and within the app.
Headspace uses consistent design to improve recognition factor and usability.
Headspace creates consistent, unified branding that strongly contributes to recognition and usability. Since two thirds of all customers use more than one channel when making purchasing decisions, a consistent presence across online and offline channels is crucial. If you want to underline your own branding with animated figures as well, it’s worth investing in the professional animations.
Why is video so good for business?
The idea that companies benefit from a professional video marketing strategy is not a new concept. Your website is 53 times more likely to rank first in Google search results if you have a video embedded somewhere on your site.
Headspace strengthens its search engine ranking through embedded videos..
And we as users love to consume moving images:
- Compared to all available content such as blogs, newsletters, and social media, videos are the most popular.
- We remember new information up to six times better when text is combined with visual content.
- 75% of YouTube users share corporate videos with their friends when they like them.
These facts speak for themselves: While in 2017, only 63% of companies used videos for marketing purposes, by 2018, this figure had risen to 81%. And animated explainer videos are particularly well-suited to conveying complex information in an understandable and successful way: 95% of people like to watch explainer videos to learn more about an offer, product, or service.
For Headspace, the focus on animation is a complete success.
With over 2,000 meditation apps available, Headspace appears in both the App Store and Google Play in the first search results and has 20 million users from over 190 countries. Colorful explainer videos often generate several million clicks.
“Letting Go of Effort”: Dieses Erklärvideo von Headspace wurde bereits über 43 Millionen mal angeschaut.
There are many creative uses for explainer videos.
Explainer videos are not only suitable for presenting your product or service. Deliberately-placed animations can enhance your content marketing strategy in many ways.
For example, Headspace creates short videos for "mini meditations”. In addition, the company takes part in many research projects around meditation in connection with mindfulness in everyday life, stress reduction, and increased empathy. In order to present the results to its users in an understandable way, the company uses videos.
Headspace also uses explainer videos to easily communicate scientific findings.
In addition, explainer videos are suitable for addressing a very specific audience. Headspace uses the short films to introduce the topic of meditation and the use of its app to children or athletes, for example. For other companies, customers with families, students, or future applicants could be interesting target groups.
There are a number of ways to successfully integrate videos into your marketing strategy.
