There’s no contest: Motion-first has become the most popular way we consume content online. People prefer to learn about a product or service with video or animation because well, we never got over tl;dr. But what does that actually mean for marketing?
The motion picture
It’s a bit like when digital-first was a thing. Every business broadly knew that to mean, make the website our mothership and socials our mouthpiece. It changed the way we approached marketing, and the collateral being produced. Motion-first is another thing like that, a high-ranking member of the digital-first family empire coming of age and ready to dominate.
Making something ordinarily static move a bit was obviously the starting point. But this has quickly progressed to micro-movie trailers, 2D, 3D, character animation, kinetic type, and hybrid combinations of video and CGI all becoming standard requirements in a brand marketing roadmap. Some firms are even developing strategies that ditch text-based content for good.
Law of motion
The popularity of motion in marketing isn’t only its ability to entertain. Hands-down the best, most immediate way to visualise a problem and showcase the solution, it enables users to visually recognise themselves, their needs, desires, challenges, and opportunities. We all know that right.
Which is why it’s such a mistake to stick a nice hero video into the existing marketing mix and consider that motion-first nailed. See, everything branches out from a hero animation sitting at the heart, storyboarded to become a multi-purpose, omnichannel asset… which then unlocks multiple ways and places to advertise, promote, and parlay about your brand. With style, substance, and consistency.
Poetry in motion
In a nutshell, the idea is to create a master video and repurpose that thread in all brand marketing forms. From moving billboards and exhibition screens to a set of branded videos (for different platforms including web and socials), interactive emailers, a bunch of banner ads and some in-product pop-ups. Maybe even use some visual stills across print collateral to link everything together.
Chances are that people will take some form of action on your content this way. They’ll feel the powerful, joined-up messaging and presence across all touchpoints and develop an affinity with it. Leading to a deeper engagement with the brand, its products, and services. Because nothing happens until something moves (and keeps moving, wherever you interact with it).
Share this post
