Get Animated - By Brant Waldeck
		Animation – in moderation and used appropriately – can add a real life to your presentations, videos, banner ads and websites, as well as take your message to the next level. You see animation almost everywhere you look these days because it has become much more affordable. But just using animation for animation’s sake or because everyone else uses it is not a great idea. Animation needs a reason for being. Let’s explore the many reasons to get animated. To entertain To demonstrate To simplify To attract attention To aid in navigation Games or animated characters can be very entertaining and can help bring your brand, website, DVD or presentation to life. However, you need to choose your venue carefully and consider who the target audience is. Just because you and the creatives back at the agency think something is entertaining doesn’t mean your audience will respond in kind. If your audience isn’t looking for entertainment, animation can backfire on you. Let’s say you are explaining something in your PowerPoint presentation. You could just use illustrations, but static graphics often can’t do the heavy lifting. Sometimes you need motion to make the point. For instance, if you need to show how a product feature works, animation can be just the ticket. Additionally, animation can help you simplify the complex. You often see animation used on the Discovery Channel to break down a scientific principle into easier to understand pieces. Need to attract attention to something important on your website? Then, animate it. When we started My Creative Team we wanted to call attention to the caliber of clients we had in order to establish credibility. So, we put their logos in motion on our website. And, because we are selling creative services, we developed a short flash animation commercial as well to illustrate our capabilities. On websites you often need animation to aid in navigation. But don’t get too clever or carried away with it. Too subtle, and the animation doesn’t help at all. Five buttons flashing away saying "Click me" don’t aid navigation, they just irritate the user. So, before using animation in any of your marketing vehicles, ask a couple of questions. Does it add anything of value? Does animation support the core message without distracting the audience? If you answered "Yes", then get animated. Back To My Creative Team >>