10 Awesome Explainer Video Examples (2019)
The statistics regarding the popularity of video marketing don’t lie—and if you’re not on the bandwagon now, you’re missing out on the future of marketing. Some half a billion people watch videos on social media every day and very soon, video traffic will represent 80% of all consumer online traffic. So what better delivery device for your branded message than video?
Explainer videos are bite-sized bits of video content, often around one to two minutes in length, and they come in many forms, from traditional animation, to 3D, to live-action and more. They also come in all genres, utilising comedy or drama depending on the theme. That means there’s a wide variety of design options and emotional tactics to communicate your businesses’ message.
If you need more motivation, consider this: The average person watches more than an hour and a half of online video content per day—that’s a ton of potential exposure! Also, YouTube mobile video views grow 100% every year. The data proves that video marketing is the future—don’t let your brand fall behind the curve!
We’re going to take a look at some of the best recent explainer videos and analyse why they were so successful. The results should yield many teachable lessons to help take your content marketing efforts to the next level in 2019.
Dissolve
Dissolve incorporates cynical humour in a simple, yet hilariously impressive video. They decide to poke fun at the tendency of modern marketing to use the same old, clichéd footage in so many campaigns, but in a bold and funny way. The humour they use was so relatable to their audience of creatives working in advertising and marketing, it’s no surprise the video was shared in huge numbers, attracting media coverage and going viral in a short space of time.
Dollar Shave Club
Sometimes it pays dividends to push the envelope with your message. Of course this is often a double-edged sword. If you’re too provocative with swearing or risqué content, you risk alienating large swaths of your audience. But in Dollar Shave Club’s case, they understood their audience and utilised humour to their full advantage by going viral with this video that really boosted their success—the company was later bought by Unilever for $1 billion!
The ad doesn’t hold back—it’s got it all, a bizarre-o pitchman (the real-life founder), swearing, irreverent visual gags, and even references to polio. Ultimately the ad is successful at achieving its ends because it makes something as seemingly boring as razors funny and memorable. Sometimes it’s good not to take yourself too seriously.
Slack
Driven in part by the millennial generation, relatability plays a huge role in their decision making process. This video created by Slack does a great job of reinforcing that a busy work life is a common issue by going through a typical work day for the average person.
Slack’s video did a great job of demonstrating how their product fits in to this relatable scenario without being overly promotional. The visuals are bright, creative, and enticing, which hooks the audience in for the duration of the 53 second video. Interestingly, there are absolutely no spoken words! Slack evidently takes the saying “actions speak louder than words” very seriously.
Mint.com
This explainer video from personal-finance company Mint.com clocks in at a tight minute and thirty-one seconds—they pack a lot of info in a short time. The video takes viewers on a side-scrolling journey of the features Mint offers to its customers. The CTA at the end informs users that they can sign up and get started with Mint in fewer than five minutes. Because of the brisk and efficient nature of this video, viewers get the sense that the application is user friendly and easy to manage.
Spotify
Spotify thought outside of the box in this unique and creative explainer video. Instead of taking the traditional route and just explaining how their product works, they chose to take the opportunity to explain how their product is personalised just for you. Between the bright neon colours and the shifts from real people to animation, Spotify made this video incredibly engaging and fun for any generation.
Microsoft
Microsoft is one of the biggest brands in the world, but even with their legacy they still need effective messaging. This is another concise video that B2B players will want to emulate in 2019. It’s highly effective at educating the viewer on Microsoft’s enterprise cloud solution. The smooth animations evoke themes of growth, but, let’s face it, the narrator really sells this message. There’s a mellifluous tinge to the voiceover.
FiftyThree
Like the Spotify ad, this advertisement for FiftyThree’s pencil-shaped mobile stylus relies only on music and images to get their message across. The tactic harkens back to that age-old axiom of good storytelling: show, don’t tell. What this spot manages to do without uttering a single word is impressive. The viewer learns all about the functionality of the product without words—until the very end. That’s when a solid, simple tagline appears on screen: “Think with your hands.” Businesses today would do well to follow this example of crafting a great branded message and highlighting it above all else.
Unroll.Me
The makers of the Unroll.Me app identified a problem that affects almost all of us: junk email. Their explainer video focuses on that problem by showcasing testimonials from six disparate people recounting their frustrating experiences with junk mail. It does what many effective ads have done in the past, by showing the people using the product in question.
In just 30 seconds Unroll.Me hammers home the overarching theme of the video, which is ease of use. The viewer sees first hand how easy it is to unsubscribe from junk email lists simply by swiping the app.
Crazy Egg
If you’re a marketer, SEO, CTO, or part of a big tech firm, you probably knew all about Crazy Egg shortly after it launched. But not every business owner is a techie with a fetish for analytics. Crazy Egg appealed to those not in the know in an explainer video that does exactly what it’s supposed to do: explain.
Not only does it summarise Crazy Egg’s unique heat map tool for the viewer, it shows the product in action. So you don’t have to be tech savvy to understand what it does. Add a couple subtle CTAs throughout the ad’s two-minute runtime and you have a solid explainer video.
Panorama9
Some of the best explainer videos take otherwise humdrum topics and deliver them in a compelling package. And let’s be honest—there isn’t much that’s flashy about an IT monitoring and administration solution.
However, IT-Man solves this problem by communicating Panorama9’s pitch with the help of unique animations. Rather than opt for the slick, professional animations you see in most vids, IT-Man goes full ‘80s 8-bit on the audience. The result is a fun little video that transports you back to the lazy days playing Nintendo on your living room floor.
Final thoughts
The above examples are diverse enough that they should offer takeaway lessons to brands big and small, niche or mainstream. If your company is struggling to strike the right tone with its message, or appeal to a broader audience, take a look at the success some of the above brands have enjoyed through solid video production. Some of these lessons include:
- Be interesting
- Be funny
- Be concise
- Be socially conscious
- Push the boundaries (when appropriate)
- Be simple