Animation in the Corporate Environment

It’s time to take a quick look at how animation has

been applied to the world of corporate communications. Since the

cost of animation production rapidly fell within corporate budgets, business

has embraced it as a cost-effective communication resource. Companies

invest heavily in the ability of animation to communicate complex ideas

and concepts.

This sheds light on the multiple ways in which psychotherapy can adopt

animation as a cost-effective tool within the therapeutic process and, more

broadly, within public health information campaigns.

The uptake by businesses was tentative at first. When, in 2012, the latest

iterations of the software that was to become the dominant player (Adobe

After Effects) were commercially released, computers could begin to create

basic animations but lacked the processing and render power to deliver

those animations consistently and quickly.

For organisations, simple animations were a ‘nice to have’ – for example,

an animated logo or animated name straps. Animated text and metrics

began to be used behind a talking head to add emphasis and highlight key

points. And then things exploded.

From 2014 onwards, improvements in technology meant animation

became a cost-effective communications tool, both technically and

financially. This has led to an exponential growth of its use.

Coupled with these advancements in technology, there was also an

increase in the speed of the internet, rapid uptake of smartphone use and, of course, the rise of social media as a direct communication channel between

companies and their customers.

Within organizations, ‘millennials’ with a lifetime of familiarity around

tech gradually became decision makers within marketing and comms

departments. They advanced the business case for animation to their bosses

who commissioned it. The copycat principle meant this initial use of

animation by one business rippled quickly out via competitor and challenger

companies.

The uptake of animation accelerated to early 2020, and the Covid

pandemic increased it still further (when location filming became impossible

and the whole world was tethered to its screens). The rollout of Zoom meant

it became normal to have full-screen video on a computer screen.

Now animation was possible technically and relatively cheaply, business

leveraged the power of animation to communicate.

Obviously the too big, too small, too complex, too abstract concepts outlined

previously were perfect for the commercial world, especially as this world

had itself become harder and harder to explain. After all, the ‘fourth

industrial revolution’ wasn’t being driven by anything as picturesque as a

printing press, steam locomotive or internal combustion engine. Certain

industries such as IT were in the business of producing little black boxes that

did amazing things – control thousands of CCTV cameras, move satellites,

crunch huge amounts of data, etc – but were definitely not photogenic.

How to define the USP of one product from another?

Animation could easily describe and explain the features of how these

things worked. If you wanted to ‘explode’ a tape drive to show its constituent

parts, you could. You could also show things invisible to the human eye, like

clouds of data or the lethal action of a virus.

As globalisation expanded, companies needed to communicate with

thousands of staff, in training and development, in ways which were culturally

sensitive. Animation offered that possibility both because it’s anonymous

and because animation can be easily localised simply by changing the voiceover.

The necessity for this business case was reinforced during Covid and

the subsequent increase in ‘hybrid’ work.

Animation has become ubiquitous as a mode of communication in every

area of business: internal and external comms, B2B and B2C. The falling

cost of animation production, combined with the fact it’s practically ‘free to

air’, meant business quickly realised the commercial potential and invested

in its production as a communications tool.

The power of animation as a clinical tool resides at the intersection of the

latest interdisciplinary research. This sheds light on the ability of animation

to describe complex subjects in engaging and relatable ways. Taking a lead from business, those same benefits of animation can be conferred upon many

areas of mental health, from individual counselling to national awareness

campaigns.

At a time when healthcare budgets are being squeezed, animation offers a

strong commercial proposition. It’s very quick to produce. It’s very flexible,

in terms of its ability to be quickly re-edited for different demographics,

locations or languages.

And as there’s no media space to be bought, animation can be distributed

over every platform, channel and format essentially free of charge – it’s ‘free

to air’. As the costs of animation production continue to fall, it becomes a

viable modality for the profession of psychotherapy as well.

Animation is also a cheap and dramatically effective medium to address

the too big, too small, too complex, too abstract concepts in mental well-being.