Marketers know videos are a winner for grabbing attention in any digital medium.
Video ads drive 48 percent more sales than static ads. Twitter says posts with videos get 10 times more engagement than those without. And, even though they’re more costly and time consuming to make, most marketers still peg video as the content that gets the best ROI.
Accordingly, Team ddm has witnessed a climb in requests for videos of all kinds—from informative, to social, to inspirational.
But the resulting videos don’t always have to be high-end productions. While well-produced, quality video plays an important role for most companies, putting text into motion is something that increasingly falls into the realm of the graphic designer.
Print designers need to embrace motion graphics. Every designer needs to have a baseline understanding of animating, story boarding, and creating motion graphics. It’s a psychological thing. People have a six-second attention span. How do we pull them in?
Jenny Seavitt, ddm Graphic Designer
Graphic designers have many tools at their disposal for making images move. Software for print designers almost universally incorporate animation features. Stock images libraries are packed with quality video footage to keep up with the demand for motion. There are even tools graspable by non-designers—such as Wave.video and SnackThis—to help create motion, even when all you’re starting with are a handful of words.
Don’t forget, either, our own advice for creating the short-form video for your social channels.
It’s a worthwhile exercise to inventory how many of your graphic assets have movement to them—and perhaps how many more of them could.
The psychological dynamic of watching a video is undeniably powerful.
Here’s some of the science:
- According to MIT, the eyes only need see an image for 13 milliseconds before the brain can identify the image. The scientists there say that the brain’s processing “may help direct the eyes, which shift their gaze three times per second to their next target.”
- Researcher reported in the National Center for Biotechnology Information ascertains that 65 percent of the population “learn by visual reinforcement, such as video content.” Personal experience with those who consider themselves “visual learners” might make this seem about right.
- Further research shows that the brain actually wants to absorb a video instead of taking in a block of text. There’s no need to tell marketers how short attention spans are getting… which means faster is easier, and is more preferable to the audience. When you opened this page, your eyes likely wanted to go to the motion graphic instead of this block of text. At least, that’s what research strongly suggests will happen for most people.
It’s no wonder most people spend their time watching as opposed to reading and that those in the developed world are moving not-so-slowly to camera-centered communications.
The reason is simple. Your brain likes it that way.