Overview
With a limited budget, tight timeline and small team of three, we were challenged to make a commercial from scratch. Our creative team rose to the challenge to produce an amazing animated explainer promo.
This promo video is now featured on our Shopify app store page and YouTube channel.
Concept
Our first step was to create a pitch idea alongside a sketch storyboard to present to the internal growth marketing team. Our only piece of direction was to focus on the word “Revolve” to reinforce our company tagline “Treat creators like your brand revolves around them. Because in the Creator Economy, it does.”
My pitch idea (nicknamed “Solar System”) was to use GRIN circle/crescent shapes to animate/revolve like a solar system. While the main story beat was to highlight the many integrations that GRIN offered at the time. Ie. Gmail, Dropbox, Salesforce.
A early setback
Unfortunately, we suffered a major setback while in production. We found out after the fact that we were not allowed to use any notable logos like google, dropbox, etc. Showcasing GRIN's many integrations was the major thread throughout the video, so we pivoted quickly and changed those integration moments to highlight some of our more notable clients such as Cuts Clothing, MVMT, and Allbirds. What brand doesn’t like extra publicity, am I right?
Blush to the rescue
To tell our story correctly, we were going to need some stylized illustrations for some of the scenes. I was already spread too thin to create more assets, but luckily we discovered Blush and had access to a library of artist curated illustrations. They were perfect for our creator aesthetic. She has blue hair!
A Voiceover brings it all together
We do not have a voiceover or any budget originally planned, but after the executive team sees the first draft they decide to invest in a voiceover artist to narrate the spot to make the video better. Adding a voiceover also allowed us to build the GRIN brand out more by answering, “How does someone at GRIN sound?”
Brand Awareness Impact
A lot of twists and turns, but ultimately we are really proud of how this video turned out. It helps entertain potential clients in a fun and informative way of what GRIN can do for your creator management program in a short 30sec. promo. We love it and now use it as our main video on our Shopify app store and YouTube channel.
Results
As of March 18, 2023, this video has reached 2.6K organic views and 6.7K impressions. The average percentage viewed is 79%. Google calculates average view duration is between 50 to 60%. Any videos above 70% are performing extremely well.
This video gave our Brand a huge boost - it was an all-around success!
Challenges
• This project was a real time crunch for one person. In the future, projects of this scale should have a couple designers and animators working in tandem.
• We had two major pivots while working on this video: 1. The integrations section being removed. 2. Adding a voiceover after much of the animation was finished. Better planning could help save us some unnecessary stress and render time.
Learnings
• This was GRIN's first voiceover project and it really helped the story shine. Going forward we'll be looking to add narration to all promo projects from the beginning.
Wins
• Not only does the video continue to perform well on YouTube, but because of the animated explainer style it was created in, the video is evergreen. Which is a luxury in the product design/SaaS Technology world. We've been able to repurpose the video into trade show event backdrops, Shopify app store, and more.
Credits:
Script – Kelli Krenek
Creative Director – Todd Berkowitz
Storyboard, Design, & Motion – Ronald Cortez
VO Recording – Dacey Else
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