How Whiteboard Videos May Damage Your Brand
What are they exactly?
By now, if you own a business or are the head of marketing for your company, you’ve already heard the term: whiteboard video. This popular video style jumped into the scene in 2006 and blew up around 2011. As a result, almost every conversation we have with business owners or marketing professionals starts off with this term:
Me: “We’re an animation studio focusing on businesses and organizations”
Them: “Interesting, so you do those whiteboard videos?”
Me: “Ah, no, that’s actually a very different thing.”
Them: “Oh, okay. So what do you do then?”
What’s the difference?
In our industry the question most often debated this: Are Whiteboard Videos animation? To answer this, let’s look at an example:
One frame of “The making of a whiteboard video" on YouTube from YourekaScience.
The original whiteboard video used a physical camera in front of a whiteboard. Typically a very good artist (who doesn’t get enough credit) draws on that whiteboard. The video is then edited after recording to follow the drawing as a voiceover is read aloud. At the very end, we see the entire whiteboard. It showcases a process or a problem and typically talks about a solution the business provides.
High Demand Creates Low-Cost Alternatives
Demand was so high in 2011 that animation companies started taking visually degrading shortcuts. Admittedly, they made the process faster and cheaper, but definitely not visually better. In fact, it became visually worse.
A wave of templated, low-cost creations were made, which means your video could look exactly the same as your competitors. This makes your brand pretty difficult to distinguish!
There are hundreds of templates online that allow for “faux-whiteboard” videos.
Brand Recognition Matters
Your audience and customers know you for who you are and what you represent;
Your Colors
Your Logo
Your Name
Your Company’s Voice
These are all massively important to your uniqueness in a continually evolving digital space.
If any of the videos for your business look like a whiteboard drawing from your competitors, you just threw out all of your brand advantages. You may have explained something in a style that was “trending”, but now your customers cannot differentiate you from that other guy or gal’s business!
What you can do instead
Custom Animated Videos are one of the best ways to bring your unique message to life. Explainer Videos are still a great way to sell, educate and entertain your customers and entice them to learn more about your brand and ultimately buy the products that they resonate with.
It’s true that custom videos can become more expensive. However, consider this: would you choose the cheaper option if you knew you’d have to re-do the video later? (Trust us, we’ve been asked to completely remake videos to move away from the whiteboard)
We’re Open Pixel. We believe that every video you make should be unique and tell the right story to the right audience. You’ve put time and care into building your brand, so we should spend the time building the right video in your own visual voice.