Animation Vs Live-Action: Which Is Better For Your Business Video

Advanced brands are increasingly abandoning classical advertising in favor of revolutionary methods of advertising with the help of visual content. Films, animations, documentaries – such formats continue to penetrate rapidly into the territory where classic advertising usually works. Global brands create pop-up cinemas and major offline events, collaborate with Netflix, Amazon, make movie premieres on Virgin Airlines flights, open production studios and become media themselves. But which formats will be more effective today?

Of these three, we will not take into account the documentary segment – it is more common in large corporations. Lively and interesting at once, animated promos, original ideas embodied in short movies or video blogs are the very content to create a real breakthrough for your business! Choosing from these two: a live-action vs animation, which is preferable? Let’s figure out!

The Benefits of Classic Movie Style

Today, live action-style videos are especially popular in the social media segment: you must have come across funny and useful videos from the DIY series or “5 Life Hacks To Make…”. Why not try to create such content yourself? Live-action is a movie you can create with your own hands. And this is an indisputable fact.

All the things you need for this can be at your fingertips, and simple post-production will allow you to receive videos with ease and to begin promoting yourself among potential clients. Some more advantages of this video are the next:

• Ability to reduce development costs (if you do everything yourself).
• Attracting your partners or employees as heroes of live-action giving you an opportunity to show yourself and your staff or products to the customer performing a more comely image.
• In the live-action, you can shoot as promotional videos or explanatory videos, so some video products that form public opinion in the format of a video blog. And it is really a great power to gain popularity even for non-profit organizations (i.e. the brilliant and funny video about the pet shelter Furkids that became viral on social media last months).

Such ways of advertising are especially suitable for those who sell cosmetics, clothes, goods, in which the visual component plays a big role. They will definitely be effective for culinary blogs or stores.

In general, if you need to convey a visual picture of your brand or product realistically, if you want to make your customers if not friends, then buddies by visualizing processes and communicating with them in real-time, then these videos will suit you.

What About Animated Products? Are They So Good?

They are no doubt a special genre. And they appeal to customers, influencing the secret love for cartoons from childhood. Studies have shown that animated images attract the eye much more than simple movie shooting. Even with the same subjects, moving pictures will be on the top! And, of course, do not forget about diversity: while shooting the live-action, even with the most unusual special effects, the toolbox is limited, and the animation process opens up a huge world of techniques, effects, and tips that are constantly being developed and improved.

Such videos are especially good as small commercials in the format of an explainer video –as an alternative to a boring presentation or text instruction. They show themselves well as viral brand videos, thanks to which the company becomes recognizable in the media segment. The merits of animated ads are as follows:

• Toolkit diversity.
• The ability to express any concept visually.
• Brightness and appeal to the public.
• Uniqueness.

What about the price?

But as for the price? What is still more profitable to order the company? How much does it cost to make an animated movie vs a live-action movie? Consider each video variant separately. What will you spend money on creating a live-action film? First of all, you need to decide whether you will make a movie yourself, or hire specialists for any stages (to create a script, video, post-processing, video effects or to run the whole process).

The first option will cost less, the second – respectively, more expensive. And certainly, the most expensive option is a fully ordered video. The option of self-development in animated video products is even less real than in filmmaking. Unless you are a real genius and animation is a piece of cake for you but at the same time, you have a lot of free time for such work. What you have to do to order the animation: Decide whether you will contact a freelancer, studio, or even hire a specialist in your company for a permanent job. In the case of hiring a permanent employee for the development of animation, you will face constant costs.

This is justified only in two cases: if your candidate is a real pro, able to carry out the entire production and rendering process independently, or if your company is directly related to the need to constantly produce animated videos, for example, you offer services and give advice that you need constantly visualize for customers. Work with freelancers – the most budget option. But in this case, you are wasting time to reduce outsourced specialists in different areas, formulate the concept of the video and control their work. In general, the work of the project manager for a separate project – your animated video – will also be added to your main responsibilities.

Summary

The studio is the most expensive, but also the most effective solution to the problem. Here you are assigned a rather advisory and result-checking function, and everyone from A to Z does the pros. Calculating the specific cost of these two types of performing videos for an entrepreneur’s goals is not easy – it all is connected with many factors. In general, animation costs more. But at the same time, it solves completely different tasks than live-action. They should be used not as mutually exclusive methods, but as complementary to create an effective marketing campaign.