In his book on brand strategy titled Zag, Marty Neumeir states “when everybody zigs, zag.” The author argues that in an extremely cluttered marketplace, traditional differentiation is no longer enough—today, companies need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value for their shareholders and customers.
Standing out from the pack is undoubtedly critical in marketing and, as we’ve written about before, the rise of animated explainer videos has unleashed a tsunami of mediocrity out there. Too many brands out there are jumping on the animated marketing video bandwagon and creating pedestrian, cookie-cutter productions, which we call “McSplainers.” Far too many companies, products and services have been zigging the same direction. If you haven’t seen our tongue-in-cheek “guide” to the McSplainer, check it out here:
We try to draw upon all sorts of sources when creating our animated marketing videos while striving to create videos that cut through the clutter…and zag away from the herd. Whether it’s from the world of literature, pop culture or films, there’s no shortage of great inspiration out there. One perhaps ironic source of inspiration for us on a recent production was the world of old-time silent Hollywood movies. We used a silent film-style treatment to pitch the benefits for MoneyToday, a site that helps people obtain loans. It’s probably the most “old-school” approach of anything we’ve done and the end result is a pretty cool, very unique animated marketing video which you can view here:
But, hey, this isn’t the first time we’ve gone old-Hollywood. A couple of years back, we did a film-noir, Bogart-esque animated marketing video for an advertising platform. It’s fun to develop these types of unique scripts and treatments. You can see that one here:
And, in this retro production from earlier in the year, we went back to the 70’s to when Nixon was still in the White House for our charter “Norm’s” backstory:
So when you’re thinking about ideas for your next animated marketing video, you might want to consider zagging by tapping into some old-school inspiration.
