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The Surprising Psychology behind Whiteboard Animation Videos

Whiteboard animation videos are growing in popularity, as is video marketing as a whole.

So if you’ve allocated part of your marketing or training budget on a video, why should you invest in a whiteboard video rather than produce a live action, talking head or PowerPoint-style video?

In this article we cover how the advantages of whiteboard animation videos work psychologically to make them amazingly effective.

1. Anticipation keeps people watching

Have you ever been annoyed when your favourite guitar riff has been cut-off mid-flow? Your brain knows what was coming next and you feel yourself singing the rest of the riff in your head to finish it off.

It’s the same when you go to an art gallery and see a painting that has only been partially completed because the artist died before they could finish it. You try to picture what it would look like had it been completed.

Our brains don’t like to see unfinished work, and as a result, the progressive drawing action of whiteboard animation videos taps into that mental need.

As the hand draws an image whilst the voiceover artist reads the script, your brain wants you to see the completed picture, so you wait until the image has been finished, which might take 5-15 seconds depending on the size and complexity of the image.  Then another image starts being drawn immediately and the cycle continues, meaning that your viewers are much more likely to watch your whiteboard animation video to the end than other examples of marketing video.

2. Pictures aid learning and understanding

As this study shows, pictures are very powerful tools in helping you to learn, understand and remember new facts quicker and easier. Visuals have been found to improve learning by up to 400 percent.

So if you’ve had a challenge explaining exactly what your company does, or if you need to teach staff some complex new legal rules or how to use new software, a simple whiteboard animation video will help them to learn, understand and remember the facts much more quickly than if you just speak directly to them.

3. Stories help to build trust

The right images can also trigger emotions in the viewer. As the above study says: “Simply seeing a picture allows users to recreate the experience in their mind.”

So, if your whiteboard animation video portrays the story of your ideal customer benefiting from your product or service, this enables the viewer to relate directly to this experience. They mentally put themselves in the shoes of the ‘hero’ of the story (i.e. your ideal customer), and this process helps to build trust in your company.

4. Whiteboard animation videos aid memory recall

In 2012, the award-winning professor of psychology Dr. Richard Wiseman compared the effectiveness of a talking head video against a whiteboard animation video (also known as a ‘Scribe video’), which used the same audio track, on the brain’s ability to remember facts.

People were asked to view only one of the videos, then answer a set of questions about it. Overall, the audience who viewed the whiteboard animation video answered 15% more questions correctly than those who had seen the talking head video.

On one particular question, 90% of the whiteboard animation video viewers answered it correctly as opposed to 70% of the talking head video audience – a 22% increase (see picture)!

Pictures are also known to go directly into long-term memory, whereas words on their own are processed by short-term memory.

So if you want potential customers to remember why your business is head and shoulders above your competitors, a whiteboard animation video will definitely help.

5. Fun improves motivation

At school, the subjects where I performed the best were those where the teacher made the learning experience fun. This post by Growth Engineering explains why adding an element of fun into the learning process helps to increase the motivation of learners.

It also means that, when you’re explaining the features and benefits of your product or service to your target audience via a fun whiteboard animation video, they’ll be more open to the information than if you presented them with a flashy marketing video.

So by the end of the video, the viewer will be much more motivated to take your call to action.

If you would like to discuss how a whiteboard animation video by Cartoon Media can benefit your business, contact us here.