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An illustrated version of the IdeaRocket animation company team sits around a conference table.

How to Get the Best Results From Hiring an Animation Company

You’ve hired us to create an animated video for your company. Now, you’re excited to start digging into the scripting and share in our creative process. Rest assured, we want to make a great video just as much as you do. So how can you team up with your animation company to get the best results?

Get Aligned On Strategy

Strategy is the foundation of the video, so it’s best to think it through thoroughly. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What business objectives would you like to achieve with this video?
  • Who is your audience? (Think about demographics – age, gender, education – but also psychographics – the personality profile of your targeted viewer.)
  • Is there a call-to-action you want to include at the end of the video?
  • How will you distribute the video? Where and how you plan to share it determines how we deliver your message.

Share your strategy with the animation company so we can deliver a video that fits all of your needs.

Share Your Brand Guide With the Animation Company

How do you want to present your brand to the public? If you have video branding guidelines, share them with your animation company. If you don’t already have them, share your more general branding guide.

At minimum, we need the answers to these questions:

  • What is your brand promise? What do your buyers expect from you?
  • What is your brand personality and voice? Is it serious and buttoned up, or playful and funny?
  • Does your brand have a visual identity? Are there any colors or fonts associated with your brand? What about visual tropes or elements?

We are team players and want to present a seamless vision of your company to the world. Branding guidelines help us choose the right animation style, music, and other elements.

Four men at a business meeting.

Involve Your Stakeholders Early

At a start-up or small business, you may have just one or two people making decisions. But a large organization may have a number of stakeholders who want a say in the video.

Keep in mind that late-stage requests for change can delay your project. Avoid confusion by bringing stakeholders in early. If they don’t have time to weigh in on every detail, at least get their sign-off on the video script.

Often the person shepherding a video project through a large organization faces more challenges than we do in making the video. Tame these challenges by making a plan for video production project management.

Appoint One Person to Run Point With the Animation Company

Taking notes from several people at a time can cause delays and confusion. Sometimes the feedback contradicts or comes in after we’ve finalized part of the video. Solve this problem by appointing one person who can organize reviews and collect feedback. You might want to set up review meetings to make sure feedback comes in on time.

Make sure the animation company knows who your point person is so they know where feedback should come from.

And speaking of time…

Time Often Determines Results

We understand that business doesn’t stop for anyone. We will work with you to meet deadlines that fit your plans for the video, but we encourage you to give us as much lead time as possible. A little more time with your video can deliver much better results in the end.

Be Straightforward With Your Animation Company

You probably have some ideas about both your message and the aesthetic choices in your video. Please share them with us! You know your message better than anyone, so you are the authority there.

As for the aesthetics, we are artists who have spent most of our adult lives working with storytelling, color, and timing. Yet, we want to create something that fits your brand and message. That means we welcome feedback. If something doesn’t feel right to you, please tell us.

Offer Both Soft And Hard Feedback

As a Creative Director, I don’t hold all of my opinions strongly. Sometimes I give my creative team a soft note — an idea they can choose to use or not. Other times I know exactly what I want and I give a hard note, meaning it’s something they must do.

I’ve found this to be a useful way of getting the best out of creative people. It allows artists to keep a sense of ownership and spurs them to find better solutions. We encourage you to do the same. Let us know which pieces of feedback are soft notes and which are strong convictions.

Although we have our own creative vision, your animation company ultimately wants what’s best for your brand and project.

Where Great Video Results Come From

The best results come from a quality video that you are proud to share as a representation of your brand. Work with an animation company that takes your feedback seriously. An animation company like IdeaRocket. We’ve helped businesses, organizations, and nonprofits create animated explainer videos, HR videos, commercials, and training videos.

Reach out to learn how to start making your next video with help from the video experts at IdeaRocket.

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