Adding Production Value to Web Videos

Adding Production Value to a web video can be as simple as using character animation in place of static slides, or using character lip sync instead of voice over monologue. These simple considerations have an enormous impact on the effectiveness of the video.

We just delivered a really fun little web video to a client in Chicago who have an STD Screening web business. I was particularly excited about this job, not so much on account of the subject matter but because it offered the opportunity to illustrate something I’ve been saying for a while now.

Web videos need more Production Value.

It is a given that videos communicate their message better and capture an audience’s attention much more effectively when they are intelligently written and properly animated. A web video that incorporates a few simple additions like character performance, lip sync and 3D depth, will hold the attention of its audience and communicate the client’s message far better than the usual flat, static stuff we’ve been seeing up until now.

A web video that conveys its message directly from the character will outperform a static slide show  video every time.

Adding production value to a web video doesn’t cost extra – it simply involves working with artists who actually know their craft.

Currently, many clients are being sold sub-standard web videos that actually drive customers away. They are told that videos don’t need  character animation and if a character speaks and animates, it will be “distracting and disturbing”.

If a video company argues that character animation isn’t an enormous benefit to a web video, it’s because their company isn’t equipped to  do it.

A super-effective web video that holds its audience and communicates its message in a compelling way doesn’t have to cost any more than the usual flat static type. The reason we’re not seeing better production value in web videos is not cost related at all, but rather, a lack of expertise on the part of the people making them.