Consistently designing and creating eye-catching, engaging content can be challenging. A simple way to elevate any ad or content is to introduce movement. Implementing elements of motion and animation in content can enhance your design and be visually captivating without looking tacky. These are some of the reasons you should be including motion in your creative design to make your creative go from good to outstanding.
Attract attention
Let's face it animated ads are better at attracting attention than alternative static ads. Eyes are drawn to movement, which gives ads with motion a higher likelihood of capturing a viewer's attention. In a crowded online space full of ads moving elements can give you the upper hand to draw in users and keep them engaged with your content.
Another way motion can be used is to create a narrative. Not only is this engaging, but it also helps build connections with the brand, raise awareness, share the brand's story, and convey the brand's values and views. When done successfully, this will allow the brand to connect with the viewer and share valuable information about the brand's ethos, products, process or story.
One great aspect of motion is that it can invite interactivity. This means users can engage with the ad they are presented with and interact with the brand meaningfully. Including interactive elements is a terrific way to boost engagement and make your content a more memorable experience for viewers.
Using animation in your marketing strategy, content, and ads can make them more memorable than traditional static content. Additionally, added elements, including characters, imagery or music, can trigger the viewer's memory, particularly if they are distinctive. For example, we've all heard a memorable jingle from an ad or remember a character paired with a brand. These are some techniques brands use to stay at the forefront of viewers' memory and improve recall and engagement.
Motion and animation can improve viewers' brand awareness, drive brand personality, and enhance viewer recall. One way to do this is by using consistent elements and animation styles. Doing this makes a brand more memorable and viewers more likely to engage with them.
A great way that animation can improve your creative content is to use it to highlight certain key features. This can help convey a brand's message easier through eye-catching motion paired with a call to action. In addition, using motion can assist with communicating product or service features, benefits, or functionality in a visually striking and engaging way.
While including animation in creative content and ads can be an exciting concept for improving engagement, applying less is more. Too much animation can overwhelm viewers and have the reverse effect of being off-putting. On the other hand, including the right amount of motion gives your content movement and a refined subtlety to attract attention and make viewers double-take.
Our creative team has the knowledge and skills to help take your creative content and ads to the next level. Contact our talented team via the Polished Content consultation form, and we'll help bring your ads to life.
Social media video content is a great asset for building a community online and gaining exposure for your brand. So knowing how to attract and hold attention spans in video content successfully is crucial for your videos to achieve results. Video content is great for social engagement and building trust with your audience, but doing it right can be challenging. To help you create engaging, quality videos, we’ve compiled some tips to make your videos worth watching.
Before you begin filming, it’s good practice to plan out the video you’re aiming to produce. This will help you stay organised and on track and ensure that you don’t forget anything important while filming. You can create a quick storyboard to annotate and visualise the frames that make up your video.
When creating videos, the first few seconds are crucial to grab your audience’s attention. So start your video with something sure to stop people scrolling, like asking a question, start with a shock, use a trending sound, or leave your viewers asking questions. Once you have your viewer’s attention, you have to hold it.
Shaky footage can make your video look unprofessional. It can also take away from your overall message and what you aim to convey by being a distraction to the audience. To ensure this doesn’t happen, consider using a tripod or a stabiliser to keep the camera steady.
With the growing popularity of reels and TikToks, attention spans on social media have declined. Short-form videos are more successful if they are to the point while still captivating and creative. Keep your videos brief, concise and entertaining.
Creating content with proper lighting can dramatically enhance your videos’ quality. Filming in a dark area can negatively impact the presentation of the product or space you’re showing off or can even appear unprofessional. Make use of natural lighting as much as possible, or consider investing in lighting equipment.
Like lighting, audio quality impacts the viewing of your video content. Poor audio quality can ruin a video. It’s no good having a well-filmed, entertaining video if the audio quality isn’t clear and lets it down. Filming in a quiet location is a must, but we also recommend investing in a good-quality microphone that will pick up sound clearly.
Speaking to a camera can be difficult. But in order to have a successful video, you have to inject some of your personality into what you’re filming or saying. Your audience will connect better with your content if there is authenticity and personality behind the message being presented. So don’t be afraid to show your true self.
Editing is a huge part of the process. Taking the time to do it right is extremely important. While editing, you can fine-tune the message, add any transitions, effects, or sounds or snip any mistakes. This will give your video a more polished and professional look.
One thing to consider when creating video content is whether or not you should add subtitles. While it’s not necessary, it is inclusive to communities that are hard of hearing.
Creating content on social media can be tricky to get right, so experiment with different techniques, content types and sounds and have fun while filming. Don’t hesitate to jump in on new trends or try new tactics and see what works well for you and the content you create.
Brush up on your photography skills next with our Quick tips to improve your photography skills. Or check out our website to see how Polished Content can help your content creation dreams come true.
Need an edge over your competition? Drones or Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) have taken the world by storm in their versatile uses in agriculture, monitoring climate change, traffic surveillance, carrying out search operations, real estate, and even now in marketing campaigns.
We've all seen successful TV commercials with stunning aerial footage that gains an ulterior perspective on what would otherwise be a standard shot. So why not add a little spice and stand out with drone footage?
We've come up with our top 3 ways that drone footage can elevate your traditional marketing campaigns.
Drone footage offers a unique perspective on traditional photography or videography. When taking photos or shooting videos showing an alternative angle that your audience usually can't see easily is captivating and engaging. Drone technology allows pilots to obtain shots with minimal limitations, and drone footage can be taken just about anywhere it is legally permitted.
This is a game changer for businesses wanting to show off their venue or land, as aerial shots provide a birds-eye view of the stunning scenery while putting into perspective the available space and offering. In addition, drone footage allows the space to speak for itself.
It doesn't stop there. Drone footage can be used in product marketing too. We have all seen car advertisements with a remarkable aerial view showing the product from a new height. Those stunning shots provide a cinematic experience to traditional marketing that is available to your organisation.
Innovation is crucial to the continued success of any organisation. Without new ideas and new content, the door is left open for your competition to take the lead. Drone footage is one way to think outside the box and create a competitive edge, as drones offer unique angles and can take impressive high-quality, bold shots of your product or offering.
The footage captured from drones can be cinematic and beautiful. Drones allow you to step away from the classic avenues of traditional marketing and move towards creating different visual content that is sure to captivate the market.
What better way to improve your overall positioning than by creating a polished, professional image. Initial impressions are important, and not only is drone footage impressive, but when executed well, it can help build a curated image that shows off your talent or offering in a stand-out way.
With spell-binding footage captured at new heights, which are a step above traditional shots, you're sure to charm audiences and command attention.
Aerial footage showcases your product, offering, venue, or land in a new light, and high-quality footage captured the right way is designed to attract the target audience. Audiences want to see things in a new innovative way, and drone shots can achieve just that.
While you can do anything yourself, the question is whether or not it's worth it.
Drones can be expensive. To achieve breathtaking, high-quality shots, you must have a high-quality drone, and that is where costs can add up.
On top of this, flying drones requires a license and the time to master taking the right shots in the best way.
While it is possible to do it yourself, you need to consider the time and money it will take to achieve the same quality that you could hire a technician to do.
Polished Content has the knowledge and means to capture and create stunning drone footage to perfectly suits your needs. If you are considering drone photography or videography for your business, schedule a free consultation today!
Let's not beat around the bush. Product photography on websites can impact whether users want to browse a website, how long they stay, and even if they want to purchase. In short, we prefer to scroll through aesthetically pleasing photography. But this shouldn't come as a surprise, or else apps like Instagram wouldn't exist.
We've all heard the saying a picture is worth a thousand words. So, when it comes to product photography, imagine what a great photo can accomplish for your brand. We've put together a list of tips you can use to upskill your photography.
Use a tripodTripods are a great way to improve the quality and clarity of photos as they stabilize your camera from shaky hands. They don’t have to be an expensive investment, and we’re sure you can find one at the right price point. Tripods aren’t a challenge to use and are a win in our eyes, as they reduce blur.
That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with holding your camera to take photos. But in our opinion, using a tripod can help provide consistency across the images being taken for use on websites and they can make photos appear more professional.
This goes without saying. Surrounding yourself with images from other photographers you appreciate can help you find your style and inspire you to work towards taking better photos of a similar calibre.
However, getting inspiration doesn't mean copying photographers' ideas or recreating their images. Instead, it means replicating techniques, trying new things and spinning off creative ideas from photography you feel moved by.
Doing this can help create goals for what you want to achieve. Not to mention, studying different photographers' work can help you understand what worked for them and see how you can adapt that into your photography.
We've all heard of golden hour, and there's a reason that it's so popular even among beginner photographers and selfie-takers. Getting the lighting right can make or break photography and can even convey emotion and mood.
In product photography, you can use either natural or artificial lighting. Generally, the product you're photographing and the purpose of the photo can help decide which type of lighting to use. But, if you're not sure, take practice shots to decide which you think best sells the product.
First impressions matter in product photography too, so using flattering lighting can be the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity. Not to mention, one lighting setup will only work for some products, so it will need to be assessed case-to-case and adjusted as needed.
We're sure you've heard it time and time again, but practicing is honestly the best thing that you can do. By putting in the time and effort plus trying out new ideas, you'll grow more accustomed to using your camera, learn how it works and how it can work better for you. With all the new tips you've learnt, you'll be improving your skills in no time. Remember, practice makes perfect!
When you’re creating content that aims to engage, connect and impress your audience you not only need to follow a tailored content strategy but you will need to test and try different versions of the same content to see what works best.
At Polished Content, we always test your videos with minor differences to see how they perform against each other to see how your audience responds.
Sometimes we find that customers within your audience prefer content to be styled differently to others. However, that doesn’t mean that the content we produce has to be completely reworked, re-hauled and restyled to appeal to each sub-category of your audience.
Often, all it takes to engage different audiences or achieve varying results are small, stylistic changes or additions to how the content is presented.
Let’s look at this video and how it is presented in four different ways.
Video One:
Consider this video as the template. It is in it’s most basic form. It has no border, no quotes and is almost 30 seconds long.
Using templates for your content is a particularly useful strategy for when you have various audiences you want to connect with but want your content to remain uniform. Having a template does not necessarily mean using the same style for every single video, rather it means using one video to build on for the particular campaign.
While the content, you need to attract different audiences won’t be that different the way you present information will be the driving factor behind increased engagement.
Video Two:
Here is video one styled with a border. This may seem like a minor and possibly irrelevant change however videos with borders can help grab the attention of your audience better when they are scrolling through social media.
A border can make a video seem more important, more captivating and more eye-catching. Sometimes, a bold bright colour is the defining difference between catching someone’s attention and losing a customer to mindless scrolling.
Video Three:
Videos with customer quotes work best in retargeting campaigns or bottom line ads. Including real customer experiences, faces or reviews in your social media campaigns helps to develop brand credibility and build trust.
After someone has visited your website and not converted, they might just need a little more convincing.
Imagine they are choosing between your business and another business. What do they need to know in order to choose you? What is so good about your brand? Why should they trust your product? What proof is there to support your claims?
They need trust and involving your customers helps to build this.
Video Four:
Re-designing your social media ads for Instagram stories is imperative. It’s not enough to just upload the same video with the wrong dimensions and then just call it a day. Your content needs to be tailored specifically for each channel as well as for the audiences that live there.
See how this video is shorter, redesigned and straight to the point? It still follows the template of the first video but is tailored specifically for Instagram.
Great, effective content is all about finding the right touchpoints for your audience, learning what makes them stop and engage and then creating content that interests them.
If you’re ready to have fine-tuned, Polished digital content and to develop a rapport with your audience through advertisements, reach out to Polished Contact by filling out the form below.
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Oyo Car Share gives users access to top range and premium hire cars by the hour or by day 24/7. It’s a car-sharing service that puts you in the driver’s seat 24/7.
Oyo approached us to bring their brand to life across social media with a brand package and content creation to work in line with their marketing strategy.
Working as an extension of Oyo’s marketing department and closely with their marketing manager we use social media to excite consumers about the cars available for hire, develop the OYO brand and to demonstrate all of the different experiences that Oyo can facilitate, inspiring consumers to get booking.
Through re-occurring and on-demand social media content, we created a connection with consumers by posting engaging photos, creating humorous short videos, animations and gifs.
It took three months of working with Oyo for us to quadruple their social media reach, reaching over 13,700 people in January alone. The agency before us only reached 3,100 people.
Combining strategic copywriting with creative visual content we have developed a super fun, engaging and informative brand personality for Oyo Car Share.
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