Educational institutions are relying more and more on animated explainer videos in their digital marketing. There’s good reason, too - young people are one of the biggest consumers of video, straying further away from text and traditional marketing with each year. What better way to grab the attention of a younger audience than with engaging, fast-paced animated video content? Let's take a look at some of the best university explainer videos out there.
1. Hutch Thinks Big
The appearance of animals in an advertisement or in any other piece of marketing content can work well for a number of reasons. First, it's a great way to increase brand identity. Second, it also creates emotional triggers in the brain, boosting interest and positive feelings around the brand.
"Hutch Thinks Big" was created to support the "24 Hour Impact Giving Day" event and help the University of Chicago raise funds. Accompanied by a little squirrel as the main character, the narration takes the viewer into this 50-second animated video that successfully persuades them to support the University of Chicago’s fundraiser.
2. Become a hero from home
Educational institutions can utilize marketing videos not only to promote themselves, but also to spread awareness about special events they run.
A perfect example for this is the '’Become a Hero from Home" video that was created by the University of Oxford to gather volunteers to participate in the treatment trial against Covid-19. They concentrated their focus on creating a positive tone to the video by adding active and upbeat voice and sound design. With everything around Covid-19 being so negative, of course positivity can be a hard thing to achieve. But with a professional approach, they turned this into a compelling marketing video that convinced many people to participate and help to find treatments for recovering at home.
3. Blue Engine: A Path to College Readiness
A marketing video is something that can help us explain the solutions we offer to the public, but its main purpose remains to excite and persuade them to take a step toward discovering more about a specific offer in our message. So, it's very important to remain positive and captivating for marketing videos to stimulate curiosity.
The "Blue Engine: A Path to College Readiness" video comforts the viewer and compels them to become more interested in the educational programs they offer. The whole structure - including voice-over, sound design, style, and color solutions - was built to take viewers on a journey toward the call to action.
4. Salesforce University
The educational industry is one of the fields that needs modernization constantly. Working mostly with young generations makes it imperative to change and stay current. With that said, visual content is something that fits all generations but especially youth as more and more people are assumed to prefer videos over written content.
For educational programs that go digital, it's even more important to create content that caters to that audience. Salesforce University created this incredibly convincing explainer video that’s a perfect fit for digital distribution and will surely lead to success.
5. Royal Road University Vision
Another way to attract people to educational solutions that institutions offer is by sharing the vision. This is what Royal Road University did with this incredibly convincing university marketing video.
Mixing stop-motion with cell animation, they tell a story that shares their own idea of learning. The pebble in this video symbolizes Royal Road University, showing how it grows and changes, leading the students to their own path of success.
Drawing parallels around the pebble helps build a deeper perception of the values and traditions the university holds, that way making the message more unique and convincing.
6. Touro University
If you want to showcase a more attractive style to your university ads, or want to explain complex ideas in a more visually understandable manner, animation could be a great method to take advantage of.
Using sharp colors in their university brand video, Touro University made this short 19 second video into a clear message on why students should choose them. Fitting it all in just 19 seconds means that pretty much everyone will watch this bright and engaging video all the way to the end.
7. York University
Universities and other educational institutions can use video marketing not only for showing off their campuses, but also to help their students navigate through university life and organize their education.
Showing the atmosphere from a university with characters helps this animated video feel more realistic. And if this is merely an informative video for their existing students on how to manage time while learning, for the rest of the viewers it can work as marketing content showing how York University cares about their students.
With its quick pace and welcoming mood, this video captivates attention and makes it more intriguing for the viewer to discover what they’re all about.
8. Syracuse University: Welcome
One of the first things the viewer takes in when watching a video are the visuals. The videos that stand out among thousands of other examples are those with unique and impressive designs.
The “Syracuse University: Welcome", video has that special and outstanding design that can attract any viewer from the opening glimpse. Although it’s a bit long (marketing videos with a 2 minute length are a bit on the long side), this video never really risks losing viewer attention. Mixing animation with images and adding interviews to the narration gives a tone to the video that makes this university explainer video more interesting with each passing second.
9. When Worlds Collide
Zurich Arts University designed this incredibly amazing university ad. The narration here is lead by contemporary performances that build visual connections with the imagery creating a deep connection for what ends up being only a 50 second video.
A great lesson we can take from this video is that it's important to know the target audience before creating the message. This video shows how creators can find the best possible way to reach out to their target group by carefully picking the best tone to speak to them with.
10. Help Us Build A School For Girls In Africa
Educational institutions need support to help different communities develop a more sustainable future.
This video was created to support raising funds for the Npili School. For this reason, they created an incredibly touching video that explains why we should fund and help kids in Guinea attend schools and get a professional degree.
In some cases, showing the human side of the cause can play a vital role in terms of making an impact on the viewer, and the Npili school video does just that to end up with an impressive and inspiring way to support the cause.
Final Words -
I hope you were able to see just how using the right style, design, and message can be an effective tool for educational institutions and their marketing. If you’ve been wanting to get your message out there in a way that your target audience will respond to, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free consultation.
