Is Online Video Marketing Reliable and Effective?

We love watching moving pictures. Always have; from flipbooks to cat videos. No wonder television was called the opiate of the masses.

When I think of video marketing, I immediately recall advertisement jingles from my childhood.

Vicco turmeric, nahi cosmetic, yeh hai Vicco turmeric Ayurvedic cream…

I bet you just sang that in your head.

The Ad Revolution

These advertisements from the 90s were a revolution. From washing powder Nirma to Raymond’s ‘Perfect Man’. Every 90s child can recite the ad jingles word for word. I think this happens mainly because the human brain finds it easier to associate visuals with rhythm.

It is memorable.

Video marketing has experienced a huge boom in recent years. People have a platter of social media platforms at hand. They are exploring and sharing everything with the world.

Video has become a mainstream language for the millennial. With options such as live video, they are able to create more engaging content for their audience.

Two essential reasons why video marketing is effective

Videos have the human touch/ interaction which are extremely engaging for the audience. There is nothing more appealing in business than human to human approach to reach out to the consumers. People understand empathy and emotions. A business doesn’t have personal emotions but a video certainly can make the customers see the heart within.
People have a very low attention span. Studies show that an average person has the attention span of 8 seconds, which is even lower than the goldfish. (Read about it here)

The following video for International Society For Olympiads communicates to its audience in an engaging and entertaining way. The video creates a land called “ISFOland” and shows a students journey towards her goals.

An article by Prachi Singh Tomar. First published on Quora in reply to the question: Is online video marketing effective?

You can access our stories portfolio here and subscribe to our channel on Youtube.

Say hello to us on other networks:
Brainpan Studio(The mothership) | Facebook (Polls and videos) | Twitter (News and Industry titbits) | Youtube (Awesome videos) | Instagram (The animated team stories)

7 Surprise Communication Growth Tips from “A Clockwork Orange”

You could say translation is a myth. Nothing that we want to convey is exactly translated. Our thoughts churn and we are only able to spew signifiers.

Or you could say that translation is the only reality. Everything is translated. Everything changes form. Everything becomes something else. We think of anything and it is translated into an image or being or existence.

TRANSLATION is COMMUNICATION.

What do we learn from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ about digital communication?

Create your own vocabulary: The world has its language and so should you. As a brand/organization/culture you need to develop your own system of language. Influence the audience and induct them within your special world of words/meaning. Invest in your own visual language.
Establish context: Context generates meaning. With context comes perspective and with perspective comes perception. Communication is vastly about the context you establish.
Take the audience on a journey: On a journey and not a guided tour. A journey is about wandering and discovery. It is not about sight-seeing. Communication should aim at self-discover.
It is a process w/o a catalogue: Communication is a process but it may or may not be catalogued. Audience will not always have access to the library. Don’t take references for granted.
Brainwashing doesn’t work: The human brain has evolved out of the grind. Forceful injection of ideas and repetitive assault on senses creates disassociation. Humans have become more susceptible to nuances and subtleties.
Subversive culture is a system of its own: Mainstream has more ears but it has the noisy mob too. Investigate into the systems of subversive cultures. Involve and establish your niche.
Translation is a continuous generation of meaning: Translation is not a transfer or a commute from A to B. It is a process of generation of meaning itself. Therefore digital communication is not a function of conveying your idea to the intended subject but rather it is an ability to generate meaning together. Communication is then the enabling of the audience to create something of value (meaningful) with its interaction with your language/message.

ASIDE: Alex, the protagonist of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is a bad bad man. He is devoid of any humanity and is morally bankrupt. Yet with a change in context, we feel sad for him. Remember, we all empathise with a vulnerable man.

At Brainpan Studio we simplify complexity. We help brands bypass the language flaw of miscommunication and create impactful digital and visual communication.
We don’t offer answers, we design solutions.

Message in for more elaboration/clarification on the above points or to talk about ‘A Clockwork Orange’ in general. Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.

We love cartoons. Do you? : www.brainpanstudio.com/portfolio
Invite us to design visual solutions: www.brainpanstudio.com/quote

Say hello to us on other networks:
Brainpan Studio(The mothership) | Facebook (Polls and videos) | Twitter (News and Industry titbits) | Youtube (Awesome videos) | Instagram (The animated team stories)

Make Your Value Proposition Matter Using Persuasive Storytelling

Stories have a way of capturing our minds and transporting us in another dimension all together.

However, there are good stories and bad stories. In our lives we come across both. The bad stories fade away with time. The good stories leave a mark on us; they leave us lingering onto the thoughts and feelings of the character. In a simpler language…. they stick.

Photograph by rawpixel.com

You need to create a story which speaks to the audience. A good story is in a universal language. The language of Love; understood by all. They get intertwined into the lives of the characters. Only to find themselves somewhere inside the story. Being a part of it. Experiencing it and for a while living in it.

The Power of Storytelling

Stories give meaning to life.
Stories create value.
Telling great stories makes you stand out.
Stories are shared experiences.
People care about the culture and your cause more than you think.

Stories are a very essential part of marketing. Good storytelling can lead to better results. A research was made on eBay. Products of not much value were put up for sale but were sold at a very low price. The same type of products were again put up online only this time accompanied with a story. There was a stark difference between both the selling price before and after the stories were linked to the product. THIS IS THE POWER OF STORYTELLING. (Read More)

The Core Principles of Storytelling

Give your story a sound structure. A valid structure is really important. When you give a structure to your story it helps the audience navigate through easily and understand the objective of the story.
Know who you’re speaking to. Addressing the audience directly is a great way to keep them interested in you. People like being important.

The Trail by 3

Persuasive storytelling is all about making people care about your cause through LOVE.
Answering to their rational mind through LOGIC.
And the missing element here is explaining them something. Giving them a LEARNING.

This is our philosophy of LOVE LOGIC LEARNING at BRAINPAN STUDIO.

An article by Prachi Singh Tomar. First published on Quora in reply to the question: How do you create Persuasive Storytelling in your video marketing to make your Value Proposition Matter?

You can access our stories portfolio here and subscribe to our channel on Youtube.

How to Establish Trust and Encourage Action Using Testimonials

“Your son has a lot of potential”; said my English teacher. My parents beamed. I bought it. But nothing ever came out of it. Sometimes I wondered if all the teachers in all the schools were coached in the same vocabulary. Their praised were as bland as their complaints. They refused to acknowledge us as individuals. We were just another brick in the wall.

What are testimonials?

Unlike our school teachers’ evaluation of our deemed merit, testimonials are the reflection of our genuine interaction with our audience. It is a vivid showcase of how we made a difference to their world. It is not a report but rather an endorsement of our credibility and resilience in creating a vivid experience.

Why do testimonials work?

Testimonials are real words by real people. In a world of increasing automation and bot interactions, real human testament reflects genuine bond between people.
Normal people talking in common parlance establishes authenticity and therefore credibility.
Emotion bridges gaps between the digital and human world. Emotion drives real engagement.
Testimonials are not final words of affirmation. There are a series of re-affirmation of trust.
They answer specific aspects of a person/brand. They are focused on these elements. They are not generalised to check all boxes.
Testimonials also helps us have a holistic understanding of the person/brand. It is not limited to just one aspect. They weave the story in its impact.

Photograph by Joanna Kosinska

Therefore testimonials are the cornerstone of brands trying to create impact with newer audiences. It established trust and encourage action. Testimonials shows the real face of any brand.

If you audience is the anxious generation or suffer from the attention span of a goldfish, think of testimonials in video format. Video testimonials are fun, intuitive and engaging. To find out how we can help you, contact us here.

You can access our portfolio here and subscribe to our channel on Youtube.

3 Genuine Ways to Boost Vibrant Audience Interaction

As far as I remember, we always had fishes at home. My brother was obsessed with these aquatic creatures. But in spite of my friendly (nagging) ways, I could never develop an interactive bond with them. I came. I gave food. They ate. They forgot me (happily) till I came again with food.

Photograph by kazuend

Goldfishes are believed to have an attention span of just 9 seconds. But post 2000, a new ‘fish’ has beaten them in fickleness. We, humans now have an attention span of 8 seconds (a study by Microsoft).

Now that makes the task of creating and sustaining meaningful interaction problematic. Yet the study also states, “They’re better at identifying what they want/don’t want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory.”

Here are three effective ways to beat the human algorithm to create sustainable engagement:

Create experience
People love experiences. This in part makes us human. We feel. When content creates experience, it enjoins its audience as co-conspirators or co-creators. Content that drives engagement through experience creates a sustainable bond. For example, using metaphors in storytelling instigates the sensory cortex of the human brain. The more vivid the experience, more the engagement.

Say more with less
As Todd Brison states quite deftly in his article, “Focus less on more. Focus more on less”. Attend to the best flower in your garden. Create the brilliant 8 second spark and the fire will follow. Maximize the impact by minimizing the zone of contact.

The Storyteller
Active voice matters. Audience wants to be addressed directly. They want to be seen, to be remembered. They same goes with the storyteller. The audience wants to visualise the speaker. They want to know the persona. Mascots are unique and visualised form of the voice. Give a personality to the voice.

The Goldfish Takeaway

Going back to talking about goldfish, research at Keio University (Tokyo, Japan) found that goldfish are able to distinguish between classical music by two different great composers, Johann Sebastian Bach and Igor Stravinsky. Create a distinct voice for your brand and even the human fishes will recognise.

Watch how Vigilbox engages with its audience using this simple animated video:

Find out how you can engage with the human fishes. Ask for a quote: http://www.brainpanstudio.com/quote

7 Traits of Millennials as the Anxious Generation

Once known as the birds that never leave the nest, the millennial have finally flown into the vast blue sky. Yet this flight of the sparrows is riled with nervousness and anxiety.

Photograph by Jeremy Yap

We have built our tribe but we have grown disenchanted with the community. We as a generation have rewritten the rules of engagement. When there was nothing left to discover we have invented worlds. And in our zeal to outdo the old, we have built our own monuments to our own ingenuity and vanity.

Anxious bird traits:

The first internet generation
Generation X took steps into the outer space. They explored the extent of the frontiers. And we looked deeper and located our own space. Internet changed everything. It opened up horizons beyond imagination. We became the pioneers of the digital age.
Overbearing parents
Parents heralded political affirmations/tumult. They saw human rights becoming a basic tenant of life. And they believed in their self-righteousness. They grew over protective and saw their children through their own prism of life.
Changing family structure
We started questioning the sanctity of the family structure. We became wary of the artificial bonds. We wanted the nest yet we wanted our own straw. Physical interaction became a thing of the romantic past.
Social media exposure
Once upon a time there were two types of people, the introvert and the extrovert. Social media crashed through the binaries of personalities. The world came into our living room through the screen. We brought in on-demand interaction.
Permanent migration
Freedom of movement with huge strides in mobility put the map under our feet. But unlike the generation before, who would still believe in the idea of home and the world. The world became our home. We migrated permanently. There is no going back to the old town.
Instant gratification
We don’t know how to be bored anymore. We are perpetually swiping or scrolling. We have attention span lesser than a goldfish. Instant gratification disassociates us from creating meaningful and long-lasting relationship with our surroundings.
Unique vs uniform
We believe we are different and with the dawn of the digital age and the access to information, we could see ourselves standing aloof. We see ourselves as individuals in a fluid relationship with its society. We choose uniqueness over uniformity.

Are these the traits for anxiety? Have we built self-amusing mazes for ourselves? Are we co-creators of epics of disillusionment? Are we explorers of new territories or wanderers of our lost garden?

Please write in with your viewpoints. Your interaction is precious to us.

This following video showcases how to deal with depression in this age of anxiety.

-Yours Truly,
Baba Toon

At Brainpan Studio we simplify complexity by using love, logic and learning to tell innovative stories for brands.
http://www.brainpanstudio.com/about

Say hello to us on other networks:
Brainpan Studio (The mothership) | Facebook (Polls and videos) | Twitter (News and Industry titbits) | Youtube (Awesome videos) | Instagram (The animated team stories)

Happy Women’s Day

The colours that define the true you. Blue defines love nurture kindness and vastness. Red defines strength expression and determination.

Happy Women’s Day from the fantastic four.

At Brainpan Studio we simplify complexity by using love, logic and learning to tell innovative stories for brands.
http://www.brainpanstudio.com/about

Say hello to us on other networks:
Brainpan Studio (The mothership) | Facebook (Polls and videos) | Twitter (News and Industry titbits) | Youtube (Awesome videos) | Instagram (The animated team stories)

7 Reasons Why Stories are Important

Many years ago when I was still a duckling and the day was my birthday. With a Britannia Marie Gold biscuit in my hand, I stood on the window still, staring outside on a hot afternoon of May. An old umbrella man, carrying dusty old umbrellas, stood bent over the dustbin. Fighting the pariah dogs, he found something. A bunch of chapattis, he pulled out. He carefully tucked the food in his bindle and walked away.

Years later and even today, when I recall the incident, images flash by. It is not the story of the umbrella man or the pariah dogs or the bunch of chapattis. It is the story of the stories I never saw. My mind wondered. Was he not hungry? Who did he save the chapattis for? Who is waiting for him? Does he have a son like me? Would he like a biscuit?

Photograph by Jason Wong

I created a multitude of stories in my head. The world of the umbrella man became a reality. A lonely afternoon in an old house gave rise to monuments of stories.

Stories create memories

We recall life not as linear transactions. We remember life as a testimony to our lived realities. It is our ability to weave my experiences into stories that creates memories. These memories in form of stories connect us to our journey.

Stories bridge realities

There are various realities that we shift through in our lives. People live through their own unique realities. Our subjective observation gives us our own unique perspective towards things. It is stories that help us understand the varying realities.

Stories defies definition

We are obsessed with categories, berths and boxes. We are hardwired to seek for meaning via definitions. But often in our lives we are faced with experiences that are damn difficult to define. Here stories come into play. They defy strict boundaries and help us connect.

Stories change perspective

There are many sides to a picture. There are many observations to reality. There are numerous subjective interpretations of a ‘fact’. Stories help us understand that there are many doorways to neverland. Stories enable us to appreciate the different shifts in perspectives.

Stories transform people

The world depends upon the relationships that we nurture with our interactions. All our relationships should be transformational rather than transactional. Stories are the perfect vehicle to trigger transformation in the world around. Stories build people.

Stories germinate ideas

Stories are capsules that connect and convey the core understanding of life. They germinate ideas. Often ideas die because there are not supported by stories. They become dry, placid and wither away. Stories make ideas live perpetual lives.

Stories create stories

Stories are incubator of its own kind. Stories give rise to many more stories. It provokes and encourages lateral transgressions. It is often the images that stories trigger that help us create parallel stories. No story is an island.

Watch the following whiteboard animation that tells the story of Baba Toon’s adventure in Funky Town.

Stories are unique as well as universal. Do you have a story that you wish to say? Feel free to share it with us. Your insight into storytelling will guide us further. Comments are appreciated.

-Yours Truly,
Baba Toon

At Brainpan Studio we simplify complexity by using love, logic and learning to tell innovative stories for brands.
http://www.brainpanstudio.com/about

Say hello to us on other networks:
Brainpan Studio (The mothership) | Facebook (Polls and videos) | Twitter (News and Industry titbits) | Youtube (Awesome videos) | Instagram (The animated team stories)

Blink, Blink, Forget: How to Fight the Goldfish Syndrome

Goldfish are believed to have an attention span of only 9 seconds. But post 2000, a new ‘fish’ has beaten them in fickleness. We, humans now have an attention span of 8 seconds (a study by Microsoft). What does that mean?

Photo by Marius Masalar

Most people will not read through to the second paragraph. Most people will not stay for the next act. Most people will not wait for the main course.

But the study also states, “They’re better at identifying what they want/don’t want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory.”

Beating the human algorithm to create sustainable engagement

1. Create experience

People love experiences. This in part makes us human. We feel. When content creates experience, it enjoins its audience as co-conspirators or co-creators. Content that drives engagement through experience creates a sustainable bond. For example, using metaphors in storytelling instigates the sensory cortex of the human brain. The more vivid the experience, more the engagement.

2. Say more with less

As Todd Brison states quite deftly in his article, “Focus less on more. Focus more on less”. Attend to the best flower in your garden. Create the brilliant 8 second spark and the fire will follow. Maximize the impact by minimizing the zone of contact.

3. The Storyteller

Active voice matters. Audience wants to be addressed directly. They want to be seen, to be remembered. They same goes with the storyteller. The audience wants to visualise the speaker. They want to know the persona. Mascots are unique and visualised form of the voice. Give a personality to the voice.

The Goldfish Takeaway

Watch how Vigilbox engages with its audience using this simple animated video:

Find out how you can engage the human fishes. Ask for a quote: http://www.brainpanstudio.com/quote

How to Grow Up with Parents the Millennial Way

We as millennials give up on our parents. Often too easily.

We assume that there is no point in talking to them because they are not going to change their mindset or their beliefs. We are scared of initiating any exchange of ideas. The seed that leads to this mindset is called ‘Fear of Conflict’. Something I read about in Patrick Lencioni’s book called “ Five Dysfunctions of a Team”.