Explaining the Explainer — Film

Designed to break down a big idea into an easily digestible bite-sized chunks, an explainer film  is a short piece, usually 90 seconds or less, where compelling visuals do the heavy lifting. They can be completely animated or mixed with film, differing from long edits that are made entirely of film. These informative spots are less sales driven and great for conveying a complicated idea  or service quickly and efficiently. 

Their power is in their simplicity. 

Rather than depending on a lengthy voiceover to break down the intricacies of the topic, explainers give the audience the ability to easily visualize an information-packed clip through graphics, illustrations and imagery. 

Take this heavy-made example for Color of Change, a short designed to promote Color of Change’s Greenbook, a how-to guide for shopping at black businesses. This explainer film relies entirely on animation to dive into the history of the original Greenbook, extol the benefits of shopping at black businesses, while also promoting Color of Change’s Greenbook. The on-screen text makes the film perfect for sharing on social media, where the audience will most likely watch without sound. 

With a succinct, well-written script, explainers are true to their namesake – quick at explaining the benefits of a service or product. Their shortened length make them viewer friendly, helping to boost conversion rates and their ability to get across a story visually makes them a great tool for any medium. 

Since video in general is great for a company’s SEO efforts, embedding an explainer into your site will give you a much appreciated boost in Google’s algorithm for rankings. This is especially true when all metadata and copy is optimized for search purposes. This organic increase in reach, along with the increase in time spent on your site, helps boost leads, which in turn convert to sales. 

The explainer’s rise in popularity is in part thanks to the diversity of its nature. For The University of Buffalo, heavy used the format to promote their Boldly Buffalo campaign. By using explainers with animated graphs and statistics, heavy was able to visually detail the successes of these individual programs in a quick, efficient manner that static graphics or voiceover could not. 

With such an impressive range and low production rate, the explainer makes for a great return on investment and a heavy hitter in your marketing arsenal.