Here we are, two months into this bizarre season of quarantine.
If you are like most corporate professionals, you’ve settled into a new normal of remote work life. Hopefully you’ve figured out your best work-from-home rhythms to stay as healthy, positive, and productive as you can (and if not, check out our earlier blog: “How to Work from Home…without Going Crazy”). These are less-than-ideal times, and we hope everyone is hanging in there.
Unfortunately, when it comes to corporate communication, things are also less-than-ideal. Specifically, remote workers are being buried in an avalanche of never-ending communication:
Emails have increased.
Chats and instant messages have increased.
Follow-up slide-decks, PDFs, and recaps have increased.
Zoom and other video conference calls have increased…oh, how they’ve increased.
At the Sketch Effect, we have always been advocates for animated videos and how they make communicating a message efficient, enjoyable, and effective. Here’s the deal: In this season of remote work, animated video is needed more than ever.
We’ve made a list of a few of the biggest reasons why animated video is the perfect antidote to many communication woes we are all experiencing:
1. Zoom Fatigue
WebEx Fatigue. GoToMeeting Fatigue. Google Hangouts Fatigue. Whatever you want to call it, people are getting worn out by the endless string of video calls, virtual meetings and webinars.
People are tiring of long-form video. It’s as simple as that.
People love video…but long-form video is another matter. A video conference call is one very long, disorganized, unproduced, poorly lit, meandering long-form video.
Animated video is a great antidote for Zoom Fatigue because it’s the exact opposite of all these things. Whiteboard, Motion Graphics or 2-D animated videos are short, produced, scripted, and visually engaging.
Do they replace video conferences? No, and that’s not the goal. The goal is to offer an alternate form of communication to get your message across in a way that doesn’t wear people out.
2. Frequent Miscommunication
When you’re working in an in-person office environment, miscommunications happen all the time. It’s even worse when teams are working remote.
Miscommunication, misunderstanding, and just missed information is all-too common when relying on most forms of electronic communication. Even the most carefully word-smithed email or prepared PDF document will get misread, misunderstood or ignored altogether.
Animated Video is a great antidote for miscommunication because it’s a planned out, carefully prepared, story-driven, visual form of communication. At The Sketch Effect, we have a proven 5-step process to ensure our clients messages are delivered exactly as they want them to be delivered.
In fact, studies show that visual communication is the most understandable and memorable form of communication. Visual learning is more effective than verbal and auditory learning (which most of remote work communication consists of).
3. People Crave Moments of Entertainment
When you’re working in an in-person office, little, unplanned moments of entertainment happen all the time. A co-worker makes a joke. Someone shares a funny video clip on their phone. Your boss brings his 3-year-old to work and they scribble an unrecognizable “horse” on a whiteboard wall (guilty as charged).
When you’re at home all day, staring at a screen for hours on end, you miss those fun moments of joy. If you’re not working in-person with people, those entertainment breaks don’t happen.
So what typically happens? You go to Facebook, or YouTube, or Television to get your fix of quick, sporadic entertainment. This can lead you down a rabbit-hole of wasted time as you click from one entertaining distraction to the next.
Animated Video is a great antidote for those craving moments of entertainment while working remote. Although our mission at The Sketch Effect is to make ideas understandable and actionable, we also want to make ideas fun. Whimsy is one of our core values after all.
Animated videos are a fun and enjoyable form of communication that will help scratch that entertainment itch.
To wrap up, it is an amazing thing that most businesses can transition their teams to a remote work “new normal”. However, this new normal is not a perfect substitute for its in-person alternative.
Communication is one area where people are especially feeling the pain. Animated video is an easy antidote for many of the most common communication woes. They’re enjoyable, efficient, engaging and, most of all, effective.
Animated video has always been a powerful medium. During this strange work-from-home new normal, it’s more powerful than ever.
(Spoiler Alert: We are about to unveil a more affordable, faster-turn-around animated video style. If you’d like the inside scoop, contact us today.)
