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Tips for developing a flash animation
More tips
By Andy Stone and Debra Rosen
Tip #1: Set Goals
Setting goals will help you to evaluate the success of your
animated cartoon campaign as well as develop a work plan
designed to meet those goals. When deciding whether or not
to produce a Flash video for your campaign, the most
important question to answer is: What will the campaign
achieve? Many organizations produce these animations to:
- Educate voters or constituents
- Recruit new activists
- Raise awareness of a campaign
- Leverage visibility on a particular initiative, or
- Raise money
Most videos aim to accomplish any one (or a combination) of
the above goals. What is important in planning your video is
to determine which of the above goals is most realistic.
Generally speaking, animated cartoon videos are not a silver
bullet for recruiting millions of new members, raising gobs
of money, or persuading online activists and donors that are
unfamiliar with or ambivalent about your campaign. They can,
however, effectively communicate a specific message —
especially to those who have a propensity to support your
campaign but are not currently on your constituent list —
and attract those who might be impervious to other types of
campaign communication. FLASH videos also have the potential
to create that mysterious yet sought-after thing known as
"buzz." Additionally, they are a great resource for engaging
existing online list members in recruiting new activists and
donors.
Tip #2: Make it FUNNY!
When brainstorming concepts for your video, the single most
important factor to keep in mind is: Will it make people
laugh?
Remember, you are not your target audience. Will your
supporters and activists find it funny? Will they be eager
to forward it on to everyone they know? If not, head back to
the drawing board. Anything less than laugh-out-loud,
slap-your-leg, fall-down-on-the-ground, pee-in-your-pants
funny is probably not going to work well enough to truly "go
viral" and get forwarded around the Internet by tens of
thousands of appreciative viewers.
The idea is to "entertain." In addition to offering viewers
an opportunity to take action (see below), what three
recently-released animated cartoon videos, "Toast the
Earth," "Friends with Low Wages," and "Arnold's
Neighborhood," all have in common is lighthearted humor.
Global warming, union busting, and conservative ballot
initiatives are clearly not in and of themselves comical
ideas. But if your goal is to recruit new members, tapping a
viewer's funny bone is the best way for you to get your
video in front of as many people as possible.
According to a new study by New York's Sharpe Partners, a
digital-marketing agency, humor is the key to making an
online campaign a viral marketing success. The study found
that 88 percent of those surveyed passed on humorous
material such as jokes or cartoons to their friends. That
was way ahead of news at 56 percent, healthcare and medical
information at 32 percent, religious and spiritual material
at 30 percent, and games at 25 percent.
In order to "keep it funny," you need to "keep it familiar."
When selecting a theme for your video, make sure it is
well-known and prevalent enough to be understood by as large
an audience as possible. "Arnold's Neighborhood" was a spoof
of PBS's "Sesame Street," a television program on which
millions of Americans were reared. And "Friends with Low
Wages" not only poked fun at the world's number-one
retailer, but did so by spoofing a popular song by one of
America's most well-known country-crossover artists. In
short, if you're going to "culture jam," make sure it's
something either current or immediately recognizable — or
both.
Tip #3: Offer Viewers an
Opportunity to Take Action
So, let's say that the goal of your animated cartoon video
is to recruit new online members and build your online list
— what can you expect? We've found that between one and two
percent of people who watch a video (one million unique
views = 10,000 new members) will sign up for your list IF
you offer them a constructive online "action" immediately
following the video.
Consider the following examples of recent campaigns:
Toast the Earth With ExxonMobil!
When ExxonMobil announced its $36.13 billion profit for 2005
— the biggest profit ever recorded in U.S. history — the
Exxpose Exxon Coalition released a Flash cartoon lampooning
ExxonMobil's cavalier attitude on global warming and
reluctance to invest more of their record-breaking profits
in cleaner energy solutions. Viewers were asked to join
Exxpose Exxon and send a message to Exxon's new CEO, Rex
Tillerson, telling him that they would not invest in Exxon's
products or stock until the company adopted safer
environmental standards.
Friends with Low Wages
Using Garth Brooks' exclusive deal with Wal-Mart, American
Rights at Work produced a parody of his hit song "Friends in
Low Places" to raise public awareness of Wal-Mart's
union-busting tactics. In the cartoon, "Garth Brooks" is
made aware of the poor working conditions that have led
Wal-Mart employees to call for union protection. The cartoon
is followed by a call to action that asks activists to sign
a petition denouncing Wal-Mart's union-busting activities.
Arnold's Neighborhood
Weeks before California's Special Election in 2005,
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides released a
Flash cartoon spotlighting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's
relationships with right-wing politicians and advocates. The
cartoon, set to the tune of Sesame Street's "The People in
Your Neighborhood," showed Governor Schwarzenegger cavorting
with "Ken von Lay the Miscount," "Karl Rover," "O'Reilly the
Grouch," "Cheney Monster," and "Bush Bird." When the cartoon
was originally launched, viewers were asked to send a
message to Governor Schwarzenegger telling him that they
planned to vote against his Special Election initiatives.
Today, the video asks viewers to sign up to join the
Angelides campaign.
All of the above animated cartoon campaigns incorporated two
opportunities for viewers to take action
- An online petition or message to targets relating to the
content of the video that the viewer just watched. (In
addition to clogging a target's inbox with messages from
concerned citizens, these online actions are the best
mechanism for capturing contact information for potential
new online activists and donors); and
- Keeping in mind the one percent viewer-to-activist
conversion rate, each campaign included a "tell-a-friend"
link and message for viewers to pass the video on to others.
Tip #4: Develop a Work Plan
Unlike the advancements that have made television commercial
production lightning-quick, producing an animated cartoon
video takes a considerable amount of time. Most vendors
require at least one month (and even that is usually pushing
it) to develop a script and complete the animation process.
On your side, you should factor in time for internal
approvals for your animation: who will need to approve the
concept, script, and final product? Additionally, consider
how you will market your Flash cartoon to achieve optimal
results.
When developing your work plan and timeline, be sure to
include:
- Creative development (animated cartoon video, Web-page
wrapper for the video, advertisements, and so on);
- Hosting setup — ensuring there is plenty of bandwidth if
the animation proves popular;
- Purchasing a unique hostname or setting up a simple URL
redirect that allows you to promote a short, straightforward
Web address for your animation;
- Drafting content for the Web page where the animation will
reside("take action" message and petition, tell-a-friend
page and viral message, and additional information on the
campaign);
- Drafting communication to your existing email list;
- Drafting marketing materials (paid marketing messages,
press releases, messages to blogs and online discussion
forums, content for your organization's homepage, etc);
- Paid marketing plan;
- Earned marketing outreach (online and offline press, blogs
and online discussion forums, and so on); and
- Follow-up action (media response, online and offline
activities, etc).
The internal team that you put together for your animated
video campaign should include your online staff as well as
members of your policy and communications staff. All of
these parties will be essential for developing the content
of the video as well as its marketing.
About the author:
Andy Stone is a Senior Consultant with M R Strategic
Services. He works with nonprofits and political
campaigns to plan and implement effective online advocacy
campaigns, with experience in Internet advocacy, media
relations, and organizing.
Debra Rosen is Vice President of M+R Strategic
Services in New York. While at M+R, Rosen managed a
nationwide public health campaign and consulted on Internet
campaigns. |
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