Best Examples of Storytelling in Advertising Videos

Visual storytelling is one of the pillars of cinematography which was successfully borrowed by advertising and other industries. To tell the story, so everyone believes in it, screenwriters have studied drama for years. But video marketers and copywriters do not have time for this. They may create a meaningful storytelling video from scratch fast, and that’s how storytelling in marketing turns into a work of art.

What is video storytelling?

Storytelling videos from the best animator in the world use storyboards which are a sequence of drawings that serves as an aid in the making of videos. The development of commercials that are aimed to tell stories on behalf of the brand is often deployed in the form of engaging explainer videos that attract attention to the problem, offer solutions and dwell on trust among the company users. Animation in advertising evokes emotion and desire to share.

How to Make a Great Video Commercial?

Shooting and editing a great advertising video is no picnic. But if you have an awesome idea, and a professional team, then why not try it? Creativity is more valuable than special effects, so the creation of commercials always begins with writing a script about what to shoot, where, and how. The second step is making storyboards for different types of animation movies. The third step is converting those video frames into cool promotional videos. After editing it, and finalization of material, you may pass it over to the necessary marketing activities and come up with promotion campaign details, etc.

The Greatest Examples of Storytelling in Advertising Videos

The truth about video storytelling is when you tell a story about your company brand, your product, mission, or values, or even your customers and employees – people can find more things they may relate to if they have similar beliefs or values. Mind that when you establish this kind of emotional connection with the right people (your target audience) good things will sure to happen. Find the example of storytelling that entered history as one of the greatest in the realm of advertising so far:

1. Honda – Paper

Best stop-motion animations video may be a painstaking art form. That is why you rarely see it done as beautifully as in this video by Honda.

2. Dreamies – Cat Borrowers

This hilarious series of ads focuses on an unusual demographic for cat treats – the cat borrowers! 

 3. Psiphon

Animated videos should not only be beautiful but also tell an engaging story. For example, Psiphon created by Explain Ninja is just the case.

4. H&M

This ad is like a short film, which is to be expected from a big-name director. Storytelling in H&M ads is a great project release example to follow.

5. Reckon – 2019 Campaign Promotional

How good the brand knows its customers? These video storytelling examples answer this question to the fullest.

6. Kurzgesagt – What if Earth got Kicked Out

Do robots deserve rights? What’s hiding in the deepest place on Earth? All that is here.

7. Make pasta with Nonna Nerina

This video is a part of promotional storytelling in advertising examples, a series on “Airbnb Experiences – Cooking,” a new service where guests can cook meals with locals.

8. Zendesk

An example of anti-storytelling is a video from Zendesk, a customer service software developer. This is a fictional story about the rock band Zendesk Alternative, which the company allegedly stole its name from.

9. Write the Future – The Wedding Toast

Grammarly (a service that helps you create good texts in English) actively uses storytelling in marketing. In one of the videos, they tell the story of a man who struggles to come up with a toast for a friend’s wedding and ends up with a great speech with Grammarly.

10. Raritan Valley Community College

 This is a mini-story of an applicant told in six seconds. Enjoy it!

11. Nike: What are girls made of?

Another example of an unexpected combination in storytelling is the Nike What are girls made of? video. The video quickly went viral and gained more than 2.5 million views.

Video storytelling trends

The video design industry’s got various trends to offer for your consideration. Among the top videos, brands create for their advertising campaigns there are many unusual materials that are shot with a nonstandard approach. Today among the top trends, you may find the following more often:

Animated stories

Animation attracts attention and evokes positive emotions, as it is associated with entertaining cartoons and seems less promotional. It’s not a secret that animation has become one of the most popular techniques in creating videos. Brands use hand-drawn styles to tell about themselves, their services, and their products and easily explain how to use them.

Anti-storytelling

Anti-storytelling is a video marketing device the boldest companies apply to build first a negative (usually fictional) story associated with the brand and then prove it to be unexpectedly humorous, educational, or containing some other morals in it, positively showing the brand works. The viewer understands that all this is just a game but is already involved in it and cannot resist watching till the end. Such stories subtly draw attention to the brand without praising it traditional stories often do.

Tragedy

In marketing, a commercial tragedy can be considered the best storytelling of the worst customer’s pain points. If a brand listens to the audience carefully, and analyses the data, it can create something that will help solve the problem. The emphasis on tragedy draws attention and engages the viewer, making the story more alive and very serious. Such narrative storytelling examples are often built according to the laws of theatrical tragedy classics and should evoke strong emotions: fear, anger, sadness, surprise, relief, joy, or controversy.

Mini commercials

Since users are extremely bored with superfluous content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep their attention for more than a few seconds. Advertising platforms are looking for new formats, one of them is mini-commercials. Facebook was the first to launch the 6-second ad video format, followed by YouTube. The six-second-story challenge has attracted a lot of attention from advertisers and users and resulted in new examples of storytelling.

Mashups

How to combine something that cannot be combined, mix the expected with the unexpected, in the most seemingly illogical way? There are products and viewers that may inspire you even for such stories. A mashup will be a great idea for your best brand storytelling in this case.

Conclusion

Creating videos for advertising always starts with thinking about the overall concept of your video advertising design. And this is where animated storytelling comes in handy because it allows you to divide it frame by frame and depict the chosen style most conveniently. This versatile option will engage your audience and make them feel positive. Storytelling business examples will help you develop the best idea for your company.  Choose from the top video storytelling trends to spice up your campaign. In case, you need a great video for business story from scratch you are welcome with your weirdest ideas.  We are one of the top explainer video companies ready for any challenge.