The Importance of Motion for Brands in 2019.

You may have got the impression from our weekly #MotionMondays social posts and recent #MotionMondays blog post that we think motion is a very important component for brands to utilise in 2019.

Well, you’d be right. We’ve started to incorporate more and more motion into work for not only Big Cat, but other clients such as Ember Inns and Absolutely Leisure, and we hope that by the end of this blog post you’ll be able to see why.

Video Content

As you may have noticed from our posts, motion is now an essential component part for today’s brands, rather than a nice-to-have. With people’s attention spans getting shorter, it’s important to get their attention, and to keep it, as soon as possible.

This is where motion and animation come into their own, as videos are engaging and easy to consume, especially when people are on the move. Who hasn’t aimlessly scrolled through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on their commute? 65% of viewers watch more than three quarters of a video, which is far more than we can say about text-based content.

87% of businesses in 2019 are now using video as a marketing tool, and a very effective one at that; 83% of marketers now say that video gives them a good ROI, up from 78% twelve months ago, as motion can really help bring a brand to life on digital platforms. Animations can help you vary the content you publish, attract attention and explain complex ideas.

Brands should utilise videos, live videos, boomerangs, stories and animated gifs, as social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.

87% of consumers say they’d like to see EVEN more video from brands in 2019, so if these figures don’t encourage you to incorporate more motion into your social channels then we don’t know what will.

The Future Relationship Between Brands and Motion

Our attention nowadays is directed more and more to screens. With the introduction of new digital platforms such as virtual and augmented reality, all brands will need to start embracing the digital age and adapting their identities to the ever-evolving technological world we live in or risk falling behind.

The days of static brands with printed guidelines in encyclopaedic size binders are long behind us. We are already starting to see quite a number of rebrands where the first thought is how it works on screen rather than print.

A kinetic identity allows consumers to engage more with the personality and emotion of a brand, whereas a traditional static identity restricts the ways in which these traits of a brand are communicated.

Master How an Identity Works Digitally

Whilst it is important to master how an identity works digitally, it is also vital not to neglect printed application – and designing an identity with a balance of both needs to be considered to get it right.

There are a number of brands that have taken this approach recently – to name a few of our favourites; the All4 rebrand by Dixon Baxi, the Social Mobility Foundation by Studio Jones Knowles Ritchie, and Grooveschool by Mark Studio.

Whilst generative and interactive motion design is something that isn’t entirely new, it has tested the waters amongst brand campaigns, launches and exhibitions. We can only see brands considering this area of design when undergoing a new campaign in the future.

The Future of Motion

Whilst we are not entirely certain of what the future of motion will look like, one thing is for sure; it will continue to evolve and break boundaries.

The explosion of virtual and augmented reality is both scary and creates exciting possibilities within design.