Video content can hook viewers, amplify your message, and distinguish your brand from the competition. However, the best medium for your message can be challenging to identify and afford. Market development funds (MDF) can help you overcome the financial barriers of production and significantly expand your content capabilities, whether you're planning a live-action ad spot or an animated explainer video.
But how do you choose between live-action vs. animation for your video content?
Both offer unique benefits for your MDF campaign, and the right fit depends on your marketing goals, project timeline, and partner requirements. When you understand the pros and cons of animated and live-action content, you can make the best choice for your marketing objectives.
Partners and manufacturers provide market development funds to support their partners' marketing, sales, and lead generation. As a small, in-house marketing team, you may not have the skills or resources to produce high-quality video content on your own. MDF can significantly expand your typical advertising capabilities, letting you leverage video production, animation, and other content marketing strategies.
A full-service video production company can elevate your marketing content quality and recommend the best distribution strategies for your unique target market. This can increase the return on investment (ROI) of your MDF, whether you're raising awareness, generating leads, or simply moving customers along the purchase funnel. Marketing-focused production agencies also track and report your campaign performance, which you can use to support MDF renewal and secure higher funding.
Your MDF allocation impacts your content planning and production quality based on several key factors:
Most partner teams prioritize content focused on brand awareness or lead generation for all parties involved, which can limit the types of live action or animation content available to you. Effective MDF videos that maximize ROI include:
Product demos
Explainers
Event coverage
Customer case studies
User-generated content (UGC)
The amount of MDF you receive ultimately determines your production budget, which affects your campaign scope, video quality, and technical capabilities.
Not sure how to maximize your budget while staying true to your creative visions? A dedicated production agency, such as Charter & Co, can help. Successful video content with consistent data reporting can potentially raise your MDF production budget for future campaigns.
Your partner usually gives you guidelines on how to use your MDF. Typically, you have to use it for specific types of marketing campaigns and goals to support both of your businesses. Your content must have clear messaging, a well-defined target audience, and a direct call to action (CTA) while meeting both of your brand's standards.
For example, Microsoft Partners must use MDF to promote their Microsoft-related services, but they can't treat Microsoft as a sponsor.
Partners may also specify which target audience you should predominantly market to, such as business-to-business (B2B) consumers in the tech industry. Understanding your audience's key demographics, online behaviors, and buying motivators should influence your messaging, video format, and distribution platforms.
The amount of MDF you receive from your partners varies based on your relationship, your project scope, your anticipated reach, and many other factors. This budget, combined with your existing video marketing budget, influences your production possibilities, such as the feasibility of live action vs. animation videos.
In most cases, live-action videos are more affordable than animated content, but it depends on what exactly you have in mind. While a lower budget can limit your technical capabilities in both forms, there are always creative ways to capture your message and vision — especially if you partner with a professional video production team.
For example, with a high animation budget, you could produce a long-form product story video with complex animations that bring your product's blueprints to life. Alternatively, you could use motion graphics, basic product animations, and software screencasts to deliver the same message with a lower budget.
Working with live-action videos can pose financial challenges, with numerous creative workarounds. For instance, you might want to capture drone footage of a city skyline for your brand awareness campaign. However, the cost of permits, production days, and certified drone technicians could get quite high. Instead, you could save money by licensing drone stock footage that already exists, then use your remaining budget to promote your products, services, and partners.
Live-action video can do many things that animation can't, and vice versa. Live-action content connects with viewers on a more grounded and relatable level, whether they're seeing an actor's emotional reaction or watching a real client share their story in an interview.
On the other hand, animated content can highlight the most important details of your message, make users' screens pop with color, and show off how your products work inside and out.
To compare live action vs. animation and find the smart fit for your needs, consider your timeline, budget, and campaign goals.
Animated and live-action costs vary based on your vision. However, animated films are typically more expensive due to the higher cost of labor and the price of animation video makers. A minimal MDF budget will restrict your animation possibilities, though you can still affordably use motion graphics and stock motion animations.
Beyond cost, you must also consider your project timeline. Animation generally takes longer to produce than most live-action content, depending on the level of detail you want to achieve. Even with a fully dedicated team, short-form animated projects typically take weeks to complete.
Many live-action productions may also require a few weeks for pre-production, filming, and editing — especially if your project has distinct technical needs. However, full-service production teams with flexible schedules may be able to fast-track these processes more effectively than they could with animated content. So, if you need to publish your video in a relatively short timeframe, live action may be your best (and only) option.
Is live-action video or animation a better fit for your marketing campaign? First, consider your target audience, distribution platforms, and MDF or partner requirements. Define your specific advertising goals, whether that's generating leads or building brand awareness for your business and your partner.
These insights will help you determine the best format, style, and aesthetic for your video content. For example, live-action movies are typically stronger choices for realistic narratives that viewers connect with on a grounded level. On the other hand, animation is ideal for abstract and fantastical visual styles that grab and engage viewers' attention.
You must also consider your messaging and communication goals. A live-action interview with a client, customer, or company leader can make your success stories feel more authentic and impactful. Meanwhile, high-quality animation can give your brand a fresh, professional look. Reusing the same animation style in future campaigns establishes brand consistency. Animation can also make topics more exciting to viewers.
Of course, while there is a clear distinction between live-action and animation, you may be able to combine both visual styles to elevate your content even more. For example, a product demo could use both live-action footage and animated elements to showcase how a product works. This can make your videos more engaging, boost your creative potential, and reduce the time and money spent on animation.
Both animation and live action content can elevate your ROI with the right messaging strategy. However, you must also set realistic ROI expectations when calculating your budget to avoid overspending or failing to maximize your project's potential. These budget insights can ultimately impact how much you can actually spend on animation vs. live action costs.
Consistently tracking and reporting your engagement metrics can help you accurately assess your ROI potential before your campaign starts. For example, tracking your social media engagement and viewership can help you estimate your brand awareness campaign's potential reach. Similarly, trackable URLs indicate which platforms have the best potential for lead generation. This data makes it easy to identify your best content types and marketing strategies to improve your video advertisements continuously.
Reporting your estimated ROI also demonstrates to partners that your marketing efforts are financially worthwhile. This can potentially increase your available MDF and support renewal during your next campaign.
When choosing between live action and animation, don't forget to consider your video content's potential long-term value, including how long you'll be able to use it for. For instance, you could share a product demo and pin it to your product pages for as long as you offer that product. This longevity can justify a larger budget for animation, as the content will likely have both short-term and long-term returns on your investment.
On the other hand, some content, like product announcements, limited-time promotions, holiday videos, or content related to internet trends, has immense short-term value. These videos still significantly boost your brand awareness and sales, even if you won't be able to reuse the content long term. For this type of content, determine your budget based on your anticipated short-term ROI.
Both animation and live-action video can benefit your short- and long-term goals when you use them right. However, content with only short-term value may not justify a large budget for complex animations, making live-action more suitable for most short-term goals.
Not sure whether animation or live-action is best for your project? A professional video production agency can consult with you to discuss which suits your campaign.
There's not always a single right answer when choosing between animated and live-action video production services. Your best strategy hinges on your MDF budget, campaign requirements, production timeline, anticipated ROI, and other key factors.
As a full-service production company, Charter & Co can help you leverage live-action, animation, or even both types of content to boost your marketing impact. Our experienced production team will creatively develop storyboards, shot lists, motion graphics, and other production elements around your exact vision.
With a focus on corporate marketing, we offer crucial insights into the best marketing and production strategies for our clients' target markets.
Truly Engaging teamed up with Charter & Co to create exciting animated video advertisements for its new holiday card designs within a relatively short timeline. Our post-production team developed visually engaging videos that showed off each unique card design with animated transitions, eye-catching backgrounds, and motion graphics.
The video design supported compelling holiday narratives and effectively captured audience attention. Additionally, we delivered the content in multiple video formats, including 30-second, 15-second, and 6-second cuts in both horizontal and vertical settings. These simple formats made it easy to post the videos to the big social media platforms — TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube — maximizing the campaign's reach.
The Truly Engaging animation video case study proves how creative animation teams can elevate seemingly simple product videos into genuinely captivating content — even with budget or timeline restrictions.
Camcraft wanted to stand out to potential recruits in the precision machining industry by developing dynamic, company-culture-focused videos. The content needed to showcase authentic employee narratives and highlight the company's human element, establishing its commitment and dedication to its employees.
Camcraft partnered with Charter & Co's production experts, who tailored a production plan around the company's technology and employees. Our production team visited Camcraft's state-of-the-art machining facility to immerse ourselves in the company's culture and operations. These insights helped the creative team plan camera angles and develop a message that felt authentic to Camcraft's brand.
The biggest takeaway from the Camcraft live-action video case study? Hands-on collaboration with a production agency lets you tap into video experience your in-house team might not have as you develop live-action content that fits your brand.
From choosing between live action and animation to hitting your KPIs and staying on budget, there's a lot that goes into finding the right fit for your video content long before the first call of "Action!" For help planning your next video campaign to maximize ROI, turn to Charter & Co.
We're a Chicago-based video production company specializing in both live-action and animation services. From developing a video content strategy and crafting creative scripts to shooting live-action video and producing animation, we do it all.
Ready to step into the world of animated and live-action films? Contact Charter & Co to start your video production process.