If you’re looking for a creative and memorable way to bring your brand to life and engage your audience, you should definitely consider animated video content. It’s a powerful tool that can help you communicate your message, showcase your brand, and connect with your audience.
But how much does it cost to create such a powerful marketing tool? The answer is: it depends. The price of animated video content varies depending on what you want to achieve with it. It can be as affordable (well, within reason) or as expensive as you want it to be.
Creating high-quality, customised animated content that delivers results is not a cheap endeavour. After all, you are investing in a powerful visual tool that can effectively capture your audience’s attention in a 1/10 of a second and leave a lasting impression.
However, before you talk to an animated video production company, it’s important to have a clear idea of your budget. It will make the process much easier and save you a lot of time and trouble.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. In this blog post, we’ll explain some of the factors that affect the cost of animation, and how you can find the best option for your needs and goals.
Animated video costs explained
There are many elements that can affect the total animation price, for example:
- The type of animation:
From 2D animation to motion graphics and character animation, there’s a whole range of video types to choose from. Have a read to find out more about exploring animation styles for marketing and communications. - How long the video will be:
This comes down to how much you want to cover and what you want to get out of it. Will it be an online ad? Or perhaps an internal explainer video? The longer the video, the more hours required to create it. - The complexity of the animation and branding elements:
- We tailor each video to match your requirements, and some might take more time than others.
- Where will it be used:
- Different platforms have different requirements, some easier than others, and that needs to be factored in. It also depends on whether you use it internally or externally.
- Costs for voice over, sound effects and music usage:
Costs for these often get forgotten but unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
What affects the cost of animation?
Some of the elements that can impact the total animation price are:
- The type of animation:
You can choose from different styles of animation, such as 2D animation, motion graphics, character animation, and more. Each style has its own advantages and challenges. You can read more about them in our blog post on exploring animation styles for marketing and communications.
- How long the video will be:
This comes down to how much you want to cover and what you want to get out of it. Will it be an online ad? Or perhaps an internal explainer video? The longer the video, the more hours required to create it.
- The complexity of the animation and branding elements:
We tailor each video to match your requirements, and some might take more time than others.
- The platform where it will be use:
Different platforms have different requirements, some easier than others, and this needs to be taken into account. It also matters whether you use it internally or externally.
- Costs for voice over, sound effects and music usage:
Costs for these often gets forgotten but unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
To find out more about the animation prices themselves, check out our blog post on ‘How much does premium animated content cost?
Why will having a budget in mind help you?
Pricing animated videos is complex, it takes a long time, as we’re sure you can imagine considering all the work involved in creating a brief:
- We need to understand your business and your brand identity
- Understanding the client’s needs and requirements for the film itself
- Brainstorm and develop creative ideas and concepts as a team
- Creating different options to present for the design concept
- Knowing what the right voiceover should be and whether licenses will be required
- We need to calculate all the elements of the video, including animation style, video length and music usage
That’s only the first step of the process!
We’ve been creating premium animated video content for clients for many years, and if there’s one piece of advice we can pass on, then it’s this: it is always in your interest to have a budget in mind first before chatting to animated video creators.
Even just a rough ballpark figure will give a team of creatives enough of a starting point to shape and adapt the brief to your budget.
Why is this important? Because, quite frankly, if you don’t, it can have a snowball effect on your timelines, campaigns, and ultimately KPIs.
What happens when you don’t have a budget
- The brief won’t match your expectations.
- It will likely be over (or under!) budget and include elements (like animation styles or music) that don’t suit your needs
- The creative team will need to go back to the drawing board
- This will delay the approval process on your side
- It will result in your campaign timelines being pushed
- And ultimately, it can affect the quarterly KPIs set out in your marketing strategy
So, the takeaway is to always think of a budget first before starting the animation production process.
What if you don’t have a budget yet?
If you’re new to creating animated videos and just want to know, roughly, how much budget to set aside, don’t fret.
We suggest you have a look at this neat little infographic we created on the truth behind the processes, costs and considerations of video animation.
It gives estimates of how much you can expect a 60-second corporate film to cost.
And for more in-depth information, have read through the ‘understanding typical costs’ section on our recent blog.
Ready for the next steps?
If you’ve got a project and budget in mind, we’d love to have a chat.
At Content Creatures, we’re specialists in creating animated video content that’s both bespoke and highly tailored to our client’s needs.
You can book a no-strings-attached, free consultation call by clicking on the button below. Talk soon!
