Explainer Video for Plyo App | How We Made It and What We Learned
We love to collaborate with people who are doing great things. That’s why we had such a good time working with Peter and his team to create a video for their app, Plyo.
The Client
Plyo is an app that rewards students for exercising on campus. The rewards are legit- ranging from free food at local restaurants to exclusive discounts on clothing from popular brands.
Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.
They’ve rolled out their app at the University of Minnesota, where it’s been a big hit with students. And other local universities have noticed, planning to incorporate Plyo into their student engagement programs this year. We have a feeling that it won’t be long before Plyo is used by students at universities across the country.
The Video
Here’s the video we created for Plyo, explaining what the app is and how it works.
This video was a lot of fun to dream up and create.
It’s a story-driven explainer with an interesting mix of animation and live action. It’s also narrated by a voice-over, rather than snippets of interview audio, which allowed us to craft a message that is more precise and fluid altogether.
The Process
To make this video compelling, we followed our three-part process for creating effective video.
1. Strategy
We started by crafting a strategy that would help guide us in accomplishing our objectives.
The main objective? Acquire new users.
To do that, our video needed to:
- Explain their app effectively and concisely
- Resonate with university students
- Uphold a strong brand image
Our target audience was university students, so we designed every aspect of the video to resonate with them.
We brainstormed our creative direction, wrote the script, tweaked it, and planned out all the shots and animations. All the while, we kept our audience and distribution plan in mind.
2. Production
For this production, we had a limited budget and only 6 hours to film everything. Meaning, we had to secure locations to film, actors to play the parts, props, wardrobe, gear, and crew while accruing almost no expenses.
Not an easy task. But after planning out all the logistics, it was time to shoot our video.
We set out to film everything in one day, and we did it. Even with a minimal crew, we were able to capture all the footage we needed across four different set locations in less than six hours.
That’s the beauty of thorough planning, right there.
The edit came together pretty quick, as our excitement about this video definitely helped move things along.
Animating the app interface into the video was the most labor-intensive part by far. It required some back-and-forth between us and Peter to get everything just right.
We’re really happy with how things turned out. The animations gave the whole piece a polished feel and helped illustrate the app’s UI in a simple and intuitive way.
3. Distribution
Two different versions of the video will be utilized for online marketing purposes, showing potential users the value of Plyo.
- A full-length version will live on the homepage of Plyo’s website, engaging each website visitor with a little Plyo 101.
- A shorter, 20 second version will be promoted across different social media platforms with the purpose of raising awareness about the app among local students.
Over time, we’ll track key viewer metrics and analyze the results in order to make changes that optimize performance.
The Takeaways
We learn something from every video we produce, whether it’s process-related or a matter of learning something about ourselves or our craft.
Throughout the process of creating this video for Plyo, there were a few teachable moments and key takeaways:
- This style of video was a blast to produce. We’d love to create more videos in this vein.
- The production day, and how smoothly it went, reinforced the importance of proper planning.
- The technicalities of animating an app interface can become very complex without having access to very specific design assets up front. Thankfully, Peter had all his ducks in a row and gave us everything we needed to be efficient in that process. Now, for future projects, we know exactly what to ask for up front.
And lastly, we’d like to give a special thanks to the University of Minnesota and Crisp & Green for their gracious cooperation as we filmed at their locations!
Read about another video project – How A Recycling Program Became A Community Success Story | Video Case Study
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