Internal communications animated explainer

To encourage awareness and company-wide use of our client’s AskAZ portal, we developed a suite of internal communications animated explainer videos that educate and engage.

Background

Animation is one of the most powerful employee engagement and internal communications tools, and over the years we have developed a wide range of animations and video to create maximum impact and generate high levels of engagement for AstraZeneca employees.

Challenge

This time, planning an internal communications campaign to promote the benefits of the AskAZ portal to employees of all levels, our client reached out to us asking for support to create an internal communications animated explainer.

The AskAZ portal has been developed by our client as the go-to engine for employees to solve queries they may have in the IT, HR or Finance areas of the business, quickly and easily. AskAZ acts as a strong employee engagement tool by saving employees time and effort, and solving any potential concerns immediately, so widespread awareness and use of the portal is vital.

Our client’s brief was very specific:

• a suite of animations, 12 in total
• desired length of each internal communications animated explainer: ideally no longer than 40 seconds
• no narration / voiceover required, on-screen text only
• we would be provided with 60-75 words per animation
• background music should be included

A key element of the challenge for this project, as these were essentially training videos, was to guarantee that each internal communications animated explainer was slow enough to show each step in detail, making sure employees in different AstraZeneca locations could read the captions comfortably and take in the information, whilst at the same time ensuring that the pace was fast enough to keep the audience energised and engaged.

Solution

So far we have produced seven animated explainers*, four to cover HR questions and three for IT-related queries.

Interpreting scripts sent by our client, we produced storyboards before reaching the animation stage.

AstraZeneca brand colours keep the animations visually consistent with other internal comms materials, while, in just a few seconds, a diverse set of characters interacting with the AskAZ portal in different scenarios help employees identify with situations they may find themselves in.

We applied a different look and feel for HR and IT, to give them their own personality and make them memorable. The informal illustration style keeps it fresh and engaging, whilst the animation effects are subtle yet dynamic, in line with our client’s request to keep the animations slow enough to aid understanding, but with enough pace to engage.

(*) – an edited compilation of HR and IT animations has been included here for illustrative purposes. We’re currently working on versions to cover Finance-related queries.