Storytelling in explainer videos

People love stories. A good story can work wonders when it comes to making the listener understand something and retain the information.
Explainer videos can also tell wonderful stories.
For Jens Schmelze, founder and managing director of simpleshow, the decisive features of a well-told story are identification, dramaturgy and denouement. He offers the following tips for developing a story:
Identification: In the majority of cases, it is worth creating a character to function as the protagonist of the story. This character may well be a person, but it could also be your company, an object or any type of creature. The simplest way is to allow your target audience to guide you: it almost always provides the perfect blueprint for your protagonist. Of course, the story can also include other roles, but you should be careful not to include too many people and to ensure that it is easy to tell the characters apart. This will make it easier for the viewers/audience to follow the story.
Dramaturgy: Set the scene! You don’t need to be a Hollywood director – just ask yourself: what problem does my product actually solve? The term “product” here can obviously also represent anything that you want to explain: your service, a change process in your company or a social issue. Confront your character in the film with this same problem and then solve it. It is enough to illustrate reality. Don’t forget: every story needs an arc of suspense with a logical and emotional structure. This is generally composed of an introduction (presentation of characters, setting of scene), main story (plot point/climax, argument) and conclusion (resolution, possible call for action). The air of suspense is the underlying framework of your clip. Its development is determined by the length of the film, which in turn is dependent on its intended use, target audience and the context.
Resolution: If you want to illustrate your scenario with a problem situation, you work towards the climax of your story. This should always fall within the first half of the story. That leaves you sufficient time to place the focus on the solution of the problem / to discuss a matter. Don’t forget to refer back to the initial problem at the end. Your explanatory video should have a clearly defined conclusion and a resolution. In most cases, the final image is also associated with a call to action. If you want to include additional information and refer to your website, for example, this is the place to do it.
And? Have we inspired you to write your next story?
By the way, this post was inspired by Caroline Kliemt with her Blogparade appeal.!
Your simpleshow team
(Kristin)

The related simpleshow white paper can be downloaded for free!