Case Study
Owens
Estate Planning Services
A behind-the-scenes look at how we created an informative, fun and vibrant brand for Owens Estate Planning Services.
Here's how we did it:
Scriptwriting and Storyboard
Our first task was focused on creating a set of Explainer Videos. We spent hours researching the intricacies of the different products John offers. It often helps if we don’t understand a product all that well, since we are then more sensitive to the critical bits of information that give us our ‘a-ha!’ moments. Only once we have fully grasped the actual value of the product do we start writing the scripts. However, there is one more step before the words start flowing, and that is to work out the visual storytelling approach. Our scripts are written with the personality of the brand, people and characters that will star in the animations in mind.
We then created a storyboard for each script. Every action in every scene was planned out in detail before video or animation work was started. Storyboards allow everyone involved in the production to visualise the flow of the story and make suggestions or request changes before we start final production. It also allows us to create a detailed list of all the assets we need to source or produce, cutting out unnecessary work and keeping a lid on costs.
Seamless Integration
Since John is the focus of the brand, we wanted to seamlessly integrate live footage of John and have him interact with the characters in the animation. The answer: green screen. Green screen allowed us to place John in any environment we wanted to. It also gave us full control over lighting and audio throughout the process. For the backgrounds we’ve used various stills and video footage from in and around Worcester, where John is based, helping to further reinforce the personal touch.
Characters
WAKSTER has vast experience in telling stories through characters and animation. We already had a set of Egg characters in our growing library of characters, so they were perfect for what John wanted. Our first task was to create the additional characters we needed for John’s project. We call this process re-skinning and that was how the Granny and the Super Hero John characters were born. Using these characters to explain topics such as Probate and Powers of Attorney in a fun and engaging way, while creating an emotional connection with the audience, creates a significant boost in persuasiveness.
Animation
Our characters come in many shapes, sizes and sophistication. Because the egg characters don’t have any arms or legs, they are speedy and easy to animate. Even though they are in that sense somewhat “limited”, there is still a lot of expressive body language in the way we make them bounce around. We paid particular attention to their facial expressions which project their emotional states and form a crucial connection point with the audience.
Environments And Props
Since the content of each topic was already complicated, it was essential to keep the focus on the story and characters. As a result, we consciously decided to keep the environments as simple and pared down as possible so as not to overload the audience with information. However, it does not mean that we could not have a little bit of fun with some of the props – we created a great little egg-bility scooter!
Explainer Videos
Once all the live video of John was shot, all the animations were created and rendered and all the background and graphical elements were in place, we did the final post-production edit. The result was a set of three explainer videos which John could use to explain the value of his key products: Probate, Powers of Attorney and Trusts.
The end result is a fun, bright and modern brand that not only looks fantastic and enticing but more importantly, it is filled to the brim with informative and easy to understand content that is seamlessly integrated across all platforms and all media into one cohesive whole.
Marketing Material
Producing animations generates a lot of assets that can be used for other forms of content. From the explainer videos, we were then able to render out a set of static images. These were used to create a collection of Viral Ads that John could use to promote his services on various social media platforms.
Elements from these images were also integrated into the corporate ID elements of the brand, such as stationery, the website design and social media platform branding.
By re-purposing the explainer videos, John ended up with a substantial amount of high value promotional and marketing material as well as a spectacular brand look and feel.
WAKSTER think differently to most others, their ideas are brilliant, and the characters they create are memorable. I had known Philippe and Tersia before engaging their services so I knew they would be fantastic to work with and would provide a brilliant result
John Owens - Owens Estate Planning Services
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