By Michelle Najarian, Andrea Swangard

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

Think about the last event you attended.

You likely don’t remember the full keynote or every conversation, but a few moments probably stand out. That’s because memory doesn’t work like a recording device. We remember fragments: emotions, standout visuals, short phrases, and moments that felt different from everything around them.

So instead of trying to make everything memorable, it’s more effective to focus on designing a few moments that people will carry with them.

What people hear sticks when it’s repeatable

The ideas that last aren’t the most detailed, they’re the ones people can easily repeat. At the Geekwire Agents of Transformation event, a fireside chat panel member described using AI to reduce internal friction as “removing paper cuts.” That simple phrase made a complex idea instantly relatable, and it quickly showed up again in later conversations. Most people probably won’t remember every point from the session, but they’ll remember the phrase because it made the bigger idea instantly understandable. When a message is easy to say out loud, it’s far more likely to spread.

What people see helps ideas land

Visuals help people process information quickly, especially when attention is already stretched. In crowded event environments, the right visual helps people understand something instantly instead of making them work for it. People remember visuals that simplify a complex idea, create emotional recognition, or immediately clarify what matters. Whether it’s a clear architecture diagram or a short, human video, the right visual can make an idea click without extra explanation. Think quick customer clips sharing a real outcome, or a speaker stepping out of slides to tell a story in their own words. Those moments feel less like content and more like connection, which makes them easier to remember.

What people engage with creates memory

The most memorable booths and sessions may not be the most polished, but they’re the ones where something is happening. Interactive demos, small activities, or even thoughtful swag can turn a passive experience into something participatory. And when people participate, they’re far more likely to remember the moment and talk about it later.

At a recent event, one booth drew a crowd by printing logos onto the foam of attendees’ coffee. It was simple, but it created a shared experience and sparked conversations while people waited (free coffee and networking that feels natural? A win-win). In a space where every brand is competing for attention, those small moments of interaction are often the things that stay with people the longest.

Design for moments, not volume

In overstimulating event environments, trying to make everything memorable often has the opposite effect. When every booth is loud, polished, and demanding attention, people stop processing the differences altogether. What actually creates recall are moments of contrast.

That’s why the goal shouldn’t be maximizing visibility at every touchpoint. Instead, focus on creating a small number of moments that people can easily remember, describe, and share after the event is over.

By Andrea Swangard, The 2A Team

Image by Rachel Adams

People talk about the importance of taking breaks, but don’t always ‘fess up to what that looks like in practice. At a creative agency, those moments matter because fresh perspective is the work. When you’re deep in a problem, it’s easy to get stuck circling the same ideas. Stepping away can be the quickest way to reset your thinking and see the work differently. So we asked the team a simple question: when you need to hit reset, what’s your go-to move? Here’s what a few 2Aers had to say.

How we pause (and come back better)

When I need a break from staring at my computer, I love to doodle with a pen and paper. The drawings are usually silly, but sometimes they turn into something cool. And my eyes and hands appreciate the time off from screens and a keyboard.
—Andrea Swangard

Over the past year, I’ve been learning French, and it’s become my favorite way to reset during a busy workday. When I need a break, I make myself a nice pour-over coffee and listen to a Coffee Break French lesson. It’s a small ritual that helps me mentally step away, transports me back to France for just a moment, and feels like a little win in the middle of a hectic day.
—Salena Hill

When I need a reset, I go for a walk. I get to exit the building, get my blood flowing, and be reminded that the world is bigger than what’s in my head. Bonus points if there’s some sun involved, but that’s not always a sure thing in Seattle.
—Abby Breckenridge

In sunny Arizona, the best way to clear my mind is to get outside. During the spring and summer, a midday walk is often too hot, so soaking my feet in the pool and listening to a couple of songs usually refreshes my mind and fills me up with vitamin D and energy.
—Tammy Monson

Now that I’m a full-fledged gardener (I own a Plant Mom hat), if I get the chance to throw on my garden shoes and get my hands dirty, I’m in. Digging holes, moving plants around, chucking soil all over the driveway pretending to know what I’m doing… judging my neighbor for planting yet another hydrangea (like, bro, the world of plants is vast, yo). Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be the thing that brings me peace, and yet here I am, casually knowing how big a cubic yard of compost should be.
—Felip Ballesteros

I love playing with my Maltipoo pup Maggie as a quick break. Our favorite game is called “Find It.” I hide kibble in different spots around my apartment one at a time and let her sniff each one out.
—Nora Bright

Sometimes when I need a break, I like to phone a friend (or family member). Just a few minutes talking to someone on the phone gets my mind off work and helps me reset.
—Rachel Adams

It depends on what I’m taking a break from! It might be a quick dance party to shake the stress off, or a walk with the pups and a good album to keep me company. If I’m really looking for some Zen, I might head to my snake Nori’s bio-active terrarium to play around in the dirt and check out the roly-polies and springtails. If I need to laugh, I hop on my PC and play a few games with friends—usually Arc Raiders, because I live by the goop, die by the goop.
—Ashley JoEtta

I’m a big fan of a 5-minute hammock hang outdoors. Bonus points if one of my fur babies is up for a cuddle.
—Michelle Najarian

Walks with my dog Eli, shooting some hoops, or a few minutes of rolling some putts.
—Jeff Salvado

Sometimes I just want to check off an easier task, so I can go back to work feeling accomplished. That may mean wiping down a counter, picking up dog toys, knitting a new row, or reorganizing hundreds of books in order of genre and subgenre, broken down by rating system. You know, easy things.
—Carolyn Lange

I’m a big sports fan, so I enjoy checking out the latest news and rumors about my favorite teams and watching a highlight or two. It reminds me how glad I am not to have a job where everything I do is in front of an audience and committed to video forever.
—Kimberly Mass

A lot of times I need a break from work, but I also need the gears in my brain to keep turning. That’s when I jumpstart a little adrenaline into my system by taking a typing test. I like to think my elementary school digital tools teacher would be proud. (My favorite site to use is monkeytype.com!)
—Emily Zheng

If I want to step away from the desk for a break, I’m most likely taking the doggo, Mabel, for a quick walk in the Denver sunshine (sorry to sunshine brag, Seattleites). But if I need a break and am still glued to my screen, I love scouring Google Maps and other mapping sites for hikes, bike rides, rivers, and general outside places to explore.
—Mike Lahoda

By Andrea Swangard, Felip Ballesteros

Image by Emily Zheng

Creative projects rarely go off track because of execution alone. More often, the root cause is a lack of alignment at the start. The audience or message isn’t clearly defined, or success means different things to different stakeholders. That’s where a strong creative brief comes in: not as a formality, but as a way to get everyone on the same page before the work begins.

I sat down with 2A consultant Felip Ballesteros to unpack what actually makes a creative brief useful and how it changes the way teams work.

Q: Let’s start simple. What is a creative brief, really?

Felip: Most people think of a creative brief as a form or a process. That’s where things go wrong. A creative brief is a point of view. It’s your perspective on what you’re building, who it’s for, and why it matters. It pulls from the client’s goals, the team’s experience, and most importantly, the customer’s reality.

Q: Who should own the creative brief?

Felip: It’s a shared process, but it needs a clear owner.

On the client side, you want one stakeholder who’s accountable for aligning internal perspectives. That doesn’t mean they work alone—they should bring input from marketing, sales, and SMEs. But too many voices directly shaping the brief usually leads to something vague that tries to do too much.

On the agency side, we often end up driving the process. In many cases, the brief doesn’t exist when a project starts, so we build it based on the SOW, early conversations, and what we know.

Q: What makes a strong creative brief stand out?

Felip: Two important things! First, it defines how the asset should feel. Not in abstract terms, but in a way the team can actually interpret and execute. Second, it defines what not to do. A good brief narrows the path forward without having to list constraints. It gives direction. That’s what makes it powerful. It’s simple, but it drives decisions.

Q: What are the most important elements to include?

Felip: The specifics matter, but what matters more is how clearly you define them. A strong brief gets very precise about the audience and why they should care right now. Not just who they are, but what’s happening in their world that makes this asset relevant.

It also anchors the work in a real moment. For example, where does this animation show up? What’s happening right before someone sees this first call deck, and what do you want them to do next? If you can clearly connect the audience, the moment, and the outcome, the rest of the brief tends to fall into place.

Q: How does a strong brief impact the creative process?

Felip: It speeds everything up, because the brief forces early decisions. It clarifies the full story up front, not just the asset, but the transformation we’re trying to create. With that clarity, the team isn’t debating direction later. Feedback becomes sharper, revisions are faster, and you get to a solid first version sooner.

It prevents expensive mistakes, too. If you miss something early, you might be reworking design or animation later, and that’s where timelines and budgets start to slip.

Q: Do creative briefs need to be perfect before you start?

Felip: Not at all. A brief is inherently imperfect. Waiting until you have every detail figured out is one of the biggest reasons teams don’t create one. Even if it’s incomplete, it gives you direction. And even if it’s wrong, it’s something you can react to and refine. That’s much better than starting with nothing!

Q: Any advice for teams that struggle to make briefs feel useful or inspiring?

Felip: Focus on conviction, not creativity. A brief doesn’t need to sound bold or innovative, it just needs to make sense. When the brief has a strong, believable point of view, that’s what makes it useful. That’s what gives the creative team something to build on.

Q: Thanks for these insights, Felip! Any final guidance for teams building a creative brief?

Felip: If you’re not sure where to start, focus on asking the right questions to make sure the brief is doing its job:

• Who is this for, specifically?
• Why should they care right now?
• Where and how will this asset be used?
• What are the 2–3 key messages?
• What tone and energy should this have?
• What do we want the audience to do next?

If you can answer those questions clearly, you’re already ahead of most teams. And if you need some expert guidance, we’re here to help.

By Michelle Najarian, Andrea Swangard

Image by Nicole Todd

Recently, we worked with an enterprise data platform company navigating a major market shift. Like many tech organizations today, they were evolving their positioning for the AI era and trying to tell a bigger story about the role their technology plays in modern data infrastructure.

But the messaging kept expanding because the core framework wasn’t built around the audiences or their specific pain points. One asset tried to speak to executives, while another layered in technical details for architects and engineers. Sales teams wanted quick pitch materials, and content teams needed deeper educational assets. The story was trying to check too many boxes, and it wasn’t landing clearly with anyone.

In complex categories like cloud and AI, the technology is sophisticated and the audience is diverse, and it’s easy for messaging to stretch until it tries to satisfy everyone at once.

Start with the audience

To solve this, we stepped back and defined the core personas the company needed to reach, along with their priorities and motivations. Executives were focused on strategic outcomes like building an AI-ready data foundation and driving measurable business impact. Technical decision makers cared more about development efficiency and how new capabilities would integrate into their existing tech stack.

Once those differences were clear, the gaps in the narrative became obvious. The messaging assumed a level of technical understanding that some decision makers didn’t yet have. The story was starting too far downstream for part of the audience.

From there, we built a narrative framework the entire organization could use. It mapped the core story to each audience and clarified what mattered most to them, from strategic business outcomes to technical proof points. That framework gave teams a shared foundation for everything from executive messaging to developer content.

Clarity creates alignment

When the audience is clearly defined and the narrative framework is shared across teams, the story becomes much easier to scale across campaigns, assets, and channels.

Markets will keep evolving, especially as AI reshapes how companies think about their data strategies. The organizations that adapt most effectively aren’t constantly rewriting their story, they’re using frameworks built around the people they’re trying to reach. And when that foundation is in place, the rest of the messaging becomes much easier to build and evolve as the company and its solutions grow.

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Evan Aeschlimann

AI is everywhere in marketing right now. A common assumption is that designers using AI type a prompt, magic happens, and the creative work is done. Sounds easy! And risky. The reality is more nuanced, and far more interesting. To ground the conversation in real-world experience, I spoke with 2A designers Aaron Wendel, Evan Aeschlimann, and Guangyi Li about how AI fits into their creative process.

Getting to a first draft faster

Inside 2A, AI isn’t replacing designers, but it’s becoming a fast, surprisingly capable assistant. The design team uses it most heavily in early concepting for things like generating layout variations, exploring infographic structures, experimenting with illustration styles, and prototyping interactive experiences. Tools like Figma Make, Gemini, and Adobe Firefly help accelerate the “blank page” phase and bring ideas to life faster.

Where AI really shines is efficiency. Background removal that once took 20 minutes now takes 30 seconds. With a quick prompt, AI can help turn a static image into a video and rearrange a rough wireframe into a more logical flow. Designers can test alternate angles, lighting, and visual treatments, all before committing hours of production time.

The difference between fast and finished

Here’s the critical distinction with AI: it can get you to early concepts quickly. But it doesn’t reliably maintain brand consistency and it struggles with typography and detailed layout logic. The more complex the brand system, the more human oversight is required. In experiments with training custom agents to generate fully on-brand visuals, the results were either generic or oddly off-base. Sometimes the output was decent, but rarely client-ready.

That’s where expertise matters. The designer’s role isn’t shrinking; it’s evolving. AI enables faster experimentation and cross-disciplinary thinking—designers can prototype motion, imagine interactivity, or explore UI behaviors without writing code. However, judgment and brand integrity still require a trained eye.

At 2A, AI accelerates the process, and our designers define the outcome. AI tools can generate options, but only experts can turn those options into assets that are on-brand, intentional, and built to drive results.

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Rachel Adams

The Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals Report is packed with essential data on how AI is transforming professional services, with a particular focus on the legal industry. But as with many in-depth reports, its richness and detail can be a double-edged sword: great for insight, but harder for time-strapped readers to absorb and act on quickly. 

Thomson Reuters partnered with us to create two new content pieces that made key findings from the report easier to engage with and more directly useful for their legal audience. By distilling complex research into a targeted infographic and a focused whitepaper, we helped bring clarity to professionals at different stages of their AI journey. 

Getting started: The infographic for AI readiness 

For professionals still shaping their AI strategy, we built an infographic that functions as a readiness checklist. It walks readers through the foundational steps needed to prepare for agentic AI, from building strategy to empowering individuals, with practical prompts and data points drawn from the report. 

The visual format makes the information easier to scan and share, while still grounding every recommendation in the original research. 

Going deeper: The whitepaper on maximizing AI value 

For legal leaders further along in their AI adoption, we developed a six-page whitepaper that offers concrete strategies to turn AI investments into measurable results. Drawing from the report’s legal-specific insights, the guide covers four key focus areas: strategy and leadership, trust, enablement, and measurement. 

Rather than reiterating technical features, the whitepaper keeps the focus on real-world applications, like how to embed AI in workflows your team already uses and track outcomes that align with your business priorities. It positions Thomson Reuters as both a thought leader and a trusted advisor for legal professionals navigating AI transformation. 

One report, two assets, many outcomes 

These assets demonstrate the power of repackaging research to meet audiences where they are. By creating content that’s aligned to different levels of AI maturity, we helped Thomson Reuters extend the reach of their research and support their customers in taking the next right step. 

Looking to turn your insights into action? Let’s talk. 

By Guy Schoonmaker, Andrea Swangard

Image by Emily Zheng

A client recently came to us with a familiar request: they wanted a sizzle video to improve the effectiveness of a product landing page. After adding one of our sizzle videos, they noticed a lift in performance and wanted to repeat the approach.

They’re not alone in turning to video to boost engagement. Including video on a landing page can increase conversion by as much as 80%. Sites with video also tend to convert at higher rates overall, with one benchmark showing a 4.8% average conversion rate for sites using video, compared to 2.9% for those without.

So, what type of video should you use—and when? Here are three formats we recommend, each suited for different goals and stages of the buyer journey.

Sizzle videos: Build excitement and boost engagement

Sizzle videos are short, energetic, and designed to get attention. They’re great for product pages, campaign rollouts, or events where you want to create momentum and drive action. These videos usually combine animation, sound design, and fast pacing to create an emotional connection quickly.

That’s what our client experienced: after adding a sizzle video to their product page and seeing a clear lift, they came back to request more. It’s no surprise—when visitors stay longer and feel more emotionally invested, they’re more likely to take the next step.

Explainer videos: Clarify and convert

Explainers go deeper and often include common customer pain points, topline product benefits or features, and UI snapshots. They’re especially effective when addressing a known challenge or objection, like demonstrating cost-saving features or what’s changed in an update.

We’ve partnered with enterprise teams to create explainer videos that highlight key functionality and reduce friction during the decision-making process. These videos are a great fit for users further down the funnel who need reassurance before they commit.

Testimonial videos: Build trust with firsthand perspective

For buyers evaluating complex solutions, credibility is key. Testimonial videos let viewers hear directly from the source about the impact your solution had. They’re especially effective when paired with written case studies, giving added dimension to performance metrics and making success stories more relatable.

These videos work well on product pages and in sales enablement content, where they help build trust and spark engagement. Like this one, where the team at Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, shows how a partnership with Amazon took the fan experience to the next level.

Video works because people remember it

Studies show that viewers retain about 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when reading text. Pages with video also hold attention longer, which correlates strongly with higher engagement and conversion rates.

If you’re considering ways to drive conversion with your audience, we’re well-versed in video and would love to show you what’s possible.

By Andrea Swangard, The 2A Team

Image by Jenni Lydell

It’s time to talk about our favorite albums of the year! Historically, we’d assemble a list of top picks that recently dropped, but 2025 was a little different. Some of us weren’t into the new stuff and instead reached for music that felt familiar and grounding. So our 2025 list includes both new music we discovered and not-so-new tunes we love.

The right song can work wonders: it can inspire when you’re stuck in a creative rut, calm you when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or motivate when prepping for something big (Dwight Schrute + Kickstart My Heart, am I right?!). However you’re feeling at the moment, we hope you’ll enjoy our roundup of what we had on repeat—maybe it’ll inspire some good vibes for the year ahead.

Vie—Doja Cat  
Doja Cat does it again! At first I was thrown by the 80s beats (and background sax?!) in many of the tracks. But on a second listen of the full album, the lyrical magic and sound that Doja is known for shines through. She’s got me embracing the 80s vibes and considering shoulder pads :-). 
—Katy Nally 

The Art of Loving—Olivia Dean  
This year, one of my goals was to find a signature scent. I spent hours misting tiny paper tabs in front of perfume walls. Eventually, I landed on Etat Libre d’Orange’s I Am Trash, which a salesperson described to me as “what a trash can smells like after a wedding: wilted flowers, leftover fruit, cake, and champagne”—a hauntingly beautiful description for a very unfortunately named perfume. But I loved it. Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving captures the same bittersweet magic that made me fall in love with I Am Trash: It’s nostalgic, elegant, sweet, and somehow, still fresh. Listening to it feels like standing alone in a ballroom at the end of a wedding. Thankfully, the album has a much prettier name than my new perfume. 
—Emily Zheng 

Dance Called Memory—Nation of Language  
I write for long stretches of time, go for drives in the Washington wilderness, and paint abstract landscapes while the rain pours outside. Nation of Language’s Dance Called Memory is the perfect pairing for all of these activities. Their melancholy synthpop makes me feel wistful, nostalgic, dreamy, and inspired in just the right way. 
—Andrea Swangard  

From a Room—Chris Stapleton  
It’s been a year of highs and lows. Chris Stapleton’s music has always been a place of peace for me. 
—Tammy Monson 

The Life You Save—Flock of Dimes  
Flock of Dimes has been one of my favorite projects over the years, a solo endeavor by Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and Bon Iver. She is one of my favorite vocalists in indie music and I think The Life You Save is a very beautiful, chill, and personal album that’s among her best work. I’ve had it on repeat since it came out. 
—Wil Morrill 

Suzanne—Mark Ronson and RAYE  
While Mark Ronson is a talented producer, the real star in this song is our girl RAYE. This song came up in my To Listen playlist this summer and has been on repeat ever since. There’s something about the jazzy vibes that I can’t seem to get enough of! And if you like this song, definitely check out more RAYE—she is amazing! 
—Olivia Fiero 

We Go Again—Enny  
We love a hip hop, R&B girlie, and Enny delivers. Her 2023 release We Go Again brings an existential, soulful edge to her sound, balancing introspection with sharp, confident storytelling. “Charge It” has been on repeat since its release, setting the tone for an album that feels both grounded and expansive. Enny is real and raw in how she reflects on her experience as a Black woman, her Nigerian heritage, and her come-up through trial and tribulation. It’s an album that works at any time of day, equally fitting for slow mornings, getting ready to go out, or winding down. 
—Salena Hill 

Hickey—Royel Otis  
If you’re like me, you got hit over the head with that Linger SiriusXM Session at some point last year. Thus began my love affair for this lil’ band that sits somewhere between slacker indie and romantic nostalgia. It makes me want to sip a Slurpee, windows down, sun low, cruising the Santa Monica Pier with my friends… you know, for old times’ sake. Honorable mention to their 2023 album Sofa Kings. 
—Michelle Najarian 

Live From 33 West—Charles Yang 
Splitting my time between all the different forms of content available means I don’t usually have the patience to listen to a whole album for the two bangers in an hour of forgettable tracks. I’m just looking for that quick, invigorating musical fix. Instead of scrolling through music venue calendars to find new music, now I’m mostly finding those musical fixes through social media. So, when a clip of Charles Yang popped up, I was like “OH SCHNAP! This guy got pipes!… Link to the full track in the comments?… Yes, please!” Skip to that three-minute mark and enjoy. 
—Evan Aeschlimann 

Headlights—Alex G 
I listened to this album for the equivalent of four business days in 2025. Headlights is full of somber, retro songs about being a dad that, for some reason, 20-year-olds like to mosh to (a real thing I witnessed). 
—Jack Foraker 

This Better Be Something Great—Westside Cowboy 
The debut EP from Westside Cowboy is what I wish my band in high school had sounded like if we’d had more talent (no offense Dave, but this drummer is incredible). It’s only five songs, and each has a distinct, dynamic sound—from group vocal anthems to lo-fi acoustic tracks. A blend of 90s/2000s rock, punk, and (strangely) some alt-country that stands out in a crowded genre, this has me looking forward to their next EP coming in January. 
—Mike Lahoda 

Make The Road By Walking—Menahan Street Band 
Listen to this album for the ultimate getting-stuff-done music. Warm horns, steady grooves, zero lyrics so your brain stays on task and your vibe stays groovy. It energizes without interrupting, motivates without shouting, and never asks for attention. Make the Road By Walking is your busy day bestie: cool, consistent, and calmly crushing it. 
—Jenni Lydell 

By Andrea Swangard, Suzanne Calkins

Image by Nicole Todd

When the AWS Financial Services team released the latest edition of its Banking on the Cloud report, it wasn’t just business as usual. It was one of the first assets to showcase a newly launched brand identity. For us, it was a chance to bring structure and creative clarity to a high-visibility moment of change. 

We’ve designed the report for multiple years in a row, each time adjusting to new content, teams, and visual requirements. This year, the biggest shift came not from the updated content, but from the new look and feel. AWS had recently rolled out its new brand identity, and even internal teams were still interpreting how those changes would translate into real-world assets. 

We approached this ambiguity as a design opportunity. 

Planning for change, not reacting to it 

Before diving into full design, we held a few preliminary meetings with the AWS team to discuss the main brand updates and we provided design samples for how it might be interpreted when applied to the report. Our visual exploration started with simplified style frames that showcased new color options, layouts, and data visualization treatments. 

This helped us gauge how far the client was ready to push visually, and where they preferred to tread lightly. By showing high-contrast examples early on, we helped uncover key preferences, gather feedback, and clarify how new visual elements like color, layout, and illustration should be used in practice. The outcome was two big advantages: the AWS team gained clarity on how to apply their updated brand system, and we had the direction we needed to start designing with purpose. 

Working ahead with a flexible structure 

Because content was still in progress, we created a modular structure using sample copy and trend themes. This allowed us to define visual hierarchy, layout rhythm, and stylistic range without waiting for every word to be finalized. 

Once content was ready, we were able to move quickly, thanks to the flexible structure we had set up early on. With clear direction already in place, additional designers were able to jump in to meet a tight timeline without missing a beat. 

Building trust through creative clarity 

One of the most valuable aspects of this multi-year relationship is the trust we’ve developed with the client team. That trust comes from delivering polished design and helping the client navigate ambiguity, anticipate challenges, and make strategic choices that support their brand. 

From rethinking the asset’s cover to aligning visuals with evolving content themes, we brought flexibility without chaos and structure without rigidity. This latest edition of the Banking on the Cloud report shows that design-only engagements can be highly collaborative, and when grounded in the right process, they can move fast without feeling rushed. 

If you’re navigating a brand update and need help translating it into real work, we’d love to help. 

By Andrea Swangard

Image by Emily Zheng

Animation is the espresso shot of B2B marketing: short, powerful, and guaranteed to wake people up. Done right, it can turn “just browsing” into “tell me more” in under a minute. Done wrong, it’s another skipped video in someone’s feed. 

Want your animation to stop the scroll and help people remember your message? Here are our top five tips. 

1. Know where it’ll live and why it’s there 

Before you break out the storyboards, determine the goals for your animation and where it’s going to play. 

• Solving a customer headache? 
• Explaining a product feature? 
• Pumping up the crowd before a keynote? 

Your goals (such as awareness, education, and sales enablement) and locations (such as landing page, event screen, and social platforms) will decide everything from length to tone to design style. That epic two-minute deep dive video might work great on your website, but folks may not sit through it at a conference. 

2. Get inside your audience’s heads 

Who’s watching? What do they need from you? Are they… 

• …a hands-on tech lead who wants the details? 
• …an exec who only needs the “why it matters” in 30 seconds? 
• …someone who has never heard of you before? 

The more you know about where your audience is coming from, the easier it’ll be to maintain engagement by serving them exactly the right amount of detail (at the right length). 

3. Match the design to the moment 

Different animations work for different audiences. Think about: 

• Where it’ll play: On a big screen at an event? On your LinkedIn? Embedded in a sales deck? 
• What you’ve got: Are you starting with brand assets? Need custom illustrations? Going heavy on UI mockups or stock footage? 
• How you’ll amp it up: Voiceover? Music? Sound effects? All of the above? 

An event “sizzle” might need bold graphics, fast cuts, and exciting music. A product demo? Go for clean UI animation and a voiceover that explains without overwhelming. 

4. Keep feedback flowing 

Animations take shape one layer at a time. Routine feedback sessions keep the creative process aligned with your brand and objectives. Expect to review: 

• Scripts and messaging
• Storyboards and style frames
• Animation previews with text, brand, and polish 

Schedule regular check-ins and keep relevant people in the loop. Nothing kills momentum faster than a two-week wait for feedback. 

5. Plan your timeframe…and add buffer 

A high-quality animation doesn’t happen overnight. Depending on complexity, expect 6–10 weeks from kickoff to final delivery. Add more buffer if you need a complex UI, custom illustrations, or a few extra rounds of tweaks. 

Plan ahead, especially if you’re targeting an event date or campaign launch, and give your team enough time to review without cutting corners. 

Bring your story to life 

The best marketing animations are clear, audience-focused, and designed with purpose, but they also have a spark that makes people want to watch. Nail our five tips and your animation will do more than look good—it’ll deliver results. Need some inspo? Check out our latest sizzle reel. Ready to make your story move? Let’s chat!