There's a lot of abstract talk about how explainer videos help businesses. This post is about specifics. Since 2015, we've produced 500+ animated videos for companies across industries and company sizes — from startups to enterprise. Here's a look at how different types of organizations have approached video, what they were trying to accomplish, and what the projects taught us.
We won't invent metrics we didn't track. What we will share is the strategic thinking behind each brief, the production decisions made, and the honest lessons from each type of project.
Case Study 1: Toyota — Internal Communications at Scale
Toyota is a company where communication clarity matters at an extraordinary level. Manufacturing operations, supply chain logistics, safety protocols, training programs — the complexity of running a global automotive business means that information needs to travel accurately across language barriers, cultural contexts, and organisational levels.
The brief we received was for an internal communications video: a process or initiative that needed to be understood clearly by a wide range of employees, not all of whom were technical specialists. The challenge was typical of large enterprise work — not about making something visually exciting, but about making something precise and accessible.
What animation brought to this project: Live-action for internal process communication at Toyota's scale would have required coordinating shoots across facilities, on-screen talent, and significant logistics overhead. Animation allowed us to represent the process accurately using visual diagrams and motion graphics — precisely, repeatably, and without any of that complexity. The output could be localised into multiple languages without reshooting anything.
The lesson: Animation is not just a marketing tool. For large organisations communicating internally, it's often the most efficient way to standardise how information is conveyed. If the same explanation is needed across 50 locations or 10 languages, a single well-produced animation pays for itself many times over.
Case Study 2: Deloitte — Making Professional Services Tangible
Professional services firms face a specific communications challenge: their product is expertise, advice, and process — things that are inherently intangible. You can't photograph a consulting engagement the way you can photograph a physical product. And yet, potential clients need to understand what they're buying before they'll commit to a significant engagement.
Our work with Deloitte involved translating complex service offerings into clear, watchable explanations. The brief required balancing several competing needs: the content needed to be accurate (professional services firms operate under strict communications standards), accessible to non-specialist audiences, and representative of Deloitte's brand positioning.
What animation brought to this project: Animation lets you show process, flow, and structure visually — things that are difficult to explain with words alone. A consulting methodology that might take three paragraphs to describe can be shown in 20 seconds of well-designed motion graphics. The visual representation also makes abstract concepts feel more concrete and therefore more credible.
The lesson: If you sell services rather than products, animation is especially powerful because it gives form to what's otherwise invisible. The key is making sure the script prioritises clarity over comprehensiveness — covering the most important point, not every point.
Case Study 3: Aigo — Consumer Tech Explanation
Aigo is a consumer electronics brand, and their explainer video challenge was different from enterprise work: the audience is broader, attention spans are shorter, and the competition for attention is higher. Consumer tech explanation needs to answer "what does this do and why should I care?" in a compressed timeframe.
The brief was product-focused: demonstrate what the device does, show how it fits into the user's daily life, and make the technology feel accessible rather than intimidating. Consumer tech videos live or die on the quality of the script and the energy of the animation — if either feels flat, the product looks less exciting than it actually is.
What animation brought to this project: Showing a physical device in use often involves complex live-action setups — studio lighting, model talent, multiple takes. For certain product demonstrations, animation provides a cleaner representation: you can show internal components, demonstrate interaction flows, and keep the visual focus exactly where you want it. For a product with multiple use cases, animation allows you to cycle through scenarios quickly in a way that live-action can't match without significant editing overhead.
The lesson: Consumer audiences make fast decisions. The opening five seconds need to answer "why does this matter to me?" immediately. Product feature lists come after that hook, not before it.
Case Study 4: MAPS and Ridian — Healthcare and Finance
Healthcare and financial services share a common challenge: the subject matter is important and complex, but many people find it either confusing or anxiety-inducing. The communications goal isn't just to inform — it's to make the information feel approachable enough that people actually engage with it.
For MAPS and Ridian, animation served as a way to represent complex subject matter without the clinical or formal visual language that often makes healthcare and financial content feel cold. The visual style can be designed to feel supportive rather than institutional, which changes how viewers receive the information.
What animation brought to these projects: Sensitive topics — health conditions, financial products, personal risk — need a visual language that feels human and empathetic rather than clinical. Animation allows full control over tone through character design, color palette, pacing, and music in a way that live-action rarely achieves on a comparable budget. A healthcare video with warm illustration and a calm voiceover communicates something quite different from the same information delivered in a corporate boardroom aesthetic.
The lesson: In regulated or sensitive industries, animation is also practically advantageous — you're not managing patient releases, model rights, or location access. The creative decisions around tone and visual style are made at the design stage, not during a shoot.
Case Study 5: Pacific West and Veritas — B2B Software and Services
B2B software companies face the classic explainer video challenge: the product solves a real problem, but explaining what it does to someone who doesn't already understand the category requires careful scripting. Too technical and you lose non-specialist decision-makers; too vague and you don't communicate the actual value.
For Pacific West and Veritas, the briefs involved software and technical services that needed to be understood by both technical evaluators and business decision-makers — often different people involved in the same purchasing decision. The video needed to work at both levels.
What animation brought to these projects: Abstract software functionality — dashboards, integrations, data flows — is hard to demonstrate meaningfully in live-action video. A screen recording doesn't tell a story; it shows a user interface. Animation allows you to represent what the software does conceptually — the outcome and value — before zooming in on the product. This structure ("here's the problem you have" → "here's what's possible" → "here's how our software does it") is far more persuasive than a straight feature walkthrough.
The lesson: For B2B software, the most common mistake is making the video too product-focused too early. Lead with the business problem. Make the decision-maker say "that's my team, that's our situation" before you show your product.
What These Projects Have in Common
Looking across these case studies — enterprise, consumer tech, professional services, healthcare, finance, B2B software — a few consistent patterns emerge:
- Clarity beats complexity every time. In every successful project, the script did less than the client's first instinct. Every edit toward simplicity improved the result.
- Strategic placement amplifies production value. A well-produced video on a low-traffic page achieves little. The same video on the right page, in the right context, at the right stage of the customer journey — that's what drives results.
- The brief determines the outcome. Without exception, the projects that ran smoothly and achieved their goals started with a clear, specific brief. The projects that struggled started with vague direction and tried to figure out the strategy during production.
You can see our full case studies section for more detailed project breakdowns, or explore our services to understand what we offer across different video types and budgets.
If you're wondering whether your company or project is a good fit for animated video, the fastest way to find out is a short conversation. We've worked across enough industries and project types to give you an honest, informed answer quickly.
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Book a free 15-minute call. Describe your company, your audience, and what you're trying to achieve — and we'll tell you honestly whether animated video is the right tool, and what it would look like for your specific brief.
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What types of companies use animated explainer videos?
Companies across virtually every sector use animated explainer videos — from global enterprises like Toyota and Deloitte to fast-growing startups. The common thread is having a product, service, or concept that benefits from visual explanation: complex technology, multi-step processes, abstract services, or products that are difficult to demonstrate with live-action footage.
How do enterprises like Toyota and Deloitte use explainer videos?
Large enterprises often use animated explainer videos for internal communications, training, product launches, and stakeholder presentations. Animation allows them to explain complex systems or initiatives quickly and consistently — without the logistical challenges of organising live-action shoots across multiple locations or business units.
Can small businesses benefit from explainer videos the same way large companies do?
Yes. In many ways, smaller businesses benefit more proportionally from explainer videos because they often lack the brand recognition that large companies have. A well-placed explainer video does the work of explaining what you do and why it matters — work that a big brand name might do automatically. Starting from $299 with our AI Video package, it's accessible at most business sizes.
How do I know if an explainer video is right for my business?
The clearest signal is whether you find yourself repeatedly explaining your product or service in the same way to multiple people. If your sales team gives the same explanation on every call, or if visitors consistently ask the same basic questions, a video can systematise that explanation and do it 24/7. Book a Free 15-Minute call and we'll tell you honestly whether video makes sense for your situation.