Every business or company in the modern age usually has aspirations to be able to hire employees from diverse backgrounds who have had different life experiences. As important as this is, sometimes having individuals from very diverse backgrounds working together can result in confusion if they aren’t all on the same page. A way to get everyone’s thinking alined is by use of animated “explainer” videos or educational videos. It is often that pictures and animations can emote much quicker, and easier than words. Sometimes even if language is shared, culture is vastly different between coworkers. This is why animation can also be useful, it crosses cultural boundaries.
While it is important to consider the diverseness of employee backgrounds, it is just as important to consider how globally diverse businesses are becoming in 2019. Because of the internet and especially social media presence, your business can be reached by endless amounts of possible clients all over the globe. Since the possible clientele is so vast, it is important to try your best as a company to appeal to basically everyone. As ridiculously challenging as this may sound, it’s actually not too difficult. Breaking cultural boundaries and confusion can be easy through animation.
Your goal as an international company is to engage everyone. When filming in real life situations, you immediately place it somewhere in the world. Whether it’s more urban or rural, more American or Spanish, etc… filming with a real setting with real people can make your target too specific. Animation does not do this, it can be globalized because it is totally creative and not based on a certain place with particular people. YOU decide with animation. With video, most of the time the actors will talk in a specific language. This is not the case in animation, you can have little to no narration, or easily and cheaply change the language. Plus, the animated characters can say things that words cannot get across!
The idea of “Wordless Language” is key to understanding through white animations. Even if the animation has vocal narration, those who may not understand the language still can grasp the concept through relatability, the animations are very iconic. Even if it’s hard for someone to understand a concept, icons are super universal. The type of “icons” used and how often they are used can be totally tailored for your business’s needs.
On the other hand, animation can also be the opposite of broad. Animation is such a well rounded way of reaching people that it can be applied to different situations. If you need advertising that is specific to an audience’s cultural understanding, it can be done easily. For example, if you’re a small chinese business who wants to market to America, it could be difficult with just film. Film can get pricey and hard to coordinate. However with animation it's very easy and can be tailored to your price range.
Something to keep in mind before embarking on a journey to create a whiteboard animation to teach or instruct a diverse group of people is patience. Different people take different amounts of time to fully understand a new skill. Animation can be an incredible means of cultural communication, however it is important to note that animation alone is not a “fix all”. The content, style, and overall details of the animation are essential to making a tailored short that will really get the point across.
A great benefit of using whiteboard animations to educate your diverse employees or students is that the animation itself will be accessible world-wide. Whether in the USA or Japan, anyone can view the animation as many times as they want and learn from it. This also means flexible work training. By using white animation, you as the employee will have to spend less time lecturing and more time seeing new workers exceling. Thanks Youtube!
Altogether, if your business is looking for an affordable means of cultural communication, animation is a great resource for you. Whether you need to be more specific or more broad, it can be done. If training your international employees is a concern of yours, do not fear! Animation is here. Everyone will be on the same page and ready to work. White animation is innovative and international.