Explainer videos are one of the most popular ways to showcase your brand or company. They come in many different forms – animation and live action, serious and comical, long and short. Though they vary, they all share the same goal – to grab the viewer’s attention long enough to explain their product or service. Pricing varies significantly across the wide spectrum of explainer videos. Here are some different tiers to consider.
The Live Action Explainer
Most entry level explainer videos, popular for early stage startups and crowdfunding campaigns, cost anywhere between $2K and $5K, depending on complexity. These are usually live action explainers, often featuring the business owner him or herself. Because there’s not a huge margin for high end animation and production, these are heavily content driven. A prime example of a low cost explainer video is the original Dollar Shave Club commercial.
The concept is quite simple – the founder walks towards the camera explaining the product with jokes and visual gags. Very little was involved in the making of the video: a warehouse, small crew, two employees and a bear, and an American Flag. 23 million views later, the company is doing incredibly well, with the video going viral several several times. The $4,500 investment surely paid off.
Then there’s the big budget live action explainer. These are becoming very popular among tech startups that have raised a decent sum of money and are looking for a somewhat viral video. These can range anywhere from $10,000 to over $200,000. Sandwich Video, the pioneers of live action explainers, says their work can typically cost around $150,000. This might seem like a big investment, but it often rapidly pays off. Companies like Slack, Airbnb, Starbucks, Square, and Lyft have all worked with Sandwich and this up-and-coming style of explainer.
The Animated Explainer
These are often used for apps and websites, but they’re popular in all sorts of industries. These explainers can cost anywhere from $5,000-$15,000 and upwards. People are often surprised by how much these cost, unaware of how many moving parts are involved. First the video script has to be conceptualized and written, storyboards drawn, and visual style decided on. Then comes animation, which is a meticulous, time consuming process. The animator and client might work back and forth on several rounds of revisions before coming to a picture lock. Once animation is wrapped, music is selected and licensed, voice over artists are contracted, sound is designed and mixed, and text and graphics are added. Weeks and a village of people later, the explainer video is ready to share.
By Kevin Conway
Executive Producer
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