4 Tells That We Should NOT Work Together on Your Animation Project
You want every brand project you have your hand in to be impactful. We’re alike in that way; we want every project we work on for your brand to be impactful, too. That’s why even though animation is what we do, we can’t in good conscience do it for just anyone (or just any brand).
We only tackle animation campaigns when we’re confident we can deliver exceptional value to you and your brand. Because you deserve the best possible project outcomes — whether that means working with us or not.
To see if MOWE is a right-fit motion graphics studio for you, we explain four characteristics of wrong-fit prospects below. You’ll also get a better idea of what it’s like to partner together to bring your animation to life. The goal? To ensure you get what you need to fuel a successful motion design campaign for your company.
1. Your Mind Is Set on Your Animation Solution
It’s only natural for you to conjure up a vision of what your animation solution will be. What doesn’t generally work is coming to us with an inflexible solution or idea. On the contrary, our best creations start with a problem or goal. And your goal should be meaningful and aligned to your marketing strategy. Wanting an animation video because your competitors have an animation video just will not work.
Imagine instead you want to increase brand awareness. Now that’s a worthy goal. Let’s collaborate to truly understand the barriers to better brand awareness — and map out an animation project that will break those barriers down.
We’re not saying you can’t have a solution in mind. You can even have a script or storyboard in-hand! What we’re requesting is that you keep an open mind, and we’ll do the same. Discussing alternative routes to reach your goal only stands to optimize solutions you do present to us. Our clients often cite MOWE’s ability to visualize solutions beyond their initial plans — and within their budgets and timelines — as a great asset.
Sidenote: It’s not only important to have an agreed-upon goal and matching animation solution, we must also identify a way to measure if your goal is achieved. Knowing the KPIs for your project will help us ensure to optimize the final deliverables towards them.
2. Your Project Size Prohibits Return on Your Animation Investment
We are always looking for ways to engage with clients as early in their projects as possible. Coming up with the best possible solutions to your brand’s challenges and then executing them with killer animations is our bread and butter. Everyone shines brighter when the project is meaningfully, collaboratively developed and strategically, creatively carried out.
That’s why approaching us with a small project is less than ideal. It’s not that we don’t value single social media posts, one or two illustrations, or quick logo animations. But hopping in to complete something small without knowing the strategy groundwork behind it probably won’t provide you with the value you need. After all, activating an entire animation team like ours demands a large amount of manpower and creative force. It’s not in your best interest to do so for a small, quick-hit product.
Ask yourself: Can an individual freelancer accomplish my project? If so, go that route instead of engaging a full-service animation studio. We can even provide you with recommendations for fantastic freelancers. We’ll be here when you’re ready for a more comprehensive animation project. We want to ensure you get the most value out of your investment in animation.
3. Your Process Leaves No Room for Animation Creativity
If you sought out a restaurant known for its famous pizza, would you sneak into the kitchen and hand the chef your own pizza recipe? Of course not! You’d happily (and hungrily) wait at your table for their pizza to come out.
We’re not master chefs. But we do pride ourselves on whipping up effective animations. And one of the reasons our projects are successful is because of the process — the recipe — we’ve developed to get them done.
Of course, you also have processes and expectations (notably timing and budget desires), but we both have to be adaptable. It does not work well when a potential client comes to us with deliverable deadlines set in stone and their own schedule for each production step.
It’s not that we can’t accommodate tight timelines. Urgency always exists. It’s that we need to be able to optimize the schedule together, giving key development phases their proper due. We can and will speed up development by overlapping certain phases, or streamlining feedback loops. Our producers have plenty of ways to move quickly — without sacrificing creative development.
If we rush the wrong parts of a project, we’ll likely have issues later that end up taking more time to resolve than if we had agreed on the timeline from the start. We simply can’t guarantee animation quality (and success) if your proposed timeline is too rigid.
4. You Insist on Distributing RFPs for Your Animation Project
Process rigidity is one of the reasons we don’t typically respond to requests for proposals. RFPs leave no room to explore solutions. Instead, it forces us to jam creativity into a box. Not to mention they’re entirely too arbitrary and outdated. This is a hill we’re willing to die on.
There are tons of methods to vet and hire animation studios, not the least of which is reading and analyzing their thought leadership. Instead of sending us an RFP, let’s have a meaningful conversation. Put your issues on the table. We’ll discuss the best paths to pursue to solve them. And then we’ll customize an animation plan for your brand.
Collaboration Is Key to Producing the Best Animations
With a clearer understanding of how we work, we hope you feel set up for success should MOWE be the right animation studio for you. We’d love to collaborate and strategize the most effective animation solution to your brand’s challenges — and bring your project to fruition.
