Consumers have more shopping options than ever before: more products from more brands and more platforms on which to buy them. If you’re like most of the marketing and creative team leads we talk to, you already know how difficult it is to provide the content everywhere it’s needed!

Animation is one of the most compelling ways to tell a visual story. 

When you think about animation, what comes to mind? Is it a cartoon, or perhaps a Pixar film? It’s common for animation to be thought of in its bigger, motion-picture style—but in marketing terms, animation is more compact and has become a go-to method of communicating with customers.

Did you know that animation predates film altogether? The earliest forms of animation were used by the ancient Greeks, who used a series of visuals to tell a story or communicate with others. The first animated motion picture was, according to film experts, Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie in 1908, while the first full-length animated movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released by Walt Disney in 1937.

Ever shop on Amazon? Of course you do—we all do. With an infinite sea of product offerings, have you ever wondered why you purchase one item instead of another? Maybe it had a 5-star customer rating, or maybe it had multiple color options? Odds are that the product you bought featured more item-specific content that enticed you to hit “add to cart.”