The Shrek Effect, or: The Versatility, Longevity, and Cost-Savings of Animation

If your organization needs video marketing tools and you’re wondering if animation is the best move for you, ask yourself this very important question: “Why are there so many Shrek movies?”

Now, we don’t ask that as a fun thought experiment or a meditation on consumerism and the sequel-ification of Hollywood, we ask that so that we can provide the simple answer of: because animated sequels are cheap.

Animation is always a flexible solution when it comes to budget. There aren’t hard costs like gear, crew, location, and others associated with live-action production. Instead, since every little piece is being built especially for your project, animation studios can consult on a strategy and style that, if adhered to, can accommodate almost any budget.

But more than that, we can make you, well, more than that.

Let’s say you hired us to create a 30 second promotional video for your product. We’ve explored your brand, your value proposition, and the competitive landscape; collaborated on how your brand looks and moves in the world of video; built a 3D model of your product(s); and created the product promo of your dreams. After the initial investment of developing the style and building and rigging assets for that 30s video tool, we can create additional videos and tools that reuse those assets for a fraction of the production hours. Fewer production hours = smaller scope = leaner budget.

And just like that, you have 13 Shrek movies (or however many there are, we lost count).

When we put together proposals for our clients, we almost always recommend an additional tool or tools that we weren’t explicitly asked for—not for the upsell, but because we want them to get the most out of this tool we’re creating together. If we can build a style and apply it to multiple videos, reuse a few assets, plan for multiple ratios from the start, we can plan for maximum time and cost efficiency and, quite literally, give you more for your money.

Similarly, if we’ve created a tool for you in the past like, as an example, a video case study, we can also revisit and update those tools with relative ease. (Though it is always best if we know there’s a potential for future updates at the outset of the project. Planning is a budget's best friend.)

So, whenever you think of Shrek, think about how animation is not only the most customizable video solution, it’s also the most dynamic and cost-effective solution.

You could also ask yourself, “Why are there so many animated sequels in general?” but we prefer to lead with Shrek. Hey now, he’s an all-star.