Tips for animators and graphic designers: content will be king in 2021

Technology has been rapidly moving towards virtual connectivity and interactivity for decades. And with the recent assistance of COVID, this scenario was introduced with great haste. This is something that has always been in development and part of the natural evolution of technology for decades, however with the recent pandemic, this scenario has been imposed on us globally and with great urgency.

Everything, from schools to universities, to office jobs, to cinemas to restaurants, has been shifted, apparently overnight, from the standard modus operandi in person to isolationist protocols. As the world holds its breath waiting for a cure and for things to return to normal, when normalcy returns, I have a feeling it won't look like pre-COVID normalcy as expected. Rather, the new normal, when it comes to corporate operations, may seem strikingly similar to existence in a pandemic.

The problem

If you were to interview the office managers of any company, government agency, school or college, they will likely tell you the following:

1) They have a record number of online meetings and presentations.
2) They don't see this slowdown in 2021 and in many cases they could see it increase further.
3) Their online meetings and presentations could be much improved.

Almost all businesses have received a sharp and profound lesson that unless you were in the hospitality industry your business could practically operate at an acceptable level, some even experiencing record growth, with everyone working from home. Therefore, once COVID is finally a thing of the past, many, if not most companies may be reluctant or openly refuse to go back to pre-COVID operating procedures because they have discovered through experience that it is simply not necessary to the final result.

This is why we should all prepare for even more meetings, presentations and online learning sessions.

Imagine that companies around the world conduct most, if not all, of online meetings and presentations. Now, imagine how much help it will take to bring all these presentations and meetings to a standard that will truly engage, if not impress, their audience and / or separate them from the competition. For this to happen, companies around the world will need to invest heavily in one of the most valuable commodities being developed today: content.

This is where you come in.

Forward-thinking companies will soon realize they need to upgrade their online presence. Millions and millions of children, college students, employees, managers and entrepreneurs, have been thrown headlong into the deepest part of virtual meetings and multi-hour learning sessions, while many or most have never been exposed before, even if minimally.

It's hard enough to discuss a huge amount of people together for an online meeting, so how can companies around the world keep everyone's attention fully engaged during an online session, many of which are held for extended periods of time?

The solution

Fill every presentation and meeting with captivating visuals, full motion infographics, animated characters, visual effects, and all the eye pleasures that can be crammed into an online session. If companies want to engage their audience, they need to make the images jump out at the viewer, always keeping them on their toes, guessing what might happen next.

The real opportunity in this scenario is for producers and providers of high quality content. Every school, every business and every government entity will need to supercharge their presentations with premium content, otherwise their brand and morale will be left in the dust and eventually their staff, students and customers will follow suit.

The first person, team or studio, to come to the table with massive amounts of content that enhances presentation, engages meetings and stimulates learning that effectively and surprisingly visualizes, communicates and illustrates a wide variety of material in an interesting way and convincingly, it could very well usher in the next gold rush.

With lots of help from animators and visual designers, blasé meetings and presentations could soon become a thing of the past, much to the delight of online viewers and virtual meeting attendees around the world.