Animation an Effective tool in marketing

Project Objectives

The Objective of this project is

To describe the structure of the animation industry.

To introduce the effective use of animation industry as a marketing tool.

Determine the scope of services of the animation industry both locally and abroad.

Introduction

Animation is the non personal communication of information usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through various media.

What is animation?

Types of animation

•Educational animations

•Recreational animations

•Informational animations

•Commercial animations

Structure of animation industry

Technology

Most of the functions and jobs in animations don’t require very specialized piece of hardware and can be completed using a sufficiently power desktop computer. However, these are some parts of Pre-production and Post-production that does require specialized hardware to an extent or another.

1. Graphics Tablets2. Motion Capture3. Render Farm4. Editing suite

Scope of research

In Pakistan, animation sector is not defined as such. In order to conduct our research effectively, we defined our scope of research as follows:“The companies that have a prominent presence in the market; are involved in production of 3D animated content from concept to completion, and we took a tangential look at the game development sector as well”.

We focused almost on 3D animation because this is the predominant animation techniques used in Pakistan.

THE STAGES OF PRODUCTION

Audience

FUNCTIONS OF ANIMATION IN MARKETING

Animation is a tool which can help a company to achieve goals. It is not the end, but a means to reach the end. The functions of animation depend upon six objectives. 1. To make product distinct from others. 2. To communicate information. 3. To push the customers. 4. To expand distribution. 5. To encourage brand preference. 6. To reduce sales cost.

Scope of Animation Industry in Pakistan

• Pakistani professional animator have started catching the foreign demand for animation.

• Post production work of some Hollywood movies is now given to Pakistan mainly because of the acceptable quality of animation and relatively lower price in the region.

• Scope of Animation Industry in Pakistan has now crossed the borders.

IMPORTANCE OF ANIMATION IN MARKETING

• We see 100’s of ads every day.

• Consciously or subconsciously Animation have tremendous effect.

• Animation can not only change buying decision but also changes

mindset & attitude of people.

• Animation reflects the culture of a nation.

• Animation industry also supports media industry, In fact media

survives on Animation because they go hand in hand.

• Animation can be used as an effective tool for a social cause.

• Animation also helps in spreading information about new technology

& innovations

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths

• Animation industry in Pakistan was growing at 30% in 2009, and it is estimated to reach US$ 1.5 billion by 2015    •    It has become one of the biggest entertainment and information media.

•    Animation Industry covers all kind of advertising concerns and it has secured a high range of target audience.

•    It has well established division’s 2-D animation in advertising and 3-D animation being used by TV for entertainment.

•    Increasing trends in overall revenues and profits.

•    High brand awareness among the people.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Weaknesses

• High operating cost. • Industry has lower skilled workforce so it takes more time to complete

projects.

• Costly and high specs hardware and software's required.

•    Poor working conditions in advertising agencies and low wages paid by owners.

•    Less support from Pakistani Government for betterment of animation industry.

•    Continuous innovative ideas are required to retain the attention of customers.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Opportunities

•    Can work into different segments for enhancement of its scope.

•    Market development in small cities.

•    Benchmarking to improve management practices.

•    Free-lance work and online foreign projects.

•    Develop more attractions for target audience.

• Introduce mocap system to reduce production time and increase production

SWOT ANALYSIS

Threats

•    Security Threats due to terrorism

•    Employee often skips work due to energy crisis in Pakistan.

•    High competition in Advertising Industry.

•    Social and religious groups.

•    Government policies.

•    High demanding market in terms of innovation.

•    Searching, paying and retaining innovative people.

•    Lack of awareness and cultural terms.

CONCLUSIONS

The animation industry has its great importance for last many

years. It is emerging as a powerful tool in marketing because it

directly affects the audience and communicates the message to the

customers more efficiently and has more realistic approach. In this

modern Era of information technology though animation industry is

playing a vital role for marketing of products in Pakistan but the

majority of people is illiterate and does not know much about this

industry.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Institutions should be established by the Government and private sector for R&D and to produce skilled workforce.

• Government support should be manifested in the purchase of software’s which are highly expensive.

• Government should reform the structure of this industry and revise the wages of workers to meet international standards.

• Banks and other financial institutions should provide soft loans on easy installments.

• Tax exemptions for hardware import