The Unfair Advantage of Motion in Modern Marketing

Humans are hard-wired to notice movement. It’s survival instinct… or curiosity… or maybe just the same part of our brain that can’t resist watching the café barista draw a perfect rosetta swirl. Perhaps it’s because we, as humans, are basically oversized magpies. If it moves, we look. If it moves with purpose, we stay. That’s precisely where motion graphics and animation give brands an unfair advantage.

Motion graphics and animation have a superpower: they can simplify complex ideas quickly, turning jargon into clear concepts and processes as engaging stories. This approach feels human, even when the characters are basic shapes.

The effectiveness lies in the simplicity. Motion has this wonderful ability to take something complicated and boil it down to something your audience can grasp in seconds. It’s visual clarity with a sprinkle of charm on top. Animation is flexible, forgiving, and entirely focused on conveying the message. It makes it possible to create something that might seem unattainable. Through animation, brands can clearly express who they are, what they do, and why their audience should care, all without getting bogged down in the fine print.

And the best part? Motion works across the entire marketing ecosystem. Social ads, product launches, website hero banners, brand campaigns, event screens, internal comms, pitch decks, the works. Everywhere attention is short, and scrolling is fast, motion buys you a few precious extra seconds - and in marketing, those seconds are everything. 

What makes motion such a powerful medium is that it can go places real cameras simply can’t. Inside a product. Across a digital landscape. Into a hypothetical future. It can work as an interesting alternative to live action, allowing design and messaging to be front and centre, whilst being in control of everything to the finest detail - even demanding characters blink as and when you want them to. Through a metaphor only a designer would dare to explain with a straight face, animation lets brands bend reality just enough to make their message feel effortless. Again, the impossible becomes possible. 

And here’s the best part: people actually enjoy watching it. A good piece of motion design doesn’t scream “over here, look at us!” - instead, it invites them in with patience and class. It says, “Hey, let me show you this thing in the simplest, most satisfying way possible.” When the story flows smoothly, the viewer is already halfway to understanding before they realise they’re learning something.

A huge part of motion in today’s world is Animated Explainers, but what is an Animated Explainer, I hear you say? In simple terms, it’s basically the friendliest way to say “here’s how this works”. They are short, clear videos that use animation to explain a product, service, idea or process - and are designed to take a heavy concept and make it feel light and digestible. They guide viewers from “I think I get it?” to “Ah, right... that makes sense now,” . They make ideas and concepts become much simpler and easier to understand without all the mental gymnastics, making these videos ideal for clients to share internally to ensure everyone is aligned.

At Fluid, this is exactly why we love motion. It simply makes life easier - for brands, for audiences, and honestly, for anyone who’s ever tried to describe an idea using only words and hand gestures. We take the heavy, confusing bits and turn them into visuals that feel light, approachable, and actually fun to watch.

Animation thrives in its simplicity, clarity and all-round helpfulness - all whilst being beautifully amusing to watch. The kind of thing someone sends to a colleague and says, “This is it. This explains it better than I ever could.” And secretly, that’s the highest compliment we can get. That’s why brands that use motion consistently tend to feel more modern, more confident, and more cohesive. Motion becomes part of their identity, not just decoration. It adds energy to a brand’s voice. It gives rhythm to campaigns. It shapes how customers experience a story, not just how they read it.

At a time when attention spans are shorter than ever, and the scroll-past rate is brutal, animation provides a moment of pause. It's a chance to turn a message into an experience rather than another block of content drifting by.

So yes - motion has an unfair advantage. It has an unfair advantage because it helps brands communicate clearly, confidently, and memorably. It matters because stories matter, and in a world where people scroll past almost everything, animation gives brands a chance to be understood - not just seen. It adds personality to processes, emotion to information, and momentum to ideas that might otherwise sit still on a page. Motion matters because, when done well, animation gets people nodding along, not zoning out.

If you want people to understand your idea, product, or plans for the future, put it in motion. It works. And it works without the awkward blinking - trust your inner magpie.

Need a little more persuasion about the power of motion graphics and animation, than just our word? Explaining how animation can increase conversion rates by 10-40%, check out this great article on Education Voice highlighting “How Animation Directly Influences Conversion Rates”:

https://educationalvoice.co.uk/animation-conversion-rates/?utm_source=chatgpt.com