The Toy Brand’s
4 Essential Components for High-Engagement Video Ads
Assess your current ad effectiveness and turn boring, low-engagement toy & game video ads into scroll-stoppable, irresistible content that resonates.
Alex Glawion - ToyMotions
The first component to high-engagement video ads:
#1: Themed Environment
A themed environment isn’t just a visual background, it’s a world your toy lives in. A world that resonates with its being, that holds the potential of adventure at every corner and sparks your imagination.
Benefits of a highly effective Themed Environment
Themed Environment: Do’s and Don’ts
- Do Make the world lived in. Create a sense of depth, history, and activity within the setting. Make me want to explore and learn the intricacies.
- Do Focus on Detail and Realism. Add small, thoughtful details that make the environment feel real and authentic.
- Do Make the world consistent. Elements within your themed environment should be believable, feel cohesive and be visually appealing.
- Don't Overcomplicate the Design. While details are important, too many elements can overwhelm the space and confuse the theme.
- Don't Neglect Scale and Proportions. Ensure that all elements in the environment are properly scaled to the toys they are meant to complement.
- Don't Ignore the Playability. Prioritize Function Over Form: While aesthetics are important, the environment must be playable.
Examples of engaging Themed Environments
Score the Effectiveness of your current Toy Video Ad’s Themed Environment
Check your final score and further steps at the end of this guide
Your Themed Environment Score
On a scale of 0 – 2, how effectively does your themed environment drive engagement in your toy video ads?
#2: Story
A story transforms your toy or game from boring to captivating by building emotional connections, igniting imagination, showcasing play potential, and making the content memorable and engaging.
Benefits of an engaging story
Story: Do’s and Don’ts
- Do hook the audience in the first shot. Your story's stakes and toy's involvement should be conveyed in the very first shot.
- Do Focus on the Toy’s Unique Features. Build the story around the toy's unique attributes, whether it's a special function, design, or the world it belongs to.
- Do Keep the Story Simple and Clear. The narrative should be straightforward and easy for the target audience, especially children, to understand.
- Don’t Overload with Too Much Detail. Resist the temptation to add too many plot points or background details.
- Don’t Ignore the Target Audience. Make sure the story is appropriate for the age group and interests of your target audience.
- Don’t Forget to Showcase the Toy in Action. While storytelling is key, the toy should remain the central element of the ad.
Examples of engaging stories told visually
And those are just still images! Imagine the impact of a story told in motion and across multiple shots!
Score the effectiveness of your current Toy Video Ad’s Story
Check your final score and further steps at the end of this guide
Your Story Score
On a scale of 0 – 2, how effectively does your story drive engagement in your toy video ads?
#3: Effective Tailoring
Even the most engaging toy or game video ad will miss the mark if its content, format, timing, and story aren’t specifically tailored to the intended audience, platform, and stage of the customer journey.
Benefits of tailoring your toy video ad’s content
Tailoring: Do’s and Don’ts
- Do Tailor Content to the Customer Journey. Create different content for each stage of the customer journey, from awareness to consideration to purchase, ensuring the message is relevant to where the audience is in their decision-making process.
- Do Customize for the Platform. Adjust the video’s format, length, and style to fit the specific requirements and best practices of each platform, whether it's Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or Disney+, etc.
- Do Focus on Your Core Audience. Clearly define and understand your target audience—whether it's children, parents, or retailers—and craft your ad to speak directly to their needs, interests, and pain points.
- Don’t Neglect Platform-Specific Features. Don’t ignore the unique features of each platform, such as vertical video on mobile or sound-off viewing on social media. Failing to adapt can reduce viewer engagement.
- Don’t Use a One-Size-Fits-All Approach. Don’t create a single video and expect it to work equally well across all platforms or for all audience segments; this approach dilutes effectiveness.
- Don’t Ignore Audience Feedback. Don’t disregard insights and feedback from your target audience. Regularly refine and adjust your content strategy based on what resonates most with viewers.
Score the effectiveness of your current Toy Video Ad’s Tailoring
Check your final score and further steps at the end of this guide
Your Tailoring Score
On a scale of 0 – 2, how effectively does your tailoring drive engagement in your toy video ads?
#4: 3D Animation
3D animation is today’s #1 method for creating engaging toy video ads. It can seamlessly integrate story, themed environments, and photo-realistic, captivating toy aesthetics, while being easily tailored to any circumstances.
Benefits of utilizing 3D Animation
3D Animation: Do’s and Don’ts
- Do Make it Effortless. Use 3D Animation as the vehicle to tell your story and showcase your toy, don't distract the viewer by drawing attention to the method itself.
- Do use the Right Tools. Even though you've likely created your 3D Toy Asset in CAD Software, do export your model to use in purpose-made 3D Animation tools such as Blender or Cinema 4D.
- Do use Depth of Field. The easiest way to make your product pop and increase the overall aesthetic of your frame is to utilize depth of field to seperate your foreground from your background.
- Don't ignore your Toy's Ability. Even though easily possible through 3D Animation, don't move or show your toy in a way that isn't possible in real life.
- Don’t ignore the Rules of Cinematography. Viewers can subconciously tell and are disoriented when established rules of cinematography are broken. (Check out this book)
- Don’t Forget to Pre-Plan your Production. 3D Animation can be time-consuming to get right, so don't forget to create storyboards and previsualisations to figure everything out beforehand.
Examples of engaging 3D Animated Toy Video Ads
They have it all – Themed Environment, Story, Suspense, Excitement & Beautiful Animation
And, thanks to the adaptability of 3D Animation, the above Pre-Roll YouTube Kids Ads can easily be tailored for use on other platforms.
Score the effectiveness of your current Toy Video Ad’s 3D Animation
Check your final score and further steps at the end of this guide
Your 3D Animation Score
On a scale of 0 – 2, how effectively does your 3D Animation drive engagement in your toy video ads?
Your Impact Rating - Results
You made it all the way through! 👍 Here are your results:
Please score yourself in all 4 sections to see your results!
Your Overall Impact Rating
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Individual Scores
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What your Impact Rating tells you
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Where your ad’s greatest potential lies
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Next Steps
Your Impact Rating tells you which areas hold the greatest potential of making your toy video ad more engaging. All you need to do is fix them.
Of course this is easier said than done. There are two ways to doing this:
Implement yourself
Learn how to shore up your weaknesses and implement it yourself through the suggested resources below.
Let us help
Our ToyMotions Team specializes in creating 3D Animated Toy Content with impact.
We’ve worked with Toy Brands big and small to create highly engaging:
- 3D animated video ads
- real-time interactive content
- eCommerce & social media boosters
- feature-highlight videos
- toy turntables, and more.
Book a call by clicking the button below:
Suggested Resources
Themed Environment
10 Tips For Creating Environment Art
Learn how to paint background environments with correct lighting, exposure, shadow, unity and balance.
Beginner's Guide to Matte Painting a Fanstasy Castle in Photoshop
Learn how to paint background environments with correct lighting, exposure, shadow, unity and balance.
Story
The Language of Visual Storytelling
Show, don't tell. An overview of how visual storytelling has developed over the past 100 years.
Pixar's 10 Storytelling Rules in Animated Film (Playlist)
There's no doubt Pixar is the leading animation studio in history. Here's everything they've learned about visual storytelling.
The Immersive Realism of Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli and Myazaki are staples in the world of immersive visual storytelling. This video essay explores how they do it.
Carl & Ellie Married Life - From the Film Up (Pixar)
They say there's never been an animated short more touching than this. And I agree (wipes away tear). A masterclass in visual storytelling without any dialogue.
Tailoring
Customer Journey Mapping & Marketing Funnel Intro
Learn about your customer's journey and how you can best tailor and target your ads to their circumstances.
3D Animation
The Blender (3D Software) Tutorial for Complete Beginners
Learn how to use this popular free & open-source 3D Software to model, texture, light and render a donut.
How to make an animated short (or ad) in Blender
Learn what steps are involved in creating an animated short / a short animated video ad in the 3D Software Blender.
Creating Quick Animation in Blender (3D Software Walk-Through)
Follow along while Adam works within Blender through the entire process of creating this simple Car Animation.
How Pixar's Toy Story 4 was Animated
Pixar's Toy Story 4 is among the most engaging Animated Feature Films ever created. Learn how the Artists at Pixar animated this masterpiece.
