We made an animated video!

Making an animated video for a startup on a limited budget

Unfortunately buying an overseas approved medicine is not as easy as buying a new pair of shoes. When patients and doctors find the medicine they’re looking for on our website, at first glance it looks like any other online shop. There’s a product image, product information, even a price calculator, but no “order now” or “checkout” button.

That’s because our ordering process works entirely differently to your traditional online store. First of all, each customer needs to have a prescription from their treating doctor before they can place an order. A conversation needs to take place between the patient and doctor to consider whether or not the selected medicine would indeed be appropriate for them. Secondly we need to look into the importation regulations of each customer’s country, and figure out what kind of documentation will be required before the order is placed to ensure that the medicine will clear customs smoothly.

We’d wanted to create an animated video explaining “how to order” for a very long time but being a startup with limited means, the task was always tossed into the “too hard” basket. We didn’t have the time or budget to hire a professional videographer. Then our CEO Sjaakstumbled upon a short video for a friend’s small business and asked how he’d made it. It turns out it had been made by this friend’s twelve year old son!

Well, if a twelve year old could make a video, surely we could too? It was time to challenge ourselves. We looked into a few different video creation platforms and settled on GoAnimate. The monthly subscription cost a little more than others but we liked its features, including the ability to customise characters and scenes, access to royalty free backing music, and how user friendly the interface seemed. You can even record your narrating voice directly into the program! 

All in all it was a very fun project...especially making our customer support cartoon character look like our real life Support Manager Alex ;)...and it was surprisingly easier than we thought. Most importantly though we hope that the video helps patients to better understand our ordering process, making their lives a little bit easier.

The video can also be viewed on our homepage. We had so much fun making this video that we have a few more ideas on a topic for another one, so watch this space!