The Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) recently hosted their first 3 day workshop on “Introduction to Animation” on Saturday 4th/11th/18th November at the Centre for Enterprise Development, Innovation Avenue, Freeport. The decision to host the introductory workshop was made after the overwhelming response from persons who wanted to come to our recently concluded Junior Adventure Technology Camp but were older than our age requirement of 13-18 years.
Animation is an exciting topic froth with career potential in Trinidad and Tobago. This is exemplified by the changing marketing needs of companies who are always pushing the envelope on innovative and creative designs. Gone are the days where traditional print media would suffice as everything is digitized in the internet era. Successful marketing techniques ten years ago must now be combined with digital marketing. This is due to changes in lifestyle and user preferences with increased use of the internet and social media. In 2006 if you asked anyone what this “#” symbol meant they would have responded with, “Oh, that’s a number sign for #2 pencils or the pound sign on telephones.” Fast forward to 2014 and “Hastag” and has been added to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary.
Digital Marketing is increasing and is evident based on budget allocations of companies. According to a benchmarking study done by ITSMA which is a leading source for insight community and B2B marketers in the connected economy, offline marketing decreased by 29% with participants anticipating an increase in their spending for online marketing by 18%.
Important aspects of digital marketing include online video content, social media campaigns and mobile marketing. In terms of online video content, animation has proven to be an engaging instrument that can help companies tell their “Brands Story.” According to Molecular Biologist, John Medina, vision is our most dominant sense which takes up half of our brains resources and is processed 60,000 x faster than text. On average Facebook streams more than 4 billion video streams every day. Animated videos can put you ahead of the crowd as internet viewers have short attention spans and animation videos done right can evoke emotions that resonate with viewers. With the rise of intrusive marketing ads, animated videos are a breath of fresh air. If your company falls into a technical field, animation can simplify difficult topics but demonstrating how mechanisms and processes work through fun characters. Animations can also make you nostalgic which is a powerful emotion. Digital marketing provides an avenue for companies to use content in an effective way which can promote brand awareness and increase conversions.
For more information on our future workshops such as our Introduction to Animation feel free to contact our mCentre App Club which is an outreach programme to help build a developer community and increase awareness and competency in the Information Communication Technology field.Members of the public can join the App Club at no cost and will benefit from free information sessions like these as well as virtual support, if needed. CED and CARIRI are making leaps and bounds in driving innovation and creating a space for people with ideas to develop them.
