| This guide breaks down explainer video examples into 5 key types based on use cases—product demos, service explainers, onboarding videos, corporate explainers, and awareness campaigns. Each type shows how businesses can use video to simplify complex ideas, boost engagement, and drive conversions. Reviewing these explainer video examples helps brands choose the right format for their goals and understand the benefits of each approach. |
We’re all citizens of the information age. But it’s time to accept that we’re fully in a new chapter of this story, where video has surpassed text as the preferred medium for information and reigns supreme.
Marketing is no exception. With nearly every brand embracing video today, not being fluent in it—especially in explainer videos that simplify complex ideas for viewers—puts you at a serious disadvantage.
Explainer videos are effective yet confusing because of all the types and use cases associated with them. It’s not that businesses don’t want to experiment with them or aren’t already doing so, it’s just that the different explainer video types and their correct usage confuse them.
We are going to solve the confusion here. In this blog, we’ll discuss the various types using explainer video examples, explaining what they do and what makes them work so well. We’ll analyze and deconstruct different examples of explainer videos to understand why each one works and what we can learn from it.
And hopefully, by the end of this list, you’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to connect with your target audience in a whole new way using the correct types of explainer videos.
Type # 1: Educational Explainer Videos
Educational Explainer Video Examples
1. UICC
2. Qualcomm
3. Vanderbilt University
Type # 2: Brand Animated Explainer Videos
Brand Animated Explainer Video Examples
4. Adobe
5. General Electric (GE)
6. SAP
Type # 3: Product Explainer Videos
Product Explainer Video Samples
7. Aiven
8. Asana
9. Google Workspace
Type # 4: Commercial Explainer Videos
Best Commercial Explainer Video Examples
10. Gusto
11. Slack
12. McAfee
Type # 5: Internal Communication & Customer Training Explainer Videos
Best Explainer Video Examples For Internal Communication And Customer Training
13. Zendesk
14. Sponsorium
15. American Financial Solutions
Frequently Asked Questions
Just as there are many explainer video styles, there are also many different uses for them, and they’re crafted accordingly.
Some questions we ask ourselves and our clients before creating a video include:
Let’s take a look at five common use case scenarios:
Picture Credit: Freepik
What They Are: Educational videos are designed to inform and educate your audience. They break down topics into digestible pieces, often using visuals to reinforce learning.
Why They Work: Educational content builds trust and positions your brand as an expert. It also encourages engagement by delivering real value.
When to Use Them: Perfect for thought leadership campaigns, webinars, and training programs.
The crux of educational videos are that they help companies teach complex concepts to their viewers in a fun and engaging way. They use illustrative visuals and often clear voice-over narration to achieve this, making the learning process more intuitive.
For example, this mixed media animated explainer video we created for UICC, or the Union of International Cancer Control, explains the problem of antibiotic resistance. It’s a significant issue that cannot be simply summed up in a single sentence.
If you go deeper into explaining the problem in detail, it can quickly become overwhelming, confusing, or boring to a general audience with an attention span measured in seconds. That is where educational videos ensure that they not only explain but also engage your audience. By using different engaging visuals, they grab attention and maintain interest while the script delivers its payload of information.
When you are a wireless telecommunications technology company like Qualcomm, your products, services, and even your industry in general are often shrouded with complexity that can confuse users.
So often, such tech companies start educational series where they simplify the big and small important and relevant concepts and happenings in their domain for the people.
This is what Qualcomm too tried to pull with this educational video. In the video, using the sheer rawness of real conversation with the animated character of Vanitha, the brand explains the concept of low latency and then zooms in on low latency benefits associated with 5G.
The creative way the brand discussed all general public questions using the interviewer's calm and composed voice, and then when Vanitha answered it showed accompanying imagery to make us understand the tech without complexity.
Ask basic yet pivotal questions that people want answers to, and you will have their attention. Next, answer those questions and become a credible source of information that they always come back to. Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, understood this and tried to leverage it by using this educational video.
The video starts with a burning question, "Who makes laws in the United States?" and then uses statistics and facts to explain the whole process. It also goes on to use infographic animations and explains how the "Center of Effective Lawmaking," a collaboration between Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, has built a non-partisan scoring model to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of each member of Congress.
To make the video impactful and memorable, Vanderbilt chose one of the best explainer video styles: motion graphics animation. In this motion graphics video, you see real picture cutouts of people, their hands, infographics of maps or other graphs, and 2D animation elements.
All the visuals work in sync with the explanatory voiceover to educate viewers on the entire process and the working of the model developed by the university.
Picture Credit: Freepik
What They Are: Animated brand videos tell your story—who you are, what you stand for, and why your audience should care.
Why They Work: They’re emotionally driven, making them great for connecting with your audience on a personal level.
When to Use Them: Use these when launching a new campaign or rebranding. They’re also great for pitching your brand to investors.
Not all explainers rely on voiceover, some just choose to hum you through what the brand is all about. The best branding is when it is done subtly but leaves an impact that is deep, like this brand explainer video from Adobe.
Using a sort of orchestral melody that pulls you in, the mixed media animation video feels like a cozy yet surreal dream. Using screencast animations, 2D imagery, and real footage, the video creates the right mix of what the brand is all about. It creates awareness of what you as a prospect can do with Adobe and how it is a platform that endorses creativity for all. These elements make it one of the best animated explainer videos on this list.
Among the best explainer videos, General Electric’s Ecomagination stands out for tackling a question many brands shy away from: Can innovation and sustainability truly coexist?
Rather than offering a surface-level answer, GE uses bold, artistic animation to navigate this complex challenge. The video trades sleek corporate visuals for a hand-painted, raw aesthetic—inviting viewers to rethink what progress can look like.
From airplanes with bird-like wings to unexpected metaphors, every frame sparks curiosity and reflection. And in just a few minutes, it turns a multi-layered message into an engaging, emotional journey. This isn’t just an explainer—it’s a vision. A call to reimagine what’s possible when technology meets purpose.
If you're looking for explainer video examples that move both minds and hearts, GE’s Ecomagination is a masterclass in doing just that.
Your origin story, your brand’s origin story, a story of resilience, a story of how it all materialized, how a dream became reality, a story that connects deeply and converts. This is the power of a brand explainer video, one that lets prospects see your brand and not just its product.
These videos build long-term relationships between brands and prospects. This is also why SAP used this amazing animated infographic video to tell its origin story. Throughout the video, dynamic shapes, text overlays, fluid motion design, 2.5D animation elements, and the voiceover work together to not only explain the company’s past but also highlight its vision for the future.
All in all, the way it creates synergy between visuals and voiceover on the screen is what makes it one of the best motion graphics explainer videos in this list.
Picture Credit: BreadnBeyond
What They Are: Product explainer videos, commonly known as product demo videos, showcase how your product works in real-life scenarios, walking viewers through features and benefits.
Why They Work: A great product explainer video can bridge the gap between interest and purchase. It’s like having a personal salesperson on-demand.
When to Use Them: Perfect for eCommerce, SaaS, or tech products.
What if it happens and how can we help you with our product when it happens? This flow is the best working and most effective flow brands use to introduce their products via video.
Using animated videos, like Aiven did here, brands can create the whole scenario where a situation goes south for a prospect and their product saves the day. Like here, using the 2D animation video, Aiven leads you to imagine a scenario where a sports retailer’s website is flooded with traffic after a celebrity.
It then smartly questions wouldn’t it be good if there were a solution that could instantly solve this problem by analyzing past purchases, browsing history, and even local weather to recommend people the perfect fit. Once it induces the need for such a product, it introduces Aiven, explaining all its features and showing how it can help.
The grainy-style 2D animation, the motion graphic elements, sound effects like camera clicks, the animated character animation, infographic animations, and the explanatory voiceover make you aware of the product and its potential in full detail.
What was really amazing about this explainer video was the use of vibrant colors against the dark blue screen, the 2.5D elements like the clouds to create an illusion of 3D animation, and also the text, all of which make this a memorable video in the list.
Among the most effective animated explainer video examples, Asana’s stands out for its empathy and clarity. Targeted at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, this video speaks directly to project managers overwhelmed by complexity.
It opens by validating their daily struggles—chaotic workflows, missed deadlines, team confusion—and immediately builds a sense of trust and relatability. Then comes the shift. Asana is introduced not just as a product, but as a calm, structured solution.
The storytelling keeps you engaged, while the animation reinforces every point the narration makes—helping you visualize the change Asana brings. This isn’t just an explanation—it’s an invitation to a better way of working.
If you're looking for animated explainer video examples that balance empathy, clarity, and strategic timing, Asana’s is a blueprint for driving consideration and conversion. The way it uses faceless animated characters, in fact numerous of them, to showcase how teams navigate through work and how mistakes can happen in projects makes this video very relatable.
The calm sound effects, the white screen, the colorful 2D animations, the warm voiceover—all connect with you on another level. It just makes you feel that yes, this is a solution that can truly make life easier.
Google Workspace’s animated infographic video stands tall among the best animated explainer videos, showing how simplicity and clarity can transform complex ideas into action.
The video opens with bold kinetic typography animation, immediately resonating with global enterprise teams facing collaboration challenges across time zones, languages, and tools. Rather than listing features, it immerses viewers in real-world use cases—demonstrating how G Suite enables live collaboration, streamlined dashboards, and smart data visualization.
Aimed at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, this video doesn’t just explain what Google Workspace does—it lets potential users experience the solution. Through clean screencast animations and purposeful voiceover, it turns abstract capabilities into relatable, everyday wins.
The result? A compelling, visual proof of value that speaks directly to overwhelmed decision-makers looking for clarity. It’s not just a great explainer—it’s a reminder that less clutter, more impact is what drives real change.
Picture Credit: Innovative Advertising
What They Are: Like the name suggests, commercial videos are concise, snappy, amazing explainer videos tailored for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook. They’re designed to grab attention quickly and convey your message within seconds.
Why They Work: They reach audiences wherever they consume content. Their combination of entertainment and information makes them memorable, increasing the chances of conversion and brand recall.
When to Use Them: Perfect for promotional campaigns, quick product teasers, or raising awareness for a new initiative. For instance, a short animated video announcing a product launch on Instagram can create buzz and drive traffic to your website.
Unique way to tell people what you do by telling them what you do not. That is what Gusto tried to pull off with the amazing 3D animated commercial video. Using amazing 3D animated characters, infographic animations, zoom-in zoom-out techniques, and witty dialogues, Gusto informs users that it does not help you sleep better, or design video games, or fight to save our planet, but it helps the people who do all this amazing work for you.
How? By hiring them, managing their payroll, benefits, and so much more. This is how it helps people who do incredible things for other people. Amazing storytelling that explains what the brand does in mere 30 seconds. This is how commercial explainers are. Most explainer video samples you’ll see are fast, to the point, unique, and make you stop the scroll and listen.
This is one of those great explainer videos that captures attention instantly—and moves viewers from confusion to clarity without a single word. Aimed squarely at the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, the video opens in a black-and-white world of disjointed workflows and digital chaos.
Then Slack enters—and everything transforms. Color floods in. Movement becomes smooth. Teams sync effortlessly. Without listing features or diving into product specs, Slack communicates its core value visually: work gets better with us.
This video doesn’t just explain—it inspires. It makes the viewer feel the transformation before they even know how it works. That’s the magic of a great explainer video in the awareness stage—showing what’s possible and making prospects want to learn more. If you want to spark curiosity and action early in the journey, take notes—this is how it’s done and this is how engaging youtube explainer videos are made.
What do businesses desire the most in this data-sensitive world? To work efficiently without putting their data at risk and to have the strength to expand their business without compromise.
The mixed media video starts by showing vulnerability, then highlights the wants of businesses as the red strokes keep moving and taking over the colorless world.
The way the video uses a white, colorless city and people, showing it being taken over by the classic red color of McAfee, is a strong way to illustrate how McAfee solves your problems with MVISION.
The video is mostly simple; it just uses live footage of people, cities, and buildings, along with the animated company logo and animated lines, to promote the brand to viewers in a subtle yet strong manner.
Picture Credit: Freepik
What They Are: Animated Training videos teach employees or customers how to perform a task, use a product, or follow a process.
Why They Work: They’re practical and easy to revisit, making learning more efficient.
When to Use Them: For onboarding, product tutorials, or skills training sessions.
Imagine a thorough training course that you could save in a bottle and simply reuse with each batch of new employees. And they could attend it whenever they like, pause and resume at their convenience, and it could work equally well with one new employee or a few dozen. Well, that’s what training videos do! They’re a boon for onboarding and getting newbies up to speed on how to work on your shop floor.
Take this example by Zendesk, explaining step-by-step how to perform a common task on their software. With clear, clean screenshots and basic animation, anyone can be fully versed in just two minutes. And being a video, it can be re-watched at any time at the employee’s convenience. This is just one of the many things animated great explainer videos can do!
Not every software is built for profit—some are built to make a difference. Sponsorium’s mission-driven platform needed more than a feature list; it needed a story. That’s why we created one of the most emotionally resonant award winning explainer videos to bring their purpose to life.
Aimed at the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey, this 2D explainer video speaks directly to brands struggling with sponsorship management. Through expressive animated characters, glowing transitions, and thoughtful visual metaphors, it highlights the challenges of managing sponsorship portfolios—then introduces Sponsorium as the tool that simplifies, streamlines, and empowers.
By showing what success feels like, the video builds an emotional bridge—turning product curiosity into connection. It’s not just a pitch—it’s a promise. And that’s what makes this one of the most powerful animated explainer videos in the SaaS space.
American Financial Solutions is a non-profit credit counseling agency. To welcome the users who had signed up for their Debt Management Plan (DMP), they wanted an onboarding video, and we created this one for them.
This mixed media animation video uses collage-like cutouts of things like screens, hands, cutouts of people, envelopes, cash, text labels, dialogue boxes, and the like. The video first congratulates and welcomes the viewers for taking the life-changing step towards financial freedom. Then it lists the benefits of this program and after that starts discussing crucial steps you need to follow.
The magic that the abstractness of motion graphics elements and the explanatory style create makes it such an easy and engaging video to follow. Also, the way at the end it shares the number of client support specialists for their further help ensures that not only are onboarding questions answered in the video, but any other questions they may have can be addressed efficiently.
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How long your video should be depends on your goals and audience. For ads or social media, aim for 30–60 seconds. For tutorials or training, 2–3 minutes works best. Learn more in our guide on short-form vs. long-form explainer videos.
Explainer video creation cost varies depending on factors like style, complexity, and length. To give you a ballpark range, most of our 2D animation explainer videos fall between $2,400 and $4,800, depending on the complexity of the animation.
Generally, whiteboard animation explainers are the least expensive, while 3D animation explainers are the most costly. For more information, check out our blog on detailed breakdown of explainer video costs or view our pricing today.
Creating an explainer video involves several steps, including planning, scripting, storyboarding, designing, animating, and editing. Each step ensures that the final product is engaging, visually appealing, and aligned with your goals. For a detailed walkthrough, check out our guide on how to make an explainer video.
Explainer videos simplify complex topics, boost engagement, and help convert viewers into customers. They can improve brand visibility, enhance learning experiences, and drive traffic to your website. Read more about the benefits of explainer videos.
Yes! Tools like Vyond, Animaker, Powtoon, and Biteable are popular for creating explainer videos. These platforms offer templates and easy-to-use interfaces, making them suitable for beginners and professionals alike.
By the way, we did a whole deep dive blog post on free animation software for creating stunning videos that you should check out. However, for a polished, custom-made video, partnering with a professional explainer video production company is the way to go.
Explainer videos are incredibly versatile, offering a format for every type of business or marketer. Whether you’re simplifying complex ideas, showcasing your brand, or engaging employees, there’s an explainer video style that fits the bill.
Ready to create a video that captures attention and drives results? Take explainer video ideas inspiration from the types discussed here, choose one that fits your project goals, mix and match different types of video styles, think outside the box, and transform your marketing campaigns to make your message stick with the right strategy and the perfect video type.
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