Richard WashamSenior Instructional Designer

My portfolio · eLearning example

Animated Storytelling

ApproachVyond · Scene-by-scene storyboarding · Split-screen format

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Fig. 1A split screen. On the left, the headline "Adding radio in the mix improves reach and lowers costs" above a starburst badge: 44% of Americans are light TV viewers, according to a new Nielsen study. On the right, an animated man in headphones walks a treadmill in a glass-walled gym with a city skyline behind him.

iHeartMedia had a PDF of facts and insights about their media products, put together to give their sales staff something to sell with. The content was solid. The format was not what the rest of their brand looked like, so they asked whether it could be rebuilt as something a seller would watch.

The concept was theirs: a day in the life of one consumer, Joe, running into iHeart products on smart speakers, TV, his phone and at live events. I had animated for them before, so the look was already established. I built eleven scenes, following Joe from his morning routine through work, a lunch break, a food drive, a home-cooked meal, a subway ride and a concert.

Each scene splits the screen. Joe’s day runs on the right — headphones on, walking a treadmill in a glass-walled gym; later, on a subway car, a small speaker on the seat sending red iHeartRadio waves out between the riders. One fact from the PDF holds the left half: 44% of Americans are light TV viewers, per Nielsen; 79% of millennials call broadcast radio a great music discovery medium. One fact a scene, rather than a page of them.

The small list in the top corner of every frame is a menu. It stays collapsed until a viewer hovers over it, then opens so they can jump to any of the eleven scenes instead of scrubbing through. It was the most complicated thing in the build and the easiest to miss.

Fig. 2A split screen. On the left, the headline "Radio is different than a music collection" and the statistic that 79% of millennials agree broadcast radio is a great music discovery medium. On the right, four animated riders in a subway car, with a small speaker on the seat between them giving off red iHeartRadio waves.