Explainer Video Production London

An explainer video does one specific job: it takes something complicated and makes it clear. A product, a process, a service, a concept, something your audience needs to understand before they can act, donate, sign up or engage. Done well, an explainer video is one of the most cost-effective pieces of content you can commission. Done badly, it’s two minutes of someone’s life they’ll never get back.

We’ve been producing explainer videos for over twenty years, for NHS trusts explaining clinical pathways, charities communicating complex issues, pharmaceutical companies presenting clinical data, and corporate clients launching new products to sales teams and investors. Here’s what we’ve learned.

An explainer video is a short film, typically between 60 seconds and three minutes, designed to explain something specific to a defined audience. The subject matter can be almost anything: how a service works, what a condition means for patients, why a product matters, how to use a new system.

What distinguishes an explainer from other types of video is its primary purpose: to transfer understanding. It’s not primarily trying to inspire an emotional response, build a brand, or drive a purchase decision, though good explainer videos often do all of those things as a byproduct. Its core job is to make something clear.

An explainer video is the right choice when:

The subject is genuinely complex. If your audience regularly asks the same questions, or misunderstands your service or product in predictable ways, an explainer video can answer those questions at scale, more efficiently and more consistently than any other format.

You need to reach a lot of people with the same message. Explainer videos work particularly well for onboarding, compliance training, patient information and product launches. Situations where you need consistent understanding across a large, dispersed audience.

Live action filming isn’t practical or appropriate. Animation is the natural choice when you’re explaining something abstract, sensitive, or simply impossible to film. A clinical process, a financial mechanism, a concept that doesn’t have a physical form.

You need to work across multiple languages. Animation produced without voiceover, or with clean audio tracks that can be dubbed, is significantly more cost-effective to localise than live action. Our MS International Federation animation series was distributed across 15 languages without VoiceOver, something that would have been prohibitively expensive in live action.

The content needs a long shelf life. A well-produced animated explainer can remain accurate and on-brand for years, unlike live action, which dates quickly as faces, offices and branding change.

Charities and healthcare organisations commission more explainer videos than almost any other sector, and for good reason. The subjects they deal with are often genuinely complex, the audiences are often diverse, and the need to communicate accurately without overwhelming or alarming the viewer demands real creative skill.

We’ve produced explainer animations for the NHS explaining screening programmes in pregnancy, patient information content for hospital trusts, compliance training animations for pharmaceutical companies, and awareness animations for charities working on sensitive subjects including end of life care, animal welfare and HIV destigmatisation. Each one required a different approach, but all of them demanded the same core skill: the ability to take something complicated and make it genuinely clear.

Explainer video production costs vary significantly depending on the length, style complexity, number of languages and turnaround time. As a guide:

A single animated explainer of 60–90 seconds, including scripting, illustration, animation and voiceover, typically starts from around £5,000–£8,000.

A longer explainer of two to three minutes, or one requiring more complex illustration or character animation, typically ranges from £8,000–£15,000.

An explainer series, multiple films sharing a visual style, is scoped individually and almost always more cost-effective per film than commissioning individually.

We are always happy to talk through a brief and give an honest assessment of what’s achievable at different budget levels. Get in touch →

How long should an explainer video be? As short as it needs to be to do its job, and no longer. For most subjects, 60–90 seconds is the sweet spot. Complex subjects can justify two to three minutes. Beyond three minutes, viewer attention drops significantly unless the content is genuinely compelling throughout.

Can you produce explainer videos in multiple languages? Yes. Our in-house animation studio produces multilingual explainer content for international distribution, managing translation, cultural review and voiceover casting across all languages. We have produced explainer series in up to 15 languages for a single client.

Do you write the script? Yes. Scriptwriting is included in our explainer video production process. Our writers specialise in turning complex subject matter into clear, conversational scripts that work for animation.

How long does explainer video production take? A single animated explainer typically takes six to ten weeks from brief to delivery, including scripting, storyboarding, animation and voiceover. Series productions are scoped individually based on the number of films.