Slideshow or Marketing Video? Which to Choose for Photography Sales Sessions

When you sit down to create a video in Animoto for your photography sales session, you’re now presented with two choices — Slideshow Video Builder and Marketing Video Builder.

It can be difficult to decide which choose if you’re not familiar with both products. To help you decide, we’ve created two versions of the same family session — one as a slideshow video and the other as a marketing video — along with a list of features used in each video.

Note: The Marketing Video Builder is available for Animoto Professional and Business customers.

Photography Sales Session in Slideshow Video Builder

Take a look at this example from a session by Alycia Savage. It was created with 58 photos, one caption, and one text block, using the Modern Minimalist video style. The song, “To and From” by Stanton Lanier, is an instrumental available in our music library.

Slideshow Video Builder features used:

A variety of features were used to create this video — some are unique to the Slideshow Video Builder; others are not.

• Video styles: The Slideshow Video Builder has more than 100 design-rich video styles to choose from. Styles determine the look and feel of your video and (with the exception of our three customizable styles, Frameless, Documentary, and Classic) have set colors, fonts, and animated video effects.
  
• Text: The text in this video was added by adding captions, and filling out the titles and subtitles in our slideshow text blocks. Text layout and font are set, based on your style selection.
  
• Logo: A logo was added to this video using the Slideshow Video Builder’s logo feature, which can be accessed by Professional and Business customers. In slideshow videos, logos can be placed at the beginning and/or end of videos, animated, and placed on either a black or white background. Learn how to add a logo to a slideshow video on our blog.

Photography Sales Session in Marketing Video Builder

And now, here’s the same video (with the same 58 photos and text), created using our Marketing Video Builder. The style is Blank Slate and you can find it by selecting “Start from Scratch” when you start your Marketing Video project.

Marketing Video Builder features used:

This video features many of the advanced customization options in our Marketing Video Builder, designed to help you create content that feels on-brand, looks professional, and stands out whether you’re sharing it in your studio or on social media.

• Video styles: We currently offer five marketing video styles. Each has it’s own text animation and transition treatments. However, you are able to choose from a variety of fonts and font layouts and select your own colors, making it easy to create a video that feels like your brand.
  
• Collages: Each marketing video style allows for several different collage variations, letting you include 2, 3, 4, or more images at once, for a more dynamic presentation. This video features several photo collages, letting Alycia cut nearly a minute off her slideshow by combining several photos on one slide, while making it more visually interesting at the same time.
  
• Edit Layout: In addition to being able to create collages, you can also edit the layout of individual photos. Layout options vary from style to style, but the Blank Slate style used here allows you to show images at full screen, fit to the frame, or with split-screen titles. The options make sure your images are never cut off, and options like the split screen give you additional space for text, if you want to add it.
  
• Text customization: The Marketing Video Builder lets you adjust the size, color, and positioning of your text, and while there is no video in the session video above, you can add text over video clips as well. Using the text customization features, Alycia was able to select text colors and styles that echo those in her logo and resize them for readability.
  
• Logo block: Adding a logo in the Marketing Video Builder is a little different. You can place a logo at any point in your video (not just the beginning or end), animate it, adjust the size, and choose any background color you’d like. You can also add text to a logo block, letting you add your website or other information, in addition to the logo itself.

Did you prefer the slideshow video version or the marketing video version? We’d love to hear why in the comments. Do you prefer one builder to the other when it comes to making photography session videos of your own? Let us know!