Last Updated on March 27, 2026
Contents
The Explainer video is here to stay. We have seen everyone using explainer videos- startups, established businesses, mom&pop shops, NGOs, Government institutions, giant corporates, and top brands. Explainer video (this is for those of you who may have been living under a rock because there is no other way you could have missed the whole animation/marketing revolution) is usually a short video that explains any message or describes a product or service in an engaging, entertaining way- mostly through animation. When it comes to effective product video production, explainer videos play a critical role in simplifying complex concepts. The explainer video is also called “explainer” for short. This is a prominent tool in video marketing strategy. Such videos have helped a lot of businesses. Here are our list of best 40 explainer video examples from top brands.
(Note: These 40 best examples are in no particular order)
These explainer videos share similarities with product video production techniques, focusing on clear messaging and audience engagement. Many of today’s successful explainer videos are built on principles from the history of animation. Explore how animation techniques have shaped modern video storytelling in our collection of examples. Many brands use explainer videos as a core part of their brand video production strategy to communicate effectively with their audience.
1. Wise “Money Without Borders” – Simple transfers, clear animation
Explainer Type: Finance, Fintech, Motion Graphics
The challenge in fintech video is not explaining how a transfer works. It is getting someone to trust a new financial product enough to move real money through it. Wise uses clean motion graphics to walk through each stage of the transfer process, removing abstraction and building confidence before the viewer has to make any commitment. The result is a video that works through transparency rather than reassurance, which is the right approach for any financial product handling first-time users.
2. Snyk “Snyk Developer Security” – Security explained for the developer audience
Explainer Type: Developer Security, SaaS, 2D Character Animation
Security tools have a split-audience problem: the person who signs the purchase order is rarely the person who uses the product daily. Snyk’s character animation speaks directly to developers, using workflow scenarios that a software engineer recognizes from real project work rather than boardroom abstractions. That choice positions the product as an ally in the codebase rather than another compliance layer imposed from above, which changes how developers receive the message entirely. For SaaS products selling to technical end users, that framing distinction matters more than any feature comparison.
3. WestJet “First Flight” – Fun & Safety Take Off
Explainer Type: 3D Character Animation
WestJet’s “First Flight” video reimagines the dreaded flight safety briefing as a charming animated tale, earning its spot among best explainer videos 2024. This example proves that even “common” topics can be transformed into engaging experiences. By injecting fun, a memorable character, and a touch of magic, WestJet delivers strategic messaging in a way that captures attention and resonates with viewers. This video serves as inspiration for explainer video makers seeking to craft innovative and engaging content that effectively conveys information while staying true to brand identity.
4. Figma “Figma: Design Together in Real Time” – Real-time collaboration, demonstrated
Explainer Type: Design, SaaS, Product Demo
Collaboration tools live or die on how clearly they demonstrate the collaboration. This demo puts multiple users inside a shared design space and shows changes propagating in real time, which is a more persuasive argument than any feature list. Product footage here does the heavy lifting that animation handles in more abstract SaaS products, because Figma’s differentiator is directly visible when the product is in use. When your core value is something a viewer can watch happen on screen, film it.
5. Microsoft “Microsoft: Work Reimagined” – Benefit-first messaging for a multi-persona audience
Explainer Type: Enterprise Tech, 2D Animation
Enterprise products that serve multiple personas face a scripting problem that few videos solve cleanly. Microsoft’s 2D animation handles it by staying at the benefit layer throughout, showing how the product fits different workflows without fragmenting into role-specific segments. The everyday workplace scenarios carry enough contextual weight that IT buyers and end users both find a relevant frame of reference. Keeping a multi-persona video coherent requires committing to outcomes over features from the first line of the script.
6. Slack “So Yeah, We Tried Slack” – Reframing the communication problem before selling the solution
Explainer Type: Enterprise Collaboration, SaaS, Product Demo
Team communication tools face a specific credibility problem: every prospective buyer believes their current setup is already good enough. Slack’s demo opens by showing the cracks in the existing workflow before the product enters the frame, reframing the viewer’s own situation rather than asking them to imagine a new one. The product footage is tight and purposeful, moving from recognition to resolution without lingering on features the viewer hasn’t yet been primed to care about. Reframing the problem before the product arrives is a technique that works in any category where switching costs feel higher than they actually are.
7. HP “HP: The Power of Print” – 3D reveals what photography cannot
Explainer Type: Hardware, Technology, 3D Animation
Hardware products have a physical story that photography rarely tells well. HP uses photorealistic 3D renders to show printer components and interactions that no live shoot could capture without disassembly. The production investment is visible on screen, and it converts at the specification level by giving buyers a model of what they are purchasing that a spec sheet cannot provide. When your product’s differentiation lives inside the casing, 3D animation is not a showpiece choice. It is a communication one.
8. Travel Oregon “Only Slightly Exaggerated” – When animation style becomes destination marketing
Explainer Type: Tourism, Destination Marketing, 2D Animation
The animation style here is not decoration. It is the destination. Travel Oregon’s illustrated 2D world signals something a stock photography campaign cannot: that Oregon is worth experiencing for reasons that do not fit on a conventional travel poster. The visual language does the positioning work before a single attraction is named, and the distinctiveness of the style is itself a reason to watch. Brands with a genuinely differentiated experience should ask whether their video’s aesthetic communicates that difference before the script begins.
9. Manus AI “Manus AI: General AI Agent” – Showing the agent completing real tasks
Explainer Type: AI, Autonomous Agents, 2D Animation
AI products carry a credibility deficit that marketing copy tends to make worse. Claiming broad capability without demonstration invites skepticism, especially from technical buyers who have heard the same category promises before. Manus AI’s approach is direct: the 2D animation shows the agent completing specific, real-world tasks in sequence, letting the evidence accumulate rather than asserting it upfront. That structure shifts the viewer’s question from what does this do to how do I get access, which is the conversion moment most AI product videos miss entirely.
10. Cloudera “Cloudera: The Enterprise Data Cloud” – Abstracting platform complexity without losing technical credibility
Explainer Type: Enterprise Data, Tech, 3D Animation
Enterprise data platform messaging tends to collapse under its own weight: too many use cases, too many infrastructure layers, too many personas to address without losing coherence. Cloudera uses 3D animation to build a single visual metaphor for data flow that abstracts the complexity without removing the technical credibility that enterprise architects require. The result speaks to both the IT buyer and the business decision-maker in the same frame, which is a rare achievement for a platform with this many dimensions. Platform companies with sprawling capability sets should find their single most legible visual metaphor and build the video around it.
11. OpenSea “OpenSea: The NFT Marketplace” – Dual-layer explanation for a new category
Explainer Type: Crypto, Web3, Mixed Media
NFT marketplaces had a dual explanation problem: what an NFT is, and why this particular platform is the right place to buy or sell one. OpenSea’s mixed media video separates these jobs cleanly, using animation for category education and product footage for platform-specific trust-building. Treating both as separate creative problems rather than forcing a single format to do both is what makes the video work without feeling overloaded. New category products benefit from mapping each communication job before choosing a format.
12. LinkedIn “LinkedIn: Find the Right People” – Multi-persona messaging through outcome framing
Explainer Type: Professional Networking, B2B, 3D Animation
LinkedIn has one of the most fragmented user bases of any platform, and a video that tries to speak to all of them equally risks speaking to none of them clearly. This 3D animation organizes the narrative around the outcomes each persona cares about rather than the features they share, which allows the video to feel relevant to a job seeker and a recruiter in the same 90 seconds. Platforms with multi-sided audiences benefit from scripting for outcomes first and letting the product fill the frame, rather than the other way around.
13. Dropbox “Dropbox: Your Files, Everywhere” – Making invisible infrastructure tangible
Explainer Type: Cloud Storage, SaaS, 3D Animation
The product problem with cloud storage is that the value is invisible. Files exist somewhere, sync happens somehow, and the whole experience is designed to disappear into the background. Dropbox’s 3D animation makes the invisible tangible by turning files into physical objects that move, organize, and sync in a visual space the viewer can follow. The metaphor choice here is the most important production decision, and it does exactly the right communication job for a category where the benefit only becomes real once the viewer can picture it working.
14. Google “Google: Helping You Do More” – Anchoring product features in recognizable daily scenarios
Explainer Type: Big Tech, Enterprise, Hybrid Animation
High brand recognition does not equal clear product understanding. Google’s hybrid video, combining motion graphics with live action, addresses this directly by anchoring specific product features in recognizable daily scenarios. The format switch between animation and real footage signals which parts of the narrative are about the concept and which are about the lived experience, helping viewers with different levels of product familiarity follow the explanation without losing context. Even the most recognized brands need to close the gap between familiarity and demonstrated utility.
15. Dialpad “Dialpad: Work Beautiful” – Differentiation through narrative over specification
Explainer Type: Business Communications, SaaS, Brand Film
When competing products share nearly identical feature sets, the video’s job shifts from explanation to positioning. Dialpad’s brand film builds its case through a narrative about the communication problems that distributed work teams actually experience, not a walkthrough of platform capabilities. That choice turns a commodity feature set into a recognizable story, which stays with buyers longer than a features-and-benefits comparison ever does. If your product lives in a crowded category, story is the only differentiation that a video can reliably deliver.
16. Wix Studio “Wix Studio: Build Without Limits” – Signaling professional status through visual choices
Explainer Type: Web Platform, Design Tools, Mixed Media
Agency-focused tools carry a positioning challenge: the product has to signal professional-grade status before the demo begins, otherwise the audience dismisses it as a consumer tool with a rebrand. Wix Studio’s mixed media approach, combining screen capture with motion graphics overlays, delivers both a product demonstration and a brand positioning statement in the same video. The key decision is what the implied user looks like, and every workflow shown here reflects a professional context rather than a beginner one. Calibrate your video’s implied user to the audience you want to attract, not the audience you already have.
17. Volvo “Volvo: The Iron Knight” – Creative constraint as a competitive asset
Explainer Type: Automotive, Brand Film
Brand films for automotive companies tend to default to three messages at once: safety, performance, and design. That combination produces content that is visually impressive and strategically incoherent. Volvo’s brand film does the opposite, committing to a single message and building the visual and narrative structure entirely around it, giving the viewer one thing to remember. The restraint is not a creative limitation. It is the strategy. The videos most worth studying are almost always the ones that chose what to leave out.
18. Xero “Xero: Beautiful Accounting Software” – Visual tone changes the emotional register of a product
Explainer Type: Finance, Accounting SaaS, Motion Graphics
Accounting software has a tone problem before it has an explanation problem. Most finance tools communicate in a visual register that makes users feel like they are dealing with a compliance requirement rather than a useful tool. Xero’s motion graphics use clean typography, bright color, and tight pacing to give financial data a visual language that small business owners find approachable rather than institutional. That tone shift is the actual product differentiation at work in the video, not a stylistic choice. When your category is associated with anxiety, the video’s emotional register is doing positioning work.
19. Kardex “Kardex Remstar: Automated Storage & Retrieval” – 3D animation as the only viable demonstration format
Explainer Type: Warehouse Automation, 3D Animation
Warehouse automation equipment is nearly impossible to demonstrate through conventional video. The physical scale makes staging difficult, and the internal retrieval mechanics are completely invisible to a camera positioned outside the unit. Kardex uses 3D animation to remove both constraints at once, showing the system at full operational scale with internal movements visible as the retrieval sequence plays out. Logistics and procurement buyers can evaluate space efficiency and throughput without a site visit. When the product physically cannot be shown any other way, 3D animation earns its production investment at the sales stage.
20. Atlassian “Atlassian: Teamwork That Works” – Establishing pain before introducing the product
Explainer Type: Enterprise Tech, Developer Tools, Motion Graphics
Developer tool messaging typically fails in one of two directions: too abstract for buyers who have not committed yet, or too granular for teams who just need to understand the workflow. Atlassian’s motion graphics video avoids both by building the narrative around a team problem that developers recognize from experience before the product enters the frame. Establishing the problem’s shape before naming the solution gives every feature claim that follows a frame of reference the viewer has already accepted. That structure makes the product feel necessary rather than merely available.
21. The Trade Desk “The Trade Desk: Connected Advertising” – Making algorithmic processes feel human
Explainer Type: Ad Tech, Programmatic, Character Animation
Programmatic advertising is technically complex territory for a 90-second video. Real-time bidding systems, audience segmentation logic, and attribution models are concepts that marketing executives often understand in principle but struggle to visualize in practice. The Trade Desk’s character animation puts a human face on an algorithmic process, making the viewer feel like a participant in the ecosystem rather than an observer of infrastructure. Character animation works in technical B2B categories precisely because it makes systems feel operable rather than merely capable, and that distinction is what moves buyers forward.
22. Cellectis “Cellectis: Pioneering Cell Therapies” – Scientific communication at molecular scale
Explainer Type: Healthcare, Biotech, 3D Animation
Biotech companies face a communication problem that no other category shares in quite the same form. The product operates at a molecular scale that no camera can capture, in a biological environment that most audiences cannot visualize without a model built for them. Cellectis uses 3D animation to construct a visual representation of gene editing at the cellular level, giving investors, clinicians, and potential partners a shared reference for how the therapy works. Without that visual model, the science remains abstract and the value proposition stays out of reach for any audience that is not already a specialist in the field.
23. Grammarly “Grammarly: Write Your Best Work” – Output-visible products should show output quality
Explainer Type: AI, Productivity, Mixed Media
Writing tools have a demonstration asset that most SaaS products do not: the output is visible, legible, and evaluable by anyone watching. Grammarly’s mixed media approach uses live screen capture to show the product correcting real writing, then layers motion graphics to explain the reasoning behind each suggestion. The viewer evaluates the product’s judgment during the video itself, not in a trial that requires signup. That is a conversion architecture most products cannot replicate, and it works because the format puts the proof at the center of the experience rather than the claim.
24. AutoStore “AutoStore: The Grid System” – Systems-level clarity for warehouse robotics
Explainer Type: Warehouse Robotics, 3D Animation
AutoStore’s grid-based robot system operates in three dimensions inside a physical structure, and the efficiency gains only make sense once you can see how the robots share that space. The video uses 3D animation to remove the walls of the grid and show the retrieval sequence in full, making the density and throughput advantages legible in a way that floor plans and spec sheets cannot. Logistics and supply chain buyers can connect the system’s geometry directly to the business case without needing a site visit to form a view. For operational products where the efficiency gain lives inside the mechanism, 3D at full scale is the right brief.
25. Enphase “Enphase: Smarter Energy for Homes” – Calibrating technical depth to buyer vocabulary
Explainer Type: Clean Energy, Motion Graphics
Residential solar is a first-purchase category for most homeowners, which changes the explanation task significantly. Enphase’s motion graphics video explains the microinverter advantage through household energy outcomes rather than electrical specifications, calibrating the depth of the explanation to the vocabulary of someone making a long-term investment rather than an electrician evaluating a technical choice. The result works across the full range of buyer readiness, from someone beginning to research solar to someone comparing specific products. Matching explanation depth to buyer vocabulary is not simplification. It is precision.
26. SolarAid “SolarAid: Light Up Lives” – Outcome-led structure for cause-driven video
Explainer Type: Clean Energy, Social Enterprise, Motion Graphics
Nonprofit and cause-led brands default to problem-heavy video that creates emotional weight without a clear path forward for the viewer. SolarAid inverts this structure: the energy access problem is established quickly, and the video spends most of its runtime showing what solar access changes in a community, giving the viewer something concrete to contribute to rather than a guilt-based prompt to act. That outcome-led structure maintains momentum through what could easily become a difficult watch. Show the change, not just the problem, and the call to action takes care of itself.
27. Darktrace “Darktrace: AI-Powered Cyber Defense” – Speaking the language of the security professional
Explainer Type: Cybersecurity, AI, Stock Animation
Convincing security professionals that autonomous AI response is a feature rather than an unacceptable operational risk requires specificity, not marketing language. Vague threat claims and capability summaries are read as vendor noise by SOC analysts who have evaluated enough products to recognize the pattern. Darktrace’s video uses data visualization layered over stock animation to build a concrete picture of how the AI detects and contains threats, giving security buyers a model of the detection logic rather than a summary of the outcome. Technical audiences reward specificity and discount abstraction, and that preference should determine the brief before the animation style does.
28. Articulate “Articulate 360: Course Creation Made Simple” – Skipping category education for experienced buyers
Explainer Type: EdTech, E-Learning, Motion Graphics
L&D professionals buying e-learning software already understand the category. They do not need the video to explain what course authoring is; they need it to show why this tool is faster or easier than what they already use. Articulate’s motion graphics video skips category education entirely and focuses on the authoring workflow, showing how quickly a course moves from concept to published module. Treating the viewer as a professional evaluating a tool rather than a newcomer discovering a solution changes the entire tone and pace of the video, and experienced buyers notice the difference immediately.
29. Mastercard “Mastercard: Priceless Possibilities” – Format selection as a brand decision
Explainer Type: Finance, Payments, Live Action
Payments infrastructure communicates trust before it communicates functionality. Live action is the format that serves this task, because human faces and real transaction scenarios carry a weight of credibility that animation cannot replicate for a financial audience. Mastercard’s video shows the network’s global reach through real payment moments rather than data visualizations, reinforcing the brand’s reliability promise without a single feature claim. Format selection is a strategic decision, not just a production one. When trust is the product, the format that signals authenticity is the one that does the selling.
30. Airbnb “Airbnb: Belong Anywhere” – Two-sided marketplace, one clear narrative
Explainer Type: Travel, Marketplace, 3D Animation
Two-sided marketplace platforms need to do two things in the same video: recruit hosts and reassure guests. Trying to address both simultaneously usually produces content that is unfocused for both audiences. Airbnb’s 3D animation solves this by organizing the narrative around the host-guest relationship as a system rather than addressing each side separately, showing how the platform’s tools build the trust that makes the relationship possible. Before writing the first line of script for a marketplace product, identify which side needs more reassurance and build the story outward from there.
31. Coinbase “Coinbase: Your Key to Crypto” – Building the video around the primary conversion objection
Explainer Type: Crypto, Finance, 3D Animation
Crypto platforms operate in a category with a documented trust deficit, and a video that leads with product features before addressing that deficit is working in the wrong order. Coinbase’s 3D animation spends more time on security infrastructure and regulatory context than on the trading experience, because those are the real conversion barriers for someone moving money into a crypto platform for the first time. Making trust-building the organizing principle of the video structure rather than a supporting message is what separates this from the typical exchange explainer. Identify the conversion barrier before you write the brief.
32. HubSpot “HubSpot: Grow Better” – Hybrid format for a broad-capability product
Explainer Type: Marketing Tech, CRM, Hybrid
CRM platforms face a universal explanation problem: the product can do a great deal, and showing the breadth of it tends to make the video feel like a catalogue. HubSpot’s hybrid format, mixing screen capture with explainer animation, resolves this by showing specific use cases rather than general capability claims. The product footage provides credibility while the animation provides context, and the combination gives the viewer enough to evaluate whether the product fits their workflow without requiring a full trial first. Hybrid format earns its complexity only when each format is assigned a different communication job.
33. Grammarly “Grammarly Business: Consistent Writing at Scale” – Scripting for the decision-maker, not the end user
Explainer Type: AI, Productivity (Business), Mixed Media
The buyer of Grammarly Business is a team lead or L&D manager, not the person who will use the tool every day. That shift in who signs the contract changes the entire frame of the video. This version reorients the product around team-wide writing consistency and brand voice compliance, replacing the consumer narrative of better writing with a business narrative of consistent team output. The format is the same mixed media approach, but the script speaks to a different set of concerns entirely. When the purchase decision changes hands, the video needs to change with it.
34. Red Bull’s “Kris Bryant Can” – Action Speaks Louder than Words
Explainer Type: Motion Graphics
Red Bull’s “Kris Bryant Can” explainer video redefines “jaw-dropping” with its frame-by-frame animation showcasing baseball star Kris Bryant in action. This wordless masterpiece captures the energy and excitement of the sport without relying on narration, letting stunning visuals and adrenaline-pumping music tell the story. This innovative approach makes it a standout among best explainer videos, proving the power of action-packed storytelling to captivate viewers and leave a lasting impression.
35. Adobe “Adobe: Creativity for All” – Narrative-first for a brand with strong prior opinions
Explainer Type: Creative Tech, Software, Character Animation
Creative software sits in an unusual position: the audience has formed strong opinions about the product before the video plays, often years before. Adobe’s character animation sidesteps the feature comparison trap by anchoring the narrative in a creative’s workflow frustrations rather than in product capabilities. Character identification happens first, and the product arrives as a resolution rather than an opening argument. That structure works particularly well for established brands with mixed sentiment in their category, because it earns the viewer’s attention before asking them to reconsider what they already believe.
36. Rippling “Rippling: Run Your Business on One Platform” – Selling the cost of the status quo
Explainer Type: HR Tech, 2D Animation
The selling point of consolidated HR platforms is that fragmented tools create hidden operational costs. The difficulty is making that argument tangible without turning the video into a feature comparison. Rippling’s 2D animation organizes the narrative around the friction cost of running payroll, benefits, and device management across separate systems, giving the viewer an accumulating sense of the problem before the integrated platform enters the frame. That approach converts the abstract idea of consolidation value into something the viewer has already felt, which is a far more effective conversion setup than a product walkthrough. The brief that identifies the emotional cost of the status quo consistently outperforms the brief that leads with the product.
37. Walmart “Walmart: Supply Chain Innovation” – Making invisible logistics legible
Explainer Type: Retail, Logistics, 3D Animation
Supply chain scale is one of the harder competitive advantages to communicate through conventional video. Distribution centers are large, repetitive environments, and footage of warehouse interiors rarely conveys operational complexity in a way that builds commercial credibility. Walmart’s 3D animation gives the distribution network a visible architecture, showing how inventory moves through the system as a coherent operation rather than a series of separate facilities. The video serves two audiences at once: consumers who want confidence in delivery reliability, and suppliers evaluating whether the logistics network can handle their volume. That dual purpose is only achievable because the animation shows the system rather than summarizing it.
38. Shopify “Shopify: Start Your Business” – Time-to-value as structural differentiation
Explainer Type: E-Commerce, 3D Motion Graphics
E-commerce platform videos operate in a category where the core product promise, set up a store and start selling, is near-identical across competitors. Shopify’s 3D motion graphics differentiates by compressing the journey from business idea to live store into a visual sequence a first-time founder can follow without a tutorial. The visual metaphors map directly to the decisions a new business owner faces, not the technical infrastructure decisions that an experienced developer would care about. When time-to-value is your differentiating claim, the video’s structure should prove it, not just assert it.
39. Samsung “Samsung: The Future of Display” – Format blending in service of the communication task
Explainer Type: Consumer Electronics, 3D + Live Action
Consumer electronics brands communicate at two levels simultaneously: the technical capability of the product and the human experience of using it. Samsung’s combination of 3D and live action handles both by assigning each format a distinct job. The 3D animation shows internal components and engineering precision, while live action shows how the product fits into a person’s environment. The format switch happens at the point where the communication task shifts, not at an arbitrary edit point. When the product story has both an inside and an outside, blending formats in response to that distinction is more coherent than defaulting to one approach throughout.
40. Logbase “SellEasy” – An Explainer of E-Commerce Upsell & Cross sell
Explainer Type: Hybrid 2D & 3D Motion Graphics
This explainer video from Mypromovideos effectively combines 2D and 3D animation to visually represent Selleasy’s capabilities. The use of a hybrid animation style not only captures attention but also enhances the clarity and understanding of the platform’s features. The video seamlessly transitions between 2D and 3D elements, creating a dynamic and engaging viewing experience. This innovative approach makes complex concepts easy to grasp and showcases the potential benefits of using Selleasy to boost online sales
This example showcase how motion graphics can add a polished and engaging touch to explainer videos.
Conclusion
These examples showcase how animation vs live action movies can shape the tone, style, and impact of an explainer video.
From product explanations to brand stories, explainer videos have gone beyond their traditional confines. Some examples demonstrate how SaaS explainer videos can break down intricate concepts and help software companies connect with their audience. This exploration of explainer video examples demonstrates their diverse potential. Whether it’s Apple’s minimalist magic, IKEA’s social impact message, or Taco Bell’s masterclass in animation, these videos showcase the power of creativity, storytelling, and brand identity in crafting truly impactful content. Remember, the best explainer videos don’t just explain; they connect, engage, and inspire. So, next time you consider an explainer video, let your brand identity shine through and use these examples as inspiration to elevate your storytelling and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
