Kinetic typography for video ads
Moving type carries an ad when there is no footage. What makes it readable, and how to brief it.
Kinetic typography is type that moves: words that arrive one at a time, letters that rise into place, lines that type themselves out. For ads it has a practical appeal. It needs no footage, no product shots and no actors, and most social video is watched with the sound off, so the words carry the message anyway.
Readable first
Motion that is fun to watch but hard to read is a failed ad. A few habits keep moving type legible:
- Give each line time. A line should stay still long enough to be read twice after it lands. Short lines can move quickly; a full sentence needs room.
- Move once, then rest. Words should arrive with energy and then settle. Type that keeps drifting is tiring to read.
- One idea per beat. "Show up." "Lift heavy." "Repeat." works as three beats. Put it in one line and the rhythm is gone.
- Big and high-contrast. Phones are small. Light type on dark or dark on light, never mid-grey on mid-grey.
Effects worth knowing
- Word-by-word reveals pace a headline the way a voice would say it.
- Letter-by-letter reveals suit short, punchy words and brand names.
- Typewriter and scramble suit tech, data and announcements, where the text "resolving" is part of the meaning.
- Counting numbers make a statistic feel earned: "£1,240 saved" counting up from zero.
- Underlines and circles that draw on point at the one word that matters.
The studio has all of these built in, and the Kinetic typography style leans on them. Name the effect in your brief ("one word at a time", "counting up from zero", "typed out") and it will be used for that line.
Editing moving text
Animated headlines stay editable. Click a line in the editor and retype it; the animation is rebuilt around the new words, so you can fix a typo or try a second headline without regenerating the piece.