Marcus Richards
We’re a specialist stop-motion animation studio working with clients all over the world. We produce content to promote new brands, products and services on digital platforms and social media.
Our clients are from a wide variety of sectors including finance, manufacturing, fashion, pharmaceuticals, food and transportation and we’ve worked with companies such as Mattel, Cisco, Nestle, PwC, We also create animation for TV – mainly in the children’s sector.
Tell us about yourself?
I was never going to be someone working behind a desk. Like most creative people I needed to do something that would allow me to do something artistic and as my family were all entrepreneurs it was always going to be the case that I would start a business of my own.
The trick of course is finding a way to fill your creative passion while making a good living! No easy task but I’ve managed it.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Write your goals down and make sure you do at least one thing everyday in pursuit of those goals! Include a timeline for achieving your targets too.
What problem does your business solve?
We can reach new customers and clients in a way most other visual content for marketing can’t and that’s by creating visually unique, often quirky videos.
It’s a really cluttered space out there in the world of marketing so trying to stand out is tough – very tough. However, our service is pretty unique and, best of all, we can work within a wide range of prices.
It’s a client friendly production process that means clients are comfortable in what we’re making for them – this isn’t usually the case when companies need a creative solution to their marketing needs.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Stop-motion is a unique method of production – it is truly an artform. The skills involved and the knowledge base are like no other area of production …and it’s these skills that allow us to produce content that really cuts through the crowd.
There is A LOT of 2D motion graphics and 3D animated videos on TV and online but that’s the problem – they all blur into one.
With our stop-motion we can create content that looks different, grabs the audience and helps a business connect with the viewer.
We’ve done this repeatedly with a whole host of clients. Best of all, if you’re promoting a new product we can more than likely use that product in the content we produce – clearly showing viewers what that product is and why it would be beneficial to them.
What is your magic sauce?
Firstly, we offer a unique production process that gives clients lots of opportunity for feedback and is very clear in how the completed video / animation will look.
This is a process that is unique to Kerrupt Stop-Motion Animation.
We also are able to produce content quickly – usually animation takes a long time to produce but we can turn a project around in less than 2 weeks if required.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We’d love to expand ion our international work and we’re doing a pretty good job of that so far. We’re currently working with a company in Canada and a company in the middle East, however, I feel there’s huge potential in the Far East.
Stop-motion isn’t that big out there yet …which means there is LOTS of potential. We’d also love to get another children’s TV property off the ground and sell it internationally.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Like most businesses, COVID was a challenge – not so much from a sales point of view but more from production. Traditional 2D and 3D animation studios realized they could get most of their teams working remotely from home but that’s much harder for stop-motion.
We had to set up mini studios at each team members homes and transfer all assets either by post or digitally. Thank God for Google Drive !
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We’re interested in connecting with clients who are keen on finding creative ways of connecting with customers – both old and new. There’s more than likely going to be a recession in the next few months so finding new customers will be tough – to meet the challenge MD’s will need to be brave and businesses will have to be bold …and that’s where we come in.
Our ambition is to create animation for branding and marketing that is so bold it becomes a product in itself – think of the success of the meerkats (Aleksandr and Sergei) from Compare the Market! That’s something we love to do and can do in all types of budgets and in short timescales …it’s ‘simples’ – www.kerruptanimation.co.uk or call 020 3633 9875
