Bordeaux, France-based Mobiles Republic approached us with a mission to explain their flagship app, News Republic.

They presented us with a unique challenge: Make an “aspirational” Nutshell. Show how News Republic can become a part of daily life, and help people see themselves using the product. That got us thinking about telling a story about a central character.

And so, Dan was born:

From there, we worked closely with the News Republic team to develop the script, storyboard, and animation phases. Here’s Rich Reiter, Mobiles Republic director of marketing and acquisition, explaining that process:

Thank you, and all at Planet Nutshell for a job very well done on producing a video for our app News Republic. And when I say “all”, I especially want to note how your collaborative approach to working with us made this into a true team effort.

The process and the result were true to your word: you asked good questions and listened, and helped us to clarify our message; then chose a style and story that matched our product, kept us on-point through the process, and handed us a fantastic video that did exactly what you said it would: it tells our story ‘in a nutshell’.

You guided us through it with a deft hand, while still giving me a strong voice in the production. I really am pleased with the end result, and would gladly work with Planet Nutshell again on future projects.

Creating a great explanatory or demo video is just the beginning. And of course, that’s what we do over here at Planet Nutshell. But how will you host your Nutshell?

For us, it boils down to two solutions. Yes there are others out there, but we feel like these hosts offer the best combination of value, performance, and commitment to customers.

Unlike YouTube and other free hosting services, your video will never have ads or those annoying “related videos” popups when the video completes. Also, both offer the ability to brand and customize your video player. This is important because you may not want people to see your video host’s logo, and you may wish to integrate your video player’s look and feel with the design of your Web site.

Vimeo Pro – $200/yr

Vimeo has emerged as a fantastic way to host videos (Full disclaimer: We use Vimeo to host our portfolio).

Here are some of the highlights of their Pro-level service (features are taken from their overview page):

• 50GB of video storage
• Up to 250k plays of each of your videos
• High Definition (1080p) video
• Advanced Statistics
• Unlimited embedding (this is important if you want viewers to be able to share and spread your video).
• Super-customizable and brandable video player
• HTML5 support with the Vimeo Universal Player
• Full mobile, tablet and connected TV compatibility

Vidyard – Starts at $408/yr

Vidyard is coming on strong as a key competitor to Wistia. I’m really impressed by the rich feature set they offer. Here are some of the top features:

• A/B split testing of separate video thumbnail (aka splash screen) images
• Publish any content you upload to Vidyard to your YouTube channel along with tags and meta-data (cool!). And you can see all the stats on your YouTube video in the Vidyard dashboard.
• Robust Syndication: Publish a video once and push it out to all kinds of places; Facebook, Twitter and more.
• Postroll Call-to-Action: Place a contact form, a buy button, a landing page, and more at the end of your video.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with Vidyard. Be sure to check out all the features.

Wistia – Starts at $276/yr

Many of Planet Nutshell’s clients use Wistia. While Vimeo began as a video hosting solution that was mainly focused on artists and small producers sharing their work, Wistia has always been a commercial video host, competing with the likes of Brightcove. As such, they’ve developed some powerful tools to promote and track the performance of videos.

Wistia offers some interesting email marketing hooks that let you link videos to your email campaigns. Plus, they offer SEO tools that help you improve discovery. If those features are important to you, Wistia deserves a look.

Wistia’s heatmap tool is also very interesting. With it, you can see, in realtime, where and when your video is providing the best engagement. You’ll see when viewers are actually watching and when they’re leaving for more engaging pastures.

Note that Wistia’s pricing is based on bandwidth. We recommend starting with the lowest tier and seeing if that meets your needs.

Get the full scoop on Wistia’s features here.

Have we missed anything here? Feel free to express your opinions in the comments.

Planet Nutshell has a desk available for someone who’d like to share our space with us. Our studio is located in East Cambridge.

Amenities include:

1. Electronic standing desk that you can raise or lower, depending on your mood. If you’d like to dance while you work, we recommend the standing position.

2. Aeron chair. Very comfy!

3. Internet and utilities included.

4. Access to a kitchen with fridge, microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher, etc.

5. The opportunity to hang out with some great folks and be a part of our little art and animation community.

6. A living room/lounge area with TV, PlayStation 4, stereo.

7. A metered parking lot behind the building. There is also free on-street parking nearby.

8. 24/7 access.

Rent: $450/mo. No lease, unless you want one.

The address is:

721 Cambridge St.
Cambridge, MA 02141

Get in touch if you’d like to check out the space: 617-418-3163 or contact (at) planet nutshell (dot) com.

Picking a good explainer video producer is tough. Here’s something to keep in mind: Storytelling.

At Planet Nutshell, we believe that scriptwriting is at the heart of a good Nutshell. Good writing tells stories about people. Good writing has fun, shows a bit of whimsy, and makes people feel better while they become more informed.

If you’re shopping for an explainer video, ask yourself this: Can this producer tell a good story? Or are they just reading through a bland tutorial while pretty things fly through the frame?

Our Nutshells don’t just explain, they tell stories. In so doing, they help our clients build an authentic connection with viewers. Nutshells help our clients say to their audiences, “Hello, we have a soul.”

Our latest video was produced for the hot new Startup, Wayin, which is the brainchild of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy.

Wayin approached us with three main needs:

1. Engage a young, fairly hip audience
2. Explain Wayin’s key concepts in a fun way that doesn’t feel like teaching
3. Do it all in about a minute

Thanks to a strong collaboration with the folks at Wayin we got to the finish line quickly and without a lot of fuss. One thing that’s great about this project is how well Wayin integrated it with their Web site. Below is a screen shot. Note the prominent placement of the video at the top with a big honkin’ play button. Nicely done.

Wayin didn’t stop there. They also integrated artwork from the video into their app landing page. This is the first screen that new users see when they fire up the Wayin app.

It’s just another example of how Nutshells, thanks to their high production values and exquisite artwork, can be integrated into a complete experience.