Animated Video: 'What Is Extractomatic?'
This video was created for Extractomatic, a turnkey software solution that provides reliable, accurate, and consistent data to hospitals nationwide. This small but thriving start-up company located in Nashville, TN reached out because they were looking to create a piece of messaging that was different, playful, and stood out in the healthcare world. Extractomatic works to deliver the most important data to make life a whole lot easier for CFOs across the hospital world.
The video functions to answer the question ‘What is Extractomatic?” and as a commercial to drive website visitors to schedule a call with Extractomatic. The video was also shown as part of a live presentation to hundreds of industry attendees at the 2022 HFMA (Healthcare Financial Management Association) Annual Conference in Denver, CO.
Video Process: The Making of 'What Is Extractomatic?'
The project began with meeting with Extractomatic CEO Jason Morgan and Nicole Brinson to get all the details and big ideas for the video out on the table. Nicole was with me throughout the whole process and Jason gave his feedback at all the right times on all the right items!
In total, we created 4 versions of a storyboard. Jason and Nicole were really great at providing feedback, clarifying where I needed help understanding the intricacies of the software and how it specifically helped CFOs, and they did an awesome job of bringing, holding, and energizing a vision for what they wanted the video to be.
For instance, in his feedback, Jason pushed to illustrate that the Extractomatic software was always working (in contrast to a consultant who may be on the job for a short while and then disappears) and that this was very beneficial for the CFO. I had initially simplified a bit too much (which is partly intentional to draw out the client’s creative participation) on the Version 1 storyboard
If you look at the images above, you’ll notice that in the Version 1 samples, it’s just the Extractomatic robot (Extracto) showing the benefit of focusing on Big Goals (without the CFO present) and a call to action that doesn’t include or show the impact to the CFOs life. But in the Version 4 storyboards, you’ll see that Extracto is working on the left and this work is contributing to the accomplishment of ‘Big Goals’ while the CFO heads home for the day!
And then on the Version 4 call to action storyboard cell, you see a more integrated picture of peace and satisfaction as the CFO is at home with his family while Extracto is doing what robots do best-work!
These changes are a result of Jason and Nicole paying attention and engaging to the process and knowing their product well. Its group co-creation like this that always leads to a greater end result and they were fully engaged with the creativethe process all the way to selecting the soundtrack and sfx.
One of the main considerations of the creation of the video was coming up with the main character, Extracto. Jason (Extractomatic CEO) came to the table with great ideas and reached out because he himself had some great, playful notions about how Extractomatic could be illustrated and explained as softward. He told me in our conversations that he had envisioned Extractomatic being almost like a Mario-Brothers plumber type who would plunge/extract data infomation with a plunger. His initial idea was a strong conceptual leverage point for the final Extractomatic character concept and video itself.
It became clear in our conversations that CFOs aren’t necessarily software experts, but they do know when the software is able to do and deliver on what they most need. Taking a lead from Jason’s initial idea of the ‘plumber character’, I personally thought that taking the character in a non-human but charming direction would go a long way in helping explaining how the software operated. And even though the red robot Extracto would never actually operate inside a hospital like it does in the explainer video above, what was important was that the character operated and stuck within the CFOs minds that saw the video!
Also important to the messages was showing that Extractomatic is software that was run by really competent people that are ‘on it’ and pay attention. And its guaranteed to work or you don’t pay, which was a huge benefit to communicate! The software is maintained and updated as their clients need it to be, which let me know that the software’s changing identify was a bit nebulous-especially because the software functioned without any physical footprint at the hospitals (which is a great thing!). But what was consistent is the expertise, values, and commitment of the Extractomatic team, so it was important to illustrate their competence and mirroring that in a ‘always on it’ little red robot
In the visual storytelling, we found this balance of embodying all the complexity of Extractomatic’s real-world software (that was providing solutions for hospitals) in a character that could interact in friendly cooperation and in service of the experts on the Extractomatic team. In the image right above, that’s Extracto and Jason working together!
The Extracto character is a brand icon that acts as a ‘double’ and visual representation for all the groundwork that Extractomatic lays for their clients when integrating into their hospital data systems. Extractomatic is a ‘swiss-army knife’ type of character in that it has a tool and a solution for every task and challenge it’s presented with. This allows it to ‘plug in’ wherever its help is needed like a trusty bridge between problem and solution.
My own personal inspiration for the Extracto character was derived for my love of the Pixar movie, Wall-E. Wall-E had character but also was interesting and human in the way he functioned.
And then, to embody the ‘always present and operational’ promise of Extractomatic, I thought of the Roomba vacuum that is always working and running. And so, Extractomatic became a combination of inspiration from the movie Wall-E and the home product, Roomba.
Just like as Wall-E is alive in the memory of people and Roomba is still a operating product, I wanted Extractomatic to have some stickability and cute charm to the way he operated without overpowering the team that supports and makes Extractomatic run as well as it does as it integrates into existing hospital systems.
Lastly, one of my favorite things about Extractomatic was the branding they started with. I loved the simple, binary red/white color scheme and I appreciated their logo font too. I look for details that can double as little ‘hooks’ to be played on.
For the logo font, I especially liked how they raised the letter ‘O’ higher up than the rest of the letters to bring both visual attention and for me, auditory attention to that ‘O’. This ended up being a big ‘hook’ that lended more meaning to their logo and to the character. When I said the word Extractomatic, it was ‘ExtractO’-matic to my ears because of the accent on the ‘O’. This design choice also parlayed into a perfect visual mirror that I would incoporate into the Extracto character, which you can see below.
Extracto has a single, raised scanning eye that functions along with the rest of it’s automatic functioning. To me, this gives extra meaning to the title Extractomatic! And just as Extractomatic seeks to integrate into existing hospital systems but brings more performance and usefulness to the data, I sought to integrate and use what was already working with Extractomatic’s branding and bring more life to the brand with this character and video.
All in all, this was a smooth project filled with creative potential and the video served a real purpose in helping them explain their product and stand out in a space that is a little shy about taking creative risks. Thanks to Jason and Nicole for entrusting me with helping tell Extractomatic’s story!