Casestudy / Hiver

How a 2D SaaS explainer video made Hiver's shared inboxes visible inside Gmail

Industry

B2B SaaS

Product

Shared inboxes in Gmail

Format

2D Animation

Hiver's 76-second explainer. Three inbox problems every team knows, then the fix, inside the Gmail they already use.

76s2D explainer runtime

24sof problems before Hiver is named

4features shown, all inside Gmail

2Dcharacters and screens in one style

Hiver calls itself a customer service platform today. In 2019 it was an email collaboration tool built into Gmail. Teams ran shared addresses like support@ and sales@ together, from the inbox they already had, without forwarding mail or copying each other in.

That is a hard product to film. There is no device to hold up and no new app to open. What Hiver fixes, an email nobody answered or a note sent to the wrong person, happens out of sight.

Hiver came to us for a 2D explainer to put that workflow on screen for the teams who live in it: support, sales, account management and finance.

Client: Hiver
Industry: B2B SaaS, email collaboration
Geography: Bengaluru, India; sells to teams worldwide
Audience: Teams that share an inbox: support, sales, account management, finance
Service: 2D animated explainer video
Deliverables: 76-second 2D explainer: character animation and motion graphics of Gmail screens
Language: English
Website: hiverhq.com

The brief

Show a problem that lives inside an inbox

Shared-inbox trouble is quiet. An email sits unanswered because everyone thought someone else had it. Colleagues forward threads and copy each other in to keep up. Nobody notices until a customer writes back: "Why haven't you replied?"

So the film starts there. For its first 24 seconds it shows a flooded inbox, a chasing customer and a mistake, and the viewer recognises their own week before any product appears.

The low point, at 0:20. The team keeps everyone in copy to work together, until an internal email reaches a customer.

Inside the film

Every fix happens in an inbox the viewer already knows

Hiver arrives at 0:24. The clutter from the opening clears, and the film asks the viewer's question for them. The answers start in Gmail itself: a shared Support inbox in the sidebar, then an email assigned to a named teammate, notes written beside the email, and a status that moves from Open to Closed.

The cards from the opening clear to a clean inbox. Then the question: "And how does it do that?"

How the 76 seconds are spent

0:00 · Meet the team
Three people at one desk, waving. The film starts with the people who share the inbox, so every problem after it happens to someone.
0:05 · Three problems, back to back
A flooded inbox, emails forwarded and copied around to get anything done, and an internal note that reaches a customer. All three come before the product does.
0:23 · One "Oops", then the name
The mistake gets one word on screen. Then the Hiver mark assembles above the same team from the opening shot.
0:26 · Four features, each where it lives
Shared inboxes, assignment, notes and status, each shown as the panel a team would use, with the people still in frame.
0:52 · Who it is for, then one ask
The voice-over names the four teams it is for: support, sales, account management and finance. The only ask is a free trial at hiverhq.com.

Questions buyers ask

Planning an explainer for a SaaS product?

How much does a SaaS explainer video like Hiver's cost?

Studio-made 2D animation runs about $4,500 to $9,000 for a 60-second film, depending on style and scope. Made AI-accelerated under the same studio direction, the same style runs $3,000 to $6,000. The full breakdown is in our explainer video cost guide.

How long does a 2D explainer video take?

Three to four weeks of production for a studio-made 2D explainer, or one to two weeks AI-accelerated, plus the time your team needs for reviews.

How do you show a software product that lives inside another app?

Show it where your users already work. Hiver runs inside Gmail, so its film opens on a Gmail inbox and shows each feature as a panel from that inbox, with the people using it still in frame. The screens are drawn in the same flat style as the characters, so product and people read as one picture.

Do you make explainer videos for B2B SaaS companies?

Yes. Hiver is from Bengaluru and sells to teams worldwide, and its film is in English. We have made explainers for software companies in India and abroad, with reviews done remotely.

For the record

Hiver SaaS explainer video: the facts

WowMakers produced a 76-second 2D animated explainer video for Hiver, a B2B SaaS company from Bengaluru, India, whose product in 2019 was email collaboration and shared inboxes built into Gmail. The film mixes character animation with motion graphics of Gmail screens and has an English voice-over. It sets out three inbox problems before naming the product at 0:24. It then shows four features (shared inboxes, email assignment, email notes and status) for support, sales, account management and finance teams, and ends on a free-trial call to action. It was produced in 2019 and published on the WowMakers YouTube channel in October 2019.

Work with us

Is your product hard to show on screen?

We design the brief before we design the deliverable. If your software runs inside someone else's, or does its best work where nobody sees it, we can script, illustrate and animate a short film that puts it on screen.

Or explore our animated explainer video service, the explainer video cost guide, and other case studies.

Start a project