In need of some inspiration for app store preview videos for the world of iOS 11? Bookmark or share this page (and our blog!) for inspiration when creating your app’s preview video.

iHeart Radio App Store Preview Video:

iHeart Radio’s App Store preview is an excellent example of a new class of preview videos, wherein Apple allows (or does not disapprove) an app to create a near-cinematic marketing experience. iHeart leverages heavy design and animation production effort to build a branded experience that stands out to an impressive degree, and focuses the user’s attention on the handful of key messages that iHeart wants the user to retain. Using an animated device also enables iHeart to control the brand experience fully and change the device color, rather than being forced to let the real device profile be a distraction during the background color changes or lose the screenshot-containing benefit of screenshots-only.

iHeart also ends the video with its core messaging, plus a compelling “it’s free!” message, which likely has a big impact on conversion rate.

Peloton App Store Preview Video:

(Incipia client — we did provide some creative direction)

Peloton’s video jumps right into the action by showing the instructor in a live class, which is a good choice for an app promoting high-energy workouts. Keeping the pace moving is an important goal in this video, and Peloton’s scene transitions does this, while also conveying the brand via polished word animations. Using a tap recognizer and zooming in on elements of the UI also helps the user focus on what’s happening and what to focus on in the scene. Also, by layering text onto the video in the second half, Peloton gets its message across while also gaining precious time for additional footage by precluding the need for a cut-scene.

Peloton ends the video with a nice animation on its logo at the end of the video that is related to the word animations, but a touch further, which adds a nice, branded touch, and ends with a call to action.

Lose it! App Store Preview Video:

Lose it! Starts off with an excellent social proof point that lingers for a moment, to ensure users can read it (if it were just a poster frame, the user may not have time to read the whole message). This video’s transitions and text animations help keep the user’s attention and the scenes make maximum use of time by using the minimal amount of time per scene. The storyboard is also well-made, taking the user through the journey in 30 seconds:

1. Set goals

2. Track foods via:

• Searching

• Scanning

• Snapping

1. Getting reminders (likely a good value prop/extra feature for many users)

2. Track progress (and the balloon scene evokes the idea of celebrating, making a positive association, rather than just a neutral/robotic one)

Yahtzee With Buddies App Store Preview Video:

Yahtzee with Buddies has production value, but mostly relegated to the cut-scenes, which may be easier to get past Apple than the iHeart style. As a game, the video should be even more fun and engaging than apps, and this video accomplishes that with confetti and text animations that rocket around and mimic the game mechanic itself (throwing dice around). Yahtzee with Buddies also keeps branding present with a banner at the bottom of the video, which obscures the scene, but adds a layer of cohesiveness that matches the screenshots and helps keep the branded feel, sort of like a tag on an article of clothing. Also, by presenting only a few scenes, the video ensures that the messaging from those scenes is less diluted and lands more recall/staying power in users’ minds.

Instasize App Store Preview Video:

Instasize’s video wins by utilizing a large font size and bright/branded background colors that contrast well against the font. Instasize also uses an effective and eye-catching and progressive animation on the text that keeps the watcher engaged and inclined to keep watching. Speeding up the is also a good idea, as the details of photo editing can be complex, but it the details (may) not be as important as conveying the fact that Instasize’s UX for doing so is quick and easy.

Waze App Store Preview Video:

Waze begins on poor footing by using background/font colors that are difficult to read and also a font size too small (these videos are purposely shot from the search result page, to illustrate the challenge of making a video that is legible). But Waze’s storyboard is well-produced, taking users through several key features, explaining the scene before it happens with cut-scene text, and keeping the time allocation of each scene to a brisk pace, which helps keep the user’s attention.

Like Peloton, Waze also makes use of a nice logo animation at the end of the video.

FIFA Soccer App Store Preview Video:

FIFA Soccer opens with an evocative still image of a big brand (Cristiano Ronaldo), like The Walking Dead No Man’s Land, and executes an animation in this scene, which helps keep the user engaged while the branding sinks in over the course of several seconds. This is a nice trick that can resolve the issue of losing people to lack of immediate action, while also allowing the brand to be properly conveyed.

Moving right into a goal being scored is a great move, and the video stitches many exciting and valuable such scenes together throughout the video, exhibiting the outcome of another great storyboard. Also like Peloton, FIFA Soccer uses overlaid text to reduce the need for cut-scenes while also keeping control of the messaging.

FIFA Soccer also shakes the screen on several occasions, which is likely to raise excitement of the target user and make them eager to take control, like The Walking Dead No Man’s Land.

One of the only misses here is the difficulty in realizing the call to action in the end branding scene, or reading it.

The Walking Dead No Man’s Land App Store Preview Video:

(Incipia client — we did not provide creative direction)

The Walking Dead No Man’s Land takes the cinematic, high production value approach that iHeart takes, focusing especially on connecting with the real-world brand and its characters and also the recent Walking Dead Season 8 release. Tapping into real events is a good approach that allows apps to boost its ability to convert users by tapping into events happening outside of the App Store itself (like holidays, but likely with a stronger effect), and mixing that intangible value with additional conversion appeal of the preview video itself.

The Walking Dead No Man’s Land also executes a well-run storyboard, too, stitching together several ~1 second high-action scenes to build excitement and make users want to either take control or see what happens next, which is a win. Drawing further on the strength of a big brand, the video also creates a link between the user and the brand by showing gameplay and messaging that users can control their favorite characters and also customize them by playing more (and likely helped along in this process by buying IAP, which primes users to spend). The video ends with a strong branded scene, yet misses the addition of a strong call to action.

World of Tanks Blitz App Store Preview Video:

World of Tanks Blitz also does a good job of getting right into the action. Many videos, even some of the above make the mistake of trying to hog the stage with their brand logo for too long, or take too much time building up to the engaging part of the video, both of which can lead to drop-offs before the user has a chance to see the real deal.

World of Tanks Blitz also doesn’t use any text to tell its message, and only intervenes into the gameplay to show its branding, and only at the every end of the video. While text is the best way to control your message, text can also be distracting as it forces the user to shift from watching to reading. If you can convey your message visually without the need of text, then you can engineer an even stronger video.

Movies Anywhere App Store Preview Video:

Like iHeart Radio, this app pushes the envelope in terms of Apple’s guidelines for what a preview video is supposed to be and do, and goes even further than iHeart by animating aspects of the app (movies) into the app, which should be a major Apple no-no. These types of videos are less previews and more full marketing commercials, and it’s fitting that a movie app has produced such a video.

Movies Anywhere makes judicious use of animations by only animating individual words on the opening scene . This establishes the high-quality of the video, but reduces the price of using animations by switching to less time-consuming animations on the whole section of text later on. The video also uses a cohesive and excellent scene transition animation, and captures real brand benefits (like The Walking Dead No Man’s Land) not only by showing clips of movies, but also by showing images from movies in some backgrounds.

Masterfully, several scene transitions even line up with action points in the movie clips, from spear-throwing, to sword-slashing.

Also like iHeart, Movies Anywhere pushes its likely conversion rate boosting message of “free — no subscription required.”

As a bonus, check out these 4 “did you know” tips:

1. You can use portrait orientation screenshots and a landscape orientation video, which will appear in “a closer view”

2. You can delete a preview video from your live app listing without having to submit a new build (but you cannot add/edit a video)

3. Apple actually prioritizes loading preview videos first before screenshots (regardless of order of the app, so long as the preview video is partially on-screen)

4. With battery saver mode, videos do NOT autoplay. This means your poster frame is more important!

That’s all for now, folks! Be sure to bookmark our blog, sign up to our email newsletter for new post updates and reach out if you’re interested in working with us to optimize your app’s ASO or mobile marketing strategy.

Incipia is a mobile app development and marketing agency that builds and markets apps for companies, with a specialty in high-quality, stable app development and keyword-based marketing strategy, such as App Store Optimization and Apple Search Ads.