Primer Growth.
A 30-second video ad selling Primer Growth's rapid creative testing service. The brief was prescriptive — frame-by-frame headlines, stock references, exact transitions. The work was in the animation: timing, transitions, the small moments that make a static deck come alive.
30 SEC · 9:16
Client
Primer Growth
Agency
Primer
Role
Designer + Animator
Year
2021
Format
4 video variants · 9:16
01 · The Brief
A frame-by-frame ask.
This wasn't an open creative brief. The team handed me a Google Doc with 9 frames spelled out — every headline written, every visual referenced (stock URLs, Pinterest pins, exact second-marks from a previous ad to match the stylization).
The pitch the video had to land: Primer Growth runs rapid, tested ad creative for DTC brands. “Stop fighting for conversions. Beat the algorithm. Improve CAC after iOS changes.” My job was to take a tightly-defined storyboard and turn it into 30 seconds that don't feel like a checklist.
The brief · excerpt
- Frame 1Stop fighting for conversions
- Frame 2Ads the old way:
- Frame 3Made with the same design tool everyone else uses.
- Frame 4The new way: Rapid-tested creative that actually works.
- Frame 5Ads that convert,
- Frame 6Beat the algorithm,
- Frame 7& improve CAC after iOS changes
- Frame 8Learn how we can grow your business.
02 · The Starting Point
Built on a previous ad.
Previous Primer ad · Stylization reference
The brief specifically pointed at a previous Primer ad: “Stylize it like 0:06 of [link]” and “Frame starting at 0:14 of [link]”. The visual language already existed — punchy text on Primer-branded backgrounds, quick cuts, phones showing live ads with reactions popping up.
That gave me a foundation but raised the bar. When you're matching an existing visual system, you're not asked to invent — you're asked to extend it without breaking the family resemblance. New headlines, new transitions, new product references, but the same energy.
“The headlines were given. The transitions were the work.”
03 · Frame by Frame
30 seconds, 8 beats.
Each frame stylized to extend the previous Primer ad's visual language. Each tile auto-plays on hover.
- Frame 10:00 — 0:02ANIM · Quick zoom-in on victory pose
- Frame 20:02 — 0:04ANIM · TV "powers on" — quick flicker
- Frame 30:04 — 0:06ANIM · Cursor click animation
- Frame 40:06 — 0:14ANIM · Reaction emojis float in/out
- Frame 50:14 — 0:17ANIM · Phone zoom transition
- Frame 60:17 — 0:24ANIM · Ads slide L→R replacing each other
- Frame 70:24 — 0:29ANIM · Continuation from frame 6
- Frame 80:29 — 0:30ANIM · CTA pulse + logo lockup
04 · The Animation
Where the work actually was.
With the headlines and visual references locked, what made the ad good or bad was timing — how long each frame holds, where the cuts land, what enters and exits the screen, and how one frame hands off to the next. Four motion choices that did the heaviest lifting:
01
0:08 — 0:13
Pop-up reactions on the live ad.
In Frame 4, when the phone shows a Primer-made ad playing, three live reactions (❤️, 🔥, 👏) animate up from the bottom of the screen, hold for a beat, and float off. Quick — under a second per emoji. The point is to make the ad inside the ad feel alive, like real people are watching it in real time.
02
0:14 — 0:17
The phone-zoom transition.
Frame 5 is one continuous move: the phone screen scales up until it fills the entire frame and becomes the next background. No cut. This stitches two beats into one motion, so what would otherwise feel like two separate slides reads as one continuous thought.
03
0:17 — 0:29
Horizontal ad-swap loop.
Frames 6 and 7 share a stage — a single phone screen where four different brand ads slide in horizontally, one after another, each replacing the last. The motion communicates exactly what Primer Growth sells: a creative engine that doesn't run dry.
04
0:29 — 0:30
End card with logo lockup.
Frame 8 is the closer. Coral background, big CTA, Primer logo tucked into a clean lockup. No tricks — just the brand mark landing with confidence. After 29 seconds of motion, the stillness here does the work.
05 · The Variations
Four videos, one engine.
The same skeleton produced four full videos — only the opening hook changed. “Stop fighting for conversions” was hook #1. The others swapped in different pain-point openers for different audience segments. Frames 2–10 stayed the same.
This is where the structural design pays for itself. Once the visual system was set, producing variants was an exercise in swapping a 2-second hook, not rebuilding 30 seconds of motion. One ad becomes four; four becomes a testable cohort.
- V1Stop fighting for conversionsShown
- V2Social ads can work for start-ups
- V3Need custom video ads?
- V4The algorithm killing your ads?
06 · A Note on Results
“I don't know if this one was a winner. I included it anyway because the animation work is some of my favorite from that year.”
Performance data on this campaign isn't visible to me — agency-side designers don't always get the post-mortem. So I can't tell you if it converted. What I can tell you is that this is the project where I started caring about timing as much as composition. The pop-up reactions, the phone-zoom transition, the ad-swap loop — those moves taught me how to think about motion as a design tool, not a finishing flourish. Whatever the conversion rate was, that lesson stuck.
Next case study
Moneyfest.
A fintech app for people who hate fintech apps. Co-founded, designed end-to-end.