DS Smith: explaining EUDR compliance through animation

When the EU Deforestation Regulation came into force, DS Smith's procurement partners across Europe had a wall of new policy detail to absorb. Rather than send a PDF and hope, DS Smith commissioned a short animated explainer to land the essentials in under three minutes. We produced it.

The outcome

A three-minute animated explainer that DS Smith now uses across partner onboarding, internal training, and customer education on EUDR compliance. The brief was to make a piece of regulatory communication that didn't feel like one. The film holds attention long enough to do the actual teaching, and positions DS Smith as the guide on a topic their customers needed help navigating.

The asset is reused across:

• Partner onboarding sessions
• Customer-facing compliance toolkits
• Internal team training on the regulation
• Sales and account-team conversations where EUDR comes up

The challenge

The EU Deforestation Regulation introduced new legal obligations on businesses handling forest-derived materials. Important policy, dense to read. Procurement teams and operations leads didn't have time to study a 40-page document, and "send the legal text" wasn't going to land.

DS Smith needed a short explainer that:

• Translated the regulation into plain English
• Outlined DS Smith's own approach to compliance
• Reassured partners that DS Smith was taking the lead on navigating it
• Felt helpful and brand-aligned, not legalistic

"It had to feel like a guide, not a memo."

Our approach

We partnered with Hammerspace Video on creative development and project management. Working from DS Smith's initial brief, we shaped a script and storyboard designed to demystify the regulation while reinforcing DS Smith's tone of clarity and reliability.

The piece is fully animated end to end. No live footage, no interviews, no improvised voiceover. Every beat was deliberately crafted to support understanding.

Key creative decisions:

• Simplified visual logic. Complex obligations broken down into a sequence of clear, follow-able steps.
• Consistent iconography and flowcharts. Visual shorthand that reflects DS Smith's structured approach to compliance.
• Brand-colour palette throughout. Reinforces trust and recognition.
• Voiceover tone calibrated as a guide. Calm, clear and directive rather than narrational.

Subtle visual references to documentation, dashboards and digital workflows acknowledge the procedural nature of compliance, without making the viewer feel they're being walked through bureaucracy.

What it does for DS Smith

In a category where regulation shifts often and partners want clarity, the explainer turned a potentially-difficult conversation into a short, watchable asset that does the explaining for the sales and account teams. DS Smith steps into the role of guide on a topic their customers need help with, and that's the position the brand wanted to claim.

Credits

• Client: DS Smith
• Studio: Alchemy
• Creative partner: Hammerspace Video