Your company has a story to tell, so how do you want to present it?
Sure, you could use a detailed article or a flashy landing page, but if you’re going to drive engagement and interest in your organization, you’ll need to leave your text behind.
That’s because a corporate video is the best way to express your company’s mission.
A well-made corporate video production can be exactly what your organization needs to convey your values, goals, and culture (without boring your audience to tears).
Studies show time and again that Internet surfers vastly prefer video to text-based content, so if you want your brand to stay relevant, it’s imperative to hop on the video train
But what does an excellent corporate video look like? We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’re breaking down the core elements of an effective corporate video and highlight ten of our favorite examples from over the years.
What is a Corporate Video?
At its core, a corporate video is any video production that encapsulates your company’s core message, values, and services. It can have a wide range of uses, including advertising, publicity, and employee orientations.
Now, let’s be honest: corporate videos get a bad rap. The mere phrase “corporate video” probably evokes images of emotionless executives in new suits going on and on about the company’s values, all to a gentle yet generically upbeat backing soundtrack.
Let’s be honest: those kinds of corporate videos aren’t anything special. But your videos don’t have to follow in their footsteps.
Instead, your corporate video should reflect the personality of your organization.
Are you upbeat and trendy? Laser-focused on innovation? Work hard, play harder? Whatever sets your company apart, your corporate video should crystallize it in cinematic form.
Here are a few elements that any good corporate video should have:
- Clear messaging. No production should leave the viewer scratching their head and asking, “What was the point?” Your video should have a crystal-clear purpose and message to convey to your audience.
- Engaging design. Maybe your organization can thrive by pulling an executive aside to ramble in front of a camera for five minutes about your company’s values. If so, all power to you. For most other organizations, though, you’ll need to invest plenty of resources into creating an engaging visual design, including bright colors, a memorable script, and sharp graphics.
- Know your audience. Who does your organization serve? Your corporate video should be targeted toward that same audience. Be sure to understand your viewers ahead of time and develop a video to speak to them directly.
These are just a few of the aspects you should keep in mind as you’re producing your video. In the meantime, let’s take a look at these principles in action by going over ten of our favorite corporate videos and analyzing what makes them tick. You can learn more about corporate videos by following this corporate video guide.
Quest
Quest is a complex company. As a B2B organization providing IT solutions to large organizations like healthcare and governmental organizations, it can be tough to explain its services. However, this brief video manages to take the many facets of Quest’s business model and simplify them to be understandable to even the most general, uninformed audiences.
Better yet, the simple design and organization of the video help keep things engaging. Consistent use of colorful graphics ensures that the audience always has something new to look at. Meanwhile, the simple script hits all the major touchpoints – such as reliability and service – that make Quest a trustworthy organization. It’s a prime example of a great corporate video.
Microsoft – “Hybrid Cloud Flexibility”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw54iT1BI_8&t=12s
Pretty much everyone is familiar with the Microsoft brand, but the same might not be said for the organization’s hybrid cloud platform. The cloud can be a complex concept to explain, but Microsoft’s video on their cloud service does an excellent job simplifying the subject and making it engaging. This video uses compelling graphics, smooth animations, and a straightforward yet engaging script to keep the viewer interested and convey the service’s main selling points.
By showing a literal cloud carrying buildings through hectic landscapes, the video visualizes Microsoft’s cloud services’ benefits. The laser-focused script is precisely targeted toward the primary audience, effortlessly addressing the main problems the audience faces, articulating Microsoft’s solutions, and conveying the support systems in place to ensure a smooth customer experience.
Watermark
Watermark’s leading service might sound niche on the surface: it’s a branding app that makes it easy to add watermarks to images posted online. However, this promotional video does an excellent job portraying the wide range of audiences that can benefit from the company’s services – everyone from professional photographers to Instagram influencers can benefit from more secure images with this app.
The video also showcases an appealing yet straightforward 2D animation style that is sure to appeal to a wide range of audiences. Its bright colors, diverse cast of characters, and upbeat personality make the video accessible to a wide range of audiences – which is precisely the message this video tries to convey.
Spotify Running
Spotify Running is a prime example of an organization that’s looking at how its audience uses its product and provides new features accordingly. This quick advertisement for Spotify Running, which plays music according to your running pace, makes it crystal clear that Spotify is listening to its audience.
By using a range of bright colors, catchy taglines, heart-pounding music, and dynamic camera angles, this video makes the features of Spotify Running crystal clear. It’s less than a minute long and gets right to the heart of what makes Spotify Running great for athletes.
Shopify – “Mobilizing Entrepreneurship”
Not all corporate videos are about flashy advertisements and sales pitches. Others tell poignant stories that tie into the company’s core ethos. Shopify’s engaging “Mobilizing Entrepreneurship” video tells a compelling story about people from diverse, difficult circumstances who find a new beginning in the world of online business.
Even though this video contains only a handful of indirect mentions of Shopify, it presents a touching narrative that creates a powerful, positive image of Shopify’s impact. The video is structured more like a short film than an ad, and could even be repurposed into a YouTube Short to reach a wider audience. with apparent conflict and likable characters, and a compelling narrative flow. It might not get direct sales or growth, but videos like this can have a considerable impact on an organization’s reputation by garnering more interest than your typical sales pitch video.
Airbnb – “Living a Richer Life”
Sometimes, the best way to promote your brand is to let your customers speak on their own. Airbnb showed this firsthand with their “Living a Richer Life” video, where the company’s hosts take the stage to explain how they benefit from listing their houses on Airbnb.
This video feels refreshingly genuine compared to your typical corporate video, all thanks to its clever usage of real-life people rather than in-house marketers or presenters. By featuring plenty of diverse voices from around the world, this video keeps it clean and straightforward by letting the hosts speak for themselves. In doing so, it feels all the more convincing by the time the title card slides in at the end.
American Express – “Imagine What You Could Do”
What do you do when your company has a reputation problem? Create videos that sets the record straight. That’s exactly what American Express did when it wanted to pivot its image away from the traditional, stuffy financial services reputation it had had for years and instead make a name for itself as a technological innovator.
This video uses appealing 2D visuals and a comforting blue color scheme that grabs attention and ties back to American Express’s core brand identity. The upbeat script also hits home the message that the company is a cutting-edge tech firm, using examples of its recent work to position it as a welcome destination for self-described “tech junkies.”
HubSpot
HubSpot faced a common problem: offering so many services at once, just what is HubSpot, anyway? The popular marketing platforms address this issue head-on by putting together this brief video marketing that explains the critical services of HubSpot’s key benefits and services, outlining how they can help clients.
It’s a tried-and-true video featuring a presenter as well as a handful of other background actors. However, simplicity is the key here, as this no-frills video concisely demonstrates everything that makes HubSpot such a powerful tool for its audience without overwhelming viewers with dense technical details – it can do that after they sign up.
Slack – “Animals!”
Let’s close things out with a modern classic of corporate videos. Slack’s one-minute ad presents an office filled with animals who use the company’s workplace communication platform to pioneer innovation. This plot could easily have worked with human actors, but Slack made the video infinitely more memorable and amusing by using animal characters.
This video does an impressive job of balancing between funny visual gags and genuine demonstrations of Slack at work, helping teams work together. While the novelty of seeing animals in an office might be what first hooks you (keep in mind that this ad was released before Zootopia), it’s the way that it effortlessly portrays how Slack can help organizations run well that sets it apart.
Make Your Dream Corporate Video a Reality Today
If you’re tired of banging your head against the wall, desperately trying to figure out how to connect with your audience, a corporate or training video might be just what you need. If you take the time to get a little creative and speak to your target audience directly, your video can have massive measurable impacts on your brand. Check out our Training Video Production Service.
Don’t go it alone if you want to get started with a corporate video. At Sparkhouse, we’ve developed hundreds of corporate videos for just about any kind of client. Don’t hesitate to contact us today and see how our work can help you.