Take a closer look at the unique factors that differentiate corporate and promotional videos so you can better understand which type makes the most sense for your business, department, and project.
Video marketing is video marketing, right? Even though corporate videos and promotional videos are often talked about and described interchangeably, the fact is that these two types of video content are distinct, and they serve different purposes.
On the plus side, business leaders and marketing professionals are all on the same page that video is a critical component to business success. But conflating these two types of videos can lead to confusion for the staff or team tasked with producing the video, and confusion for the intended audience or audiences who will (hopefully) be watching and sharing the video.
Here we want to explore the similarities and differences between these two different video types, and especially hone in on the unique factors of corporate and promotional videos so that you can better understand which video makes the most sense for your business, department, and project.
Promotional Video Production and Purposes
No doubt you have seen dozens, or even hundreds, of promotional videos. From video game trailers to NBA playoff “hype videos” and more, promotional videos are very common, and they’re generally produced as a focused piece of media for a specific event, product, promotion, or something similar.
Promotional videos can take a number of formats; for example, you can have animation, motion graphics, live-action footage, b-roll, graphics, and much more. And of course, you can combine several of these elements in your video depending on what you are promoting and what makes the most sense in terms of your video production schedule and budget.
One very important rule of promotional videos—they need to be short. While it’s true that everything from a 30-second television commercial to a two-hour movie can be impactful, promotional videos are aimed at eliciting an emotional reaction and response from your target audience, and doing so quickly.
You want your video to drive right to the point, and to get your prospective customers excited about the product, service, or event that your video is promoting. A general rule of thumb for many marketing departments and video production companies is to make a promotional video that is no longer than 60 seconds. But there are other guidelines you can follow as well when it comes to video length. Social media and email marketing videos should ideally be even shorter; somewhere in the 15- to 30-second range is an ideal length for your finished video to arrive.
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Corporate Video Production and Purposes
Corporate videos, in contrast to promotional or marketing videos, are designed to focus on a business or company as a whole. Your organization may have any number of products or services to offer, each of which warrants having its own promotional video produced. But the corporate video is the overarching view of your entire organization, what you offer to people, and what makes your business different from the competition.
Corporate videos are often ideal for B2B marketing and lead generation opportunities, but can also serve other purposes including employee training videos and recruitment, new hire orientation, reminders about brand values and company mission, event videos, internal education, and training/development purposes, and more. Testimonials, case studies, a company profile, and other pieces can also make a difference in terms of engaging your target audience through corporate video production.
Corporate videos, much like promotional videos, can take on a variety of formats and approaches. Corporate videos can range from just a couple of minutes in length to a full hour, all depending on what the intent and audience of the video are. The key here is understanding what you want or need to accomplish with the video and develop more in-depth information that lends itself well to being shared through video.
Determining what Type of Video Your Business Needs
Now that you have a clearer picture of the differences between corporate and promotional videos, and the different uses that each type of video can serve, the next question to ask is what type of video content makes the most sense for your business.
As we talked about above, promotional videos are generally ideal for customer-focused, product-specific purposes. These short videos are perfect for email marketing, website content, social media outlets, and overall buzz creation to lead or accompany your marketing campaigns. Promotional videos are also the type of video most likely to “go viral,” mainly due to their shorter length and their share-worthy production and content. Promotional videos are also produced for online or television broadcast purposes, which reinforces the need for them to be both brief and impactful or attention-grabbing right away.
The different types of corporate videos, meanwhile, are longer than promotional videos and take a much more broad and overarching look at your business. Corporate videos are ideal for B2B marketing, but may also serve a terrific use for internal communications, HR recruitment, explainer videos, brand awareness, presence at trade shows, and any material that warrants a more in-depth explanation.
With all of this in mind, it may be easier than you thought to choose the type of video production that is right for your business, your audience, and your message. If you’re launching a new product or service and you want to get people excited about it immediately, a promo video is the way to go. On the other hand, if your goal is to communicate with prospective employees or clients the many ways that your organization stands out from others, as well as just what your business can provide, then a corporate video is the ideal choice.
Hiring a Video Production Company: Expectations and Key Steps
Moving into the production of whatever video you choose requires a little leg work on your end of the process – leg work that will pay you back tenfold in terms of time saved and quality work delivered by the video production firm or videographer that you hire.
First and foremost, you want to gather your teams together and compile a comprehensive document with all of the information you want or need to communicate. The goal here is not only to get all of your teams aligned on what the video should say and show, but also to get consensus on the “need to have” items and the “nice to have” information for the video. As is almost always the case, that comprehensive list of information is not going to fit neatly into a single video, no matter how long you want the video to be. Getting agreement on the message and information makes it easier to outline the video, the goals, and the requirements before you move into production.
From here, you can contract with a video production firm or videographer. The best part of having all of your information gathered in pre-production is that you can establish clear parameters for the finished online video, as well as the timeline and process by which you want to get the video production completed. Communicating clearly with any vendor is the key to success (and to keeping your project on schedule and on budget), so spending this time with your teams upfront pays tremendous dividends throughout the rest of the process.
It may seem like there is a lot to consider when producing video for your business, but defining what you want the video to do and say helps to answer the majority of the questions along the way, and also helps you to immediately choose what type of video you want to produce. Whether your goal is a comprehensive corporate video or a promotional video that sizzles across the internet, following a few key steps can make the difference and lead to a finished video production that dazzles everyone involved.