What Makes a Successful Corporate Video?

Investing in corporate video production is a significant financial undertaking for a company. It requires significant time and resources, from initial interviews and planning to production and final edits. Naturally, you expect this company video to reap tangible results. But how do you know your video is going to actually resonate with your audience? How can you be sure they’re going to do, think, say, feel, buy, or buy into what you want them to?

An Effective Corporate Video Respects Your Audience’s Needs

In standard corporate video production, many people start off with, “I have to tell you this,” as opposed to, “How can I help you?” One of these strategies engages the audience’s personal interest, and one does not. The best company videos will incorporate both using creative video production strategy that focuses on the “How can I help you?” of it all.

Why? Because, at the end of the day, we all do things for our own best interests. If your audience doesn’t think they’re going to get anything out of your video, they’re going to bail. They’re looking to find personal gain from your video, just like you’re looking for company gains from your video.

If it’s a recruiting video, they want to know what they’ll get out of working for your company. If it’s an investor relations video, they want to see the potential benefits of their investment. If it’s a merger announcement video, they probably want to know how this will affect their job—and to make sure they will still have one.

Be as specific as you can about the audience of your video far before you reach production. This way, you’ll be able to nail down what exactly they need to hear from you. It’s a lot easier to figure out how to tell the story once you know what story has to be told.

Corporate Video Should Slough Off the Stereotype

While a company video does need to tell you things, it also needs to be entertaining. It needs to be engaging. It needs to be purposeful. It has to understand the needs, values, desires of the audience, and what you’re actually providing for them. To be effective, a corporate video needs to be articulate and crisp; you can’t jam too many things in there, because if it’s not digestible, a viewer will disengage. As well, if it’s just data points, charts and informative animation, the viewer isn’t going to stick around. It’s boring, and it doesn’t communicate why they should care or how those data points are of value to them as an audience.

Unfortunately, this is the standard in corporate video production. Many video production companies stick to this standard, presentation-like, “Hire/buy from/invest in me!” strategy. But just like that isn’t the right strategy to use in a job interview, it’s not the right one for effective video messaging either.

So, what’s the solution to standing out from the noise of thousands of other corporate videos? Simply, a creative video strategy that leans on meaning over matter. Semantics over syntax, if you will. Stories and relationships are what engage people, and compassion and care are what drive people to become a part of those stories and relationships.

Tribe views every brand as a story. To actually understand that and realize that all of the videos you do should tie into your master story or your brand identity is a way to get the most value out of company videos. Because each video is helping to build the audience’s impression of your brand as well as trust and interest in your messaging.

And by tying into your master narrative you are contributing one video at a time into a bigger picture, into a culture, into a brand, into the way people think and feel and see your company.

The Best Corporate Video Companies Value Message Quality over Video Quality

Cameras are so powerful today. I still can’t believe that a 4K-resolution camera fits in my pocket. Masterful shots and editing that clearly show the audience you invested money in your video is important, but the availability of pocket-sized, professional-quality cameras also means that people aren’t so wowed by high-definition video anymore. Its novelty and fascination is gone; it’s no longer enough to keep an audience interested and engaged.

So before you blow your video budget renting that top shelf camera, remember what quality actually means for corporate video: effective and meaningful messaging.

The message you send needs to be the best quality, and it needs to be communicated in a way that highlights, not diminishes its quality. You’ve already identified your audience and what they need to hear and see from you. Now, figure out how to distill your message to accomplish that goal. A beautiful video that says nothing will accomplish a lot less than a good-looking video that tells a compelling story. We see this all the time in the entertainment industry with breakout, low-budget, independent films that gain traction because of their story, not a $100 million production budget.

A corporate video that breaks stereotypes won’t just be effective for its purpose—it’ll be memorable. This one in particular stands out because it doesn’t feel like a “typical corporate film.” It’s more like an invitation—to join a really great group of people, doing really great work. While a corporate video is a marketing tool, if it forgoes storytelling and meaning in favor of bare graphic quality, you won’t reap significant return on the investment you made into producing that video.

Tribe’s strategy for producing effective corporate videos is creativity and story-based. We understand that messaging the identity and values of your brand is just as important, if not more, than presenting receipts on why the audience should be interested in your company. Unique corporate videos that don’t seem “corporate” at all are the best way to optimize your use of video platforms in your company’s marketing efforts.