What Kind of Video Does Your Brand Actually Need?

Section 01

Start with the job

A film might need to make someone aware of you, help them understand you, make them trust you, explain a product, introduce your people or simply show them what being somewhere feels like.

Those are very different jobs, and trying to make a single film do all of them usually leaves you with something that does none of them particularly well.

A better place to start is with the moment in which somebody will encounter it. Are they arriving on your homepage knowing almost nothing about you? Have they found you through Instagram? Are they already comparing you with somebody else? Are they halfway through a buying decision and looking for reassurance?

That context tells you far more than deciding you need a “corporate video”.

Section 03

Campaign films: when something specific is happening

Not every film needs to explain the whole brand. Sometimes there is simply a moment to talk about.

A product is launching. A new route is opening. A menu has changed. An anniversary is approaching. A destination wants to shift perceptions before a new season.

That is campaign territory.

A campaign film can be more focused than a brand film because it has a particular job to do. Rather than spending time establishing the organisation from scratch, you can get into what is happening and why it matters.

It also gives you a natural reason to think beyond one finished edit. The main campaign film might live on a landing page or lead the launch, while shorter versions introduce different parts of the story on social. Vertical material can be captured specifically for Reels and Shorts, and individual shots can become website headers, advertising creative or future content.

The campaign is the idea. The hero film is one expression of it.

Section 05

Case study and testimonial films: when somebody needs proof

There is a point in many buying decisions where a brand no longer needs to tell somebody it is good. It needs somebody else to say it.

That's where customer stories become useful.

A good case study film doesn't feel like somebody reading a five-star review to camera. It has a story. What was happening before? What problem needed solving? Why did they choose this particular product, service or organisation? What changed afterwards?

Those specifics are what make the endorsement believable.

They are particularly useful further through a buying journey. Someone discovering you for the first time might be better served by a brand film, while somebody already considering working with you may find a real customer describing their experience much more valuable.

You don't necessarily need dramatic statistics either. Sometimes the most convincing detail is simply a customer explaining something in language your next customer immediately recognises.

Section 07

People and recruitment films: when the people are the story

Most careers pages say roughly the same things: great culture, exciting opportunities, brilliant people.

Film has an advantage because it can let people make their own judgement.

What does the place actually feel like? Who would they work alongside? How do people speak to one another? What kind of work fills the day?

Real people become much more useful here than a polished corporate script.

The same approach works beyond recruitment. Founder stories, team introductions, expert interviews and profiles of the people making a product or delivering a service all make an organisation easier to understand.

Where trust matters, putting a genuine person on screen can sometimes do more than another paragraph of brand copy ever could.

Section 09

Training and internal films: when the audience already knows the brand

Not every film is marketing. Sometimes the people watching already work there.

Training, onboarding and internal communications have different requirements. Clarity matters, as does structure, because the film may need to be returned to rather than watched once and forgotten.

That doesn't mean internal films need to feel dull. A real demonstration will usually beat a slide full of instructions. An employee explaining how something works can feel far more natural than an anonymous voiceover, while well-used graphics can make complicated information easier to retain.

The production values still matter. They just serve a different purpose.

Section 10

Website films: sometimes the film doesn't need to tell a whole story

Some of the most useful video we make is barely a “film” at all.

A silent sequence running behind the top of a website can establish atmosphere before somebody has read a word. A short loop on a product page can demonstrate something instantly, while movement between sections can make a digital experience feel far richer than a collection of static photographs.

These pieces work differently because they live alongside everything else on the page.

The headline is doing some of the explaining. The body copy adds context. The film creates feeling.

That means it doesn't necessarily need an introduction, interview or conclusion. Often it simply needs a few very good moments that tell the visitor what kind of world they've arrived in.

Section 12

You may not actually need to choose just one

This is probably the biggest way our thinking has changed since we first wrote this article in 2023.

We used to talk about many of these as separate types of film. Increasingly, we think about them as different uses of the same production.

A day filming with a food brand might produce the main campaign film, several portrait social edits, a founder interview, silent website footage, photography and dozens of individual moments for future posts.

A property shoot might create a main film for the listing, room-specific clips, website headers, social footage and a bank of detail shots the marketing team can use throughout the season.

The important part is planning those uses before filming starts. It is very hard to retrospectively create a portrait shot you never captured, but much easier to spend another few minutes getting it while the room is already lit and everyone is there.

That's also the thinking behind our Content Library. Instead of allowing all the extra material from a production to disappear into an archive, we finish the strongest individual moments and organise them so the client's team can actually use them.

One production can do several jobs and have a much longer useful life.

Before choosing a film format, write down the single thing you want someone to think, feel or do after watching it, then note where they're most likely to see it. Those two answers usually tell you more than starting with a duration.

Section 13

So, what should you make?

The right answer usually becomes fairly clear once the job is clear.

A brand film helps people understand who you are. Campaign films give a particular moment focus. Social content keeps the brand present. Customer stories add proof. Explainers remove confusion. Recruitment and people films build trust. Experience-led work helps somebody imagine being there.

Often, several of those needs exist at the same time.

That doesn't necessarily mean commissioning several separate productions. With the right planning, one shoot can give you the centrepiece film and a much wider body of useful material around it.

That is increasingly how we think about production: not simply as making a video, but creating a set of visual assets that can work together across a campaign, a website and the places your audience actually encounters the brand.

The camera is only part of the job. Knowing what to point it at, why you're filming it and how the footage needs to live afterwards is where the useful work begins.

If you're working out what kind of film would make sense for your next project, we're always happy to talk it through.