Maybe you’ve had a video made for your business in the past, or you’ve been thinking about it for a while and are now taking the very first step. Whatever your experience with video, everyone always has that one important question? So how do I arrange such a film for my company? Well, no worries. Below is exactly what is involved in having a corporate film made and what the do’s and dont’s are. So you too can make a smashing impression soon!
Touching people’s hearts with your corporate film. That’s what you want!
Everyone is into video these days. Just look around you, we are all walking around with a phone in our hands capturing the most random moments of our day on camera. It is impossible to imagine daily life without film. As a company you MUST use it. A film reaches your target group quickly and easily. And if you can touch your target group, make them feel something in your video, then you have them in the pocket. An impressive, tough or personal story, beautifully supported with professional images and compelling music, that sticks!
What makes a great corporate film?
How do you prepare for it? And how grand do you want to go about it? Maybe work with a drone or a time-lapse? Do I need actors, voice overs, locations or a parrot? No question is too crazy. How do you determine what you need for your corporate film if you’ve never had a film made before? Where do you start? Sure, you can take some footage with your phone of the company floor, or of a project and product. But a corporate film is a bit different than just shooting images. Especially if you want to touch your audience.
So what makes a corporate film so unique?
“Successful corporate films give a powerful impression of your company, its people, products and services, without being purely a listing of what you do. It touches, moves, tells a story, lets people experience, and binds people to your company.”
Okay, okay, that sounds complicated, we admit. But making a good corporate film is not rocket science, promise! As long as you keep the end goal in mind and follow the right steps in the right order. Again, preparation is half the battle. But before we dive in, here is a summary of all the benefits of a corporate film. How convenient.
The benefits of a corporate film
People are visually oriented. With moving images we absorb much more in a short time, faster, than in any other way. The most important added value of a corporate film for you in a row:
- Film enthuses, informs and inspires
- Save 5 to 15 minutes of time during presentations
- A complex message clearly communicated in a short period of time
- Website visitors stay on your site longer
- Film provides better visibility in search engines. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and also from Google
- Film performs much better on social media than photos or text messages
- It provides a clear corporate identity
- Internally, everyone experiences what you stand for as a company and what the values are.
- A clear tool for sales
- Uniformity in presentations. Whoever gives a presentation, everyone tells essentially the same story with the film
- Good substitute for tours. Thus promotes peace and safety in the workplace.
- Clear insight into your process or product
- You will enjoy it for years and the film is relatively easy to update
- Movie works well as a link under your email signature
- Easily shareable on and offline.
Where to start?
Well, such a unique, personal, touching, visually appealing, clear and sales-supporting corporate film sounds good right? Time to work on your own film. And you start that film, with your target audience.
Who is your audience?
Who are you making the film for? Of course you want everyone in the world to see your film and feel hugely affected by it. In practice, however, this turns out to work a little differently. If you address everyone at once, you actually say very little. It is better to specialize on your target group, the people who can mean the most to you and your company. But who are they? You’ll probably have some idea about that. A video production company will go deeper with you into that question. A specialized approach for the most effective results! So a good video partner can do this for or with you. What will a video production company do in the preliminary process?
- Delving into your business story
- Delving into the market
- Delve into your target market and ideal buyers
Three steps to determine your target audience
- Your ideal client
Get insight into who your ideal customer is. What are the clients you get excited about? Who would you really like to drag in yourself. And which client and/or assignment internally brings a smile to your employees? Answering these questions will bring you closer to your target group.
- Provide details
You have your ideal client in mind. Now it’s time to specify him further What age is your ideal client? What region does he or she work in? By having a clear picture of your ideal client, you can make the corporate video very specific and personal, making it more appealing. You don’t have to do this alone; a video partner will help you get this picture concrete.
- Your customer’s problem
To make sure that your ideal client has no choice but to contact you after seeing your corporate film, it is important to get clear what your client’s problem is and how your company is going to solve it. This forms the basis for the storyline of your corporate film. For your ideal clients, your product or service must come across as THE SOLUTION they have been looking for.
TIP: As your business grows, your target audience may also change. So gauge every few years whether your film still connects with your business. A good video strategy grows with your business.
Be guided by a video partner
- Your video partner takes a lot of thinking out of your hands
- Your video partner challenges you and is critical, doesn’t just say “yes” to every idea.
- You feel like you don’t have to explain much. Your video partner understands you and your target audience inside out.
What about Dan?
So you have a basic idea about the film and the target audience. But then what? There are a number of steps you need to go through with your video partner to achieve a successful corporate film. And as that process progresses, you’ll find that you have a lot of fun telling your story!
13-point roadmap for a successful corporate film
A good video production company works project and process wise and goes through roughly the same steps. So it’s good to know what those steps are so you have a good idea when producing your own corporate video. A good video partner will also take you through the steps and work in advance, so you know what to consider. Step 1 and 2 we’ve already discussed and if all goes well, you and your video partner have now worked it out.
- Define the target audience – You’ve already done this, good job!
- Tasty coffee – Together with your video partner, turn your client’s problem into a message and determine the must haves for the film.
- Budget – no production escapes it. Look carefully at your options and weigh what you want, what is necessary and what is nice to have. Your video partner can help you with that from his expertise.
- Concept phase – Your video partner gets to work! A script and shot list become clear. You get to give feedback on the concept and indicate what you think works and what doesn’t. Several questions come up in this step: “Do you work only with images, which locations and scenes alternate, quotes in frame or a voice over and actors?”
- Planning – deadlines, schedules, expectation management and agreements around previews and the like are made here with your video partner. This gives you a clear picture of the process and the next steps.
- Pre Production – this is where the fun stuff starts. Your video partner gets to work arranging locations, coordinating what will be on screen and what won’t, and casting actors, for example. You will be involved every step of the way.
- Production – then after weeks of preparation, it’s finally time to shoot your corporate film. Light, Camera, Action!
- Post-Production – Don’t think it’s on. Now everything you thought of beforehand comes together in the edit. The right combination of images, sound, music and color grading make the film a powerful whole.
- Preview rounds – Here you may let us know what you think of the film. Give your opinion clearly and honestly, constructively and critically. Collect all comments internally in advance, so nothing gets lost. The more e-mails and phone calls you have to make, the greater the chance of confusion. So keep everything organized.
- Adjustment rounds -. Discussed feedback is implemented and, if necessary, stock images and temporary music are purchased for deployment.
- Any subtitles and other versions of the project – Does the film need to be subtitled, do you want a short version for social or maybe there are other versions of the film that need to be delivered. That happens at this stage. Often the options are discussed beforehand, but sometimes you may want to go for more options halfway through the process. Discuss these with your video partner.
- Delivery and activation – The film is finished and you know where to put it partly because of the tips from the video production company. Now it’s up to you to do the same and see the result. Do you need help with the activation? Discuss this with your video partner so he can help you deploy your video successfully.
- Evaluation – and afterwards, of course, it’s time for another cup of coffee and a round of evaluations. Did you like the corporate film? Then you can discuss future assignments.
The steps in more detail
Now you have a good idea of how a production works. Below are some of the steps described in more detail, so that you have a complete picture. You will also find some tips and tricks.
Planning, preparation and costs
Making a corporate film is an experience. You go through a roller coaster of emotions. From excitement to joy and everything in between. Yet it’s not just a big playground. There’s also an old-fashioned bit of logistics, planning and budgeting involved. Because dreaming big is nice, but if you don’t have room for it in the budget you’re doing work for nothing. And that doesn’t make anyone happy. Decide with your video partner when you want the film delivered and where you are going to use it. Is there a trade show where you can put the film to good use? Is there a recruitment campaign or event coming up? Determine your deadline and communicate it clearly.
So how long does that take, a corporate film?
Creating a concept, pre-production, shooting, post production… Those sound like a lot of steps. Exactly how long does it take to have a corporate video made? That also depends a bit on the type of video. And, of course, on your deadline. A video can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Discuss your needs well with the video production company and they will indicate exactly how long it will take to make a corporate video that is personally tailored to your company and your message.
What’s in a script?
In most cases, the video production company will create the script for your production. But you can already help them get started a bit. For example, write out your story in a few keywords. This way you can create a simple script that a professional company can work with. Such a simple document can help a lot. If you want to go the extra mile , you can think of locations that work well visually for your company and people who might want to appear on camera. This is more than just writing down your client’s problem as you have done before. This is the translation into “how to visualize your client’s problem. If you are a nursing home with lonely seniors and their caregivers as your target audience, what do you want to show and not show of that? And which of your locations are the most fun to show? Or are you an international company with several production locations? Which factories and processes then really need to be featured, or…maybe no corporate images at all but depict the story from your ideal customer’s point of view or with a metaphor?
TIP: The stress of wanting to tell everything. Of course you want to show the whole company and all your products and services, but that often works against you at some point. By wanting to show just about everything, the corporate film loses focus. So once you have determined the core of the film and the concept and script are there, stick to it.
The bottles or the couple in love?
Sometimes the best choice is not to show your production process or great office space at all. Try to empathize with the customer: what problem are you solving for him or her, what kind of future image do you want to paint with your product or service? Think of “Au de parfum” by Dior. Ever seen the factory with rows of bottles being filled? But did you see that amazing radiant couple in love in the most luxurious setting who can’t keep their hands off each other.
For our own corporate film, we too thought long and hard about this. The result for our own corporate film with a 😉 can be seen here.
3 things to remember when providing input for a concept or script
- Keeps the story personal
- Capitalize on feeling and atmosphere
- KISS – Keep It Short and Simple.
Your visual business card
Take your time and don’t rush anything. Better that it takes a little longer than that you end up with a lesser result. Remember: the corporate film is also your visual business card. It’s often the first thing that comes up when people look up your company on the Internet, the first thing they come across on your website and where you start your presentation. So you want to make an excellent impression with that. You don’t have your showroom or reception area rushed off either. So don’t underestimate the importance of a good corporate film.
The elephant in the room
What does it cost to have a have a corporate video made? It’s a question that video production companies often hear, and that makes sense. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to that question because all sorts of factors influence production costs and the type of company also plays a role. However, a good video production company will always take into account your budget and budget and the different option will be discussed thoroughly from the beginning. One corporate is not the other corporate and vice versa with an SME company. Still, the guideline below gives a reasonable idea of what to expect in terms of budget:
- One-man business between 800 and 2,500 euros
- Small SMEs are between 1,500 and 4,000 euros
- Medium-sized SMEs between 3,000 and 15,000 euros
- Corporates and brands between 5,000 and 40,000
In conclusion, dare to ask questions and be specific!
Dare to ask questions. Videographers have heard everything once, so no question is too crazy. Don’t be stingy in sharing knowledge in your field. You should know what the target audience’s soft spot is and what appeals or doesn’t appeal to them. Also keep in mind that everyone can watch, including the competition. Do let your video partner advise you in the feedback. They have made certain choices based in part on experience and expertise. Once the film is shot, it is up to the video production company to bring all the images, music, voice-overs and possibly the graphics and animations together into a beautiful, visual whole. They will ask for your feedback at previews. Of course, it will still be your film, so you will have to have some opinion on it. Collect feedback and compile it into 1 clear document. If necessary, call the video production company to discuss all the feedback. A successful film production process is a combination of short lines of communication, clear agreements regarding the progress and steps, and, when in doubt, asking and consulting with each other with mutual trust in each other’s expertise and commitment.