Going beyond the talking head

Branded videos are a way to showcase your company, its works and its values to your audience, but who says they have to revolve around talking heads?

When you think of a branded video, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the ‘talking-head’ style video. You know, the sit-down interview with an executive decked out in a neatly-pressed collared shirt, with a tie in a pleasant shade that doesn’t clash with the company’s brand colours and warmly lit lamp in the background.

Sure, they are clean, bright, and get your point across. But as we’ve seen after a whole year of Zoom calls, these ‘talking-head’ style videos can all start to blend into one another.

Truth is, you don’t always have to stick to a style that’s full of talking executives. In fact, you should probably think a step beyond.

Why not use an executive’s voice to narrate a story? The video is still presented in first-person, but visually, it is filled with a wide variety of shots that help tell the story, like this one we created for Eastspring Investments’ Asian Bond Fund.

Alternatively, you can also choose to blend both live-action and animation for a creative video treatment.

Here are some other interesting ‘genres’ of branded videos that you might want to try out instead.

Types of branded videos

Explainers

As the name suggests, explainers are short videos that help explain your business proposition or product to your target consumers. Apart from the usual YouTube and other social media platforms, they can also be placed on a landing page or a prominent product page.

These videos highlight the features, benefits and problems your services or product can solve. Think of them as the equivalent of an elevator pitch, where you have to capture and intrigue your audience with whatever you’re offering in a short time span.

We made this animated explainer video for the Visa-Neat Card in Hong Kong, with the intention to make it easily shareable across social platforms in order to demonstrate how their payment system works, and how it can benefit small businesses.

Brand Showcase

Brand showcase videos present your company as a whole, highlighting your values, mission, and what you do. They are often inspirational, driven by a powerful narrative that emotes and compels.

Nike seems to do this better than anyone else. Standing in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, a former National Football League quarterback who had sparked an uproar for kneeling during the national anthem in protest against racial injustice and police brutality, Nike strongly presents its stance on the issue.

If you still want to try out the ‘talking-head’-style corporate videos that we’ve mentioned earlier, you can always put a fun spin on it like we did in this video we created for Prudential.

Featuring seven C-Suite executives against bold colourful backdrops, this video is fun, energetic and engaging, embodying their new group purpose value — to help people get the most out of life.

Sometimes, these brand videos also allude to how your company is doing meaningful work that benefits society in general.

By pulling on your heartstrings to leave an impression in your minds, Siemens showcases how their technology has enabled a software engineer to create a lighter prosthetic leg for a wounded Marine Corp veteran.

Case study/testimonials

72% of consumers say positive testimonials and reviews increase their trust in a business. If that doesn’t convince you to start creating case study and testimonial videos to help your brand, we don’t know what will.

Branded case studies and testimonials help add credibility to your work. In many ways, they ‘legitimise’ your business — convincing customers who are on the fence to take a leap of faith in your brand, thereby attracting more sales.

We filmed Workday’s customer testimonials, one of which was based on their partnership with AirAsia.

These videos tell real customer success stories to illustrate the value of your product or services to that customer. And in doing so, persuade and convert potential customers to give your business a try.

Mini-documentary

Documentary-style videos usually tell a story that’s related to the company, profiling the days leading up to a key event or painting an intimate portrait of the life of an employee or the founder.

Other mini-documentaries can include a behind-the-scenes look at the office, interviews with numerous employees or even Q&A-style candid conversations with key personnel.

Animated or live-action?

After you’ve decided the ‘genre’ of video you want to make, the next biggest decision is: animated or live-action?

Animated

With animated videos, you are free to bend the laws of nature by letting your imagination and creativity run wild.

We’ve written about the allure of animated content before, and it’s true that there are far fewer constraints in terms of the things you can create. Want an alien character in your video? Or maybe a mythical creature like a dragon? Animation makes them all possible.

Animation is also especially useful in helping you bring to life any ideas — no matter how complex, abstract, or intangible — with ease.

Take a look at this MuleSoft video, explaining what an application programming interface (API) is.

Animation can also be used to showcase the UI/UX of a new software or app that your brand has launched, like McDonald’s Singapore.

Filled with fluid animations that capture the slick interface of their newly-launched app, this explainer video actually demonstrates the exact user experience their customers would have in reality.

Live-action

Meanwhile, a live-action video often feels much more personable, allowing your company to be more relatable to the audience through the depiction of real-life situations.

Ever wondered what’s it like to be a flight attendant for a day? This Cathay Pacific video takes viewers behind-the-scenes, following one of their staff along on her flight from Hong Kong to Sydney.

Such videos capture life the way it is — in all its authenticity — making it relatable and hence easier for the audience to form an actual connection to the brand itself.

Moreover, live-action videos also allow you to hire a brand ambassador, influencers, or host to capture the audiences’ attention. It’s a way to boost customers’ attention and build an emotional connection to the brand through the chosen ambassador.

An iconic face for an iconic car, football star David Beckham was recently chosen to be the brand ambassador of Maserati. Widely recognisable across the globe, Beckham’s star power definitely helps in boosting the image of an already-luxurious car brand.

However, the constraints of a live-action video are very much in terms of physical limitations. Editing live-action footage is also much harder.

If you missed a scene, want to add in a few extra lines or fix something in the background, it might be next to impossible to get the same crew, location and setup back together to nail the exact filming conditions again.

Brand videos are here to stay

The right type of branded video can hold influence over the public’s perception of your brand. With so many variations of videos you can produce to tell your brand story, it’s up to you to leverage it properly, based on your marketing goals, to help your brand stand out.

Want to have the right type of brand video for your business? Consult our digital content director, Erik at [email protected] today!

Read more from Click2View:

1. Capture your audience with clever typography.
2. The role of music and sound effects in your videos.
3. How do you ace the Instagram Stories game?

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Click2View is Southeast Asia’s premiere full-service independent B2B content marketing agency servicing clients like Microsoft, Google, Visa, Prudential, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.