When you think about branding, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it big brands boasting how great they are?
If so, think again. Branding is the art of expressing (and in certain ways, personifying) your brand. It’s about showing what you care about and what you’re doing about it.
What it isn’t, however, is a logo and a color palette.
Brand perception plays an important role in defining your marketing share. Branded videos empower you to tell great stories and help you communicate the way you want to be perceived as a brand.
And this is where brand video marketing can help. So let’s try to understand what they’re all about!
Like all good things, videos come in different colors, shapes, and sizes. And as with all good things, choosing what’s best for you can be a nightmare.
Branded Video Content is just one of the many different types of videos. These videos are created by the brand with the aim of generating awareness. And to do that, they rely on the company’s values, educational content, or even testimonials.
Now, an important factor that makes these videos stand out is they aren’t promotional in nature. They instead focus on establishing a perception of the brand in the minds of the viewers—thus building a connection with them.
To understand the concept better, let’s look at this branded video by Google:-
Rather than talking about what Google does or showcasing its new products, this branded video aims to spread awareness about Quantum computers. It talks about how they can change the world and impact different industries.
And that’s the beauty of brand videos —they work no matter the size, industry, nature of business. You know that there’s something special when big brands like Google is doing it.
But should you do it too? Let’s discuss!
Brand videos can supplement your efforts in more ways than you can imagine and there are a bunch of reasons why you should be using them. So let’s take a look at some of them:
1. Emotive: Branded videos tell a story that resonates better with the audience and connects with them emotionally.
3. Authentic: Branded videos do not promote products or services. Instead, they reflect upon the brands for what they are and what they believe in. This builds authenticity and trust with the viewer, letting them know the company genuinely cares.
4. Shareable: Your audience won’t share brand videos where you are talking about your product or service. But, when you are talking about something quirky or something that interests them, they are likely to share it with their friends and family.
5. Memorable: People may forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. Videos enable you to make your message memorable for quite a long time afterward.
Also see: How to make your videos memorable!
Now that we’ve addressed why you should go for animated branded videos, the next important question is how you can use an animated brand videos for your business.
Let’s look at some types of branded videos to grasp the concept better:-
Your audience is constantly searching for answers or learning something new. With educational brand videos, you can build your brand by educating and entertaining them.
You can teach them new concepts related to your industry, upcoming changes, or simply answer their queries.
In this educational brand video by HUB International, the company educates its viewer on Uber’s Data Breach.
If you notice, HUB doesn’t promote its products or services in the brand video at all. And that’s how educational videos should be.
Read more about Hub International's Success Story here!
Entertainment Branded Videos
Sometimes, brand videos can be educational and informative, and still, be entertaining-- like this promotion video from CNN made by HORNET. Beautifully animated with lush visuals, it simply shares some interesting facts about the color blue. And while it entertains and captivates the viewer, it also establishes CNN as a brand with a distinct personality and style-- an impression that lasts long after you’ve finished watching this top brand video.
Product launches are all about the hype. And to build this hype, we have brand teaser videos.
These videos don’t do much apart from teasing the audience with glimpses of a new product, brand, or update.
This creates excitement within the audience and builds hype.
McAfee is one of the most popular cyber security software firms in the world.
When they came to us, they wanted to promote their latest product with the help of a brand launch video.
So we made this mixed-media brand launch video to help them grab their audience's attention instantly and stand out.
Brand story videos introduce a brand to the audience. It can talk about the company’s history, what its vision and goals are and its plans for the future.
Explaining a company’s background helps build trust and is great at connecting with the audience on an emotional level.
In this Whiteboard Animation Video, TCB wanted to convey the values that guide the company’s daily actions and how they support its vision.
They also wanted to talk about the company’s work culture and ethics that enable the staff to deliver on their goals.
The videos were made in an easy-to-understand manner so that they could be understood by the various stakeholders.
Need more examples? Check 10 'Must Watch' Animated Brand Stories Videos Before Making One!
Explainer Videos help brands explain concepts. These are for educational purposes and are made for helping the audience learn more about the industry or the business.
In this brand explainer video by Sponsorium, The client wanted to educate their audience about their product, PerforMind™.
So we made a character animation brand explainer video to help deliver their message in a relatable and engaging manner while simplifying the offering.
Trust is at the heart of all business relationships. And when it comes to building trust, nothing beats testimonial videos.
Testimonials help your potential customers to see how you’ve helped others achieve their goals and how you can help them do the same.
It is a great way of informing your audience about your prowess without sounding self-centered.
M&M was facing problems building trust. Since people come to them deep in tax-related problems, this was difficult.
Removing this negative connotation and affirming positivity was challenging.
We helped them solve this problem by making a brand testimonial video. It covered the stories of 3 of their clients.
Brand Anthem Videos through the power of visuals and music explain what your brand is all about. It explains what you stand for, what you do and why you exist.
This brand anthem video by Adobe is a great example of how brand anthem videos are supposed to be. Through surreal animation, the video explains why Adobe exists, the possibilities enabled by Adobe, and how their softwares are helping creators worldwide spread awareness on important issues.
People, including your employees, prefer watching videos rather than reading content. Brand employer videos can help you to find potential employees or nurture new ones. Videos not only help engage better but also stay memorable for long after.
In this era, building trust isn't easy. Sharing your brand's story with the audience can help them understand you better and hence trust you. Brand Identity Videos explain the reason behind the identity of the brand, the color it uses, the values it stands for and why do they exist.
In this video by IBM, the brand explains why do they use the color blue and the history behind it. This helps the user relate to them, understand them and win their trust.
Need more branded video examples? Check our 10 best brand videos blog!
Now that we know the types of brand videos, let’s see how someone starting out with branded videos can go from an idea to a video.
No matter how good your content is, if it doesn’t get through to the right people (your target audience), it won’t create any results. You need to dive deep into your audience and create a buyer persona. Understand their needs, wants, pain points, demographics, and analyze what they like or dislike.
Look at this brand video content by Durex:-
Planning is the most important step in the process. Most people, when starting out with new content strategies like branded videos, start without any planning and go with the flow. Not only does this make the process difficult but it also ends up burning a deep hole in the pocket. So, make sure you start with a plan. Define your goals and objectives and how you will measure them.
For example, if you are a new brand, you should focus on creating engagement brand videos to create awareness in your audience. If you make brand stories video, it won’t resonate with your audience as they barely know you, leave out trusting you. That’s how planning comes into play and plays a crucial role in your branded videos.
3. Include your brand in the video
Make sure your brand is reflected through your video. Be it with your brand voice, identity, colors, style. The brand videos should be in sync with what your company believes in and what its vision is.
Watch this branded video by Lyft:-
In this brand story video by Lyft, they cleverly used its brand colors to depict their story. The brand video talks about how the company came into being and what was the ideology behind it. This helps build trust with the audience and relate to the brand better.
There are a lot of animation styles available. It is up to you and your company which style you want to go with that would be best to present your message. But if you’re unable to decide what to go for, we’ve written an in-depth article about animation styles that might be able to help you.
In this video, CNN talks about ‘the consequences of drinking bottled water’. They used Infographics animation to explain it since it helps grab attention quicker with its transitions and also simplifies complex parts.
For someone who is starting out, branded videos can be pretty complex and confusing. It can also end up burning a hole in your pocket if not done right. Fortunately, there are a lot of brand video production companies to help you out. They specialize in the task and can help you get it right at a competitive price so that you can focus on what you’re best at.
Now that you know how you can start with brand videos, you’re good to go. But before you do, here are a few DOs and DONTs to help smoothen the process out for you!
1. Keep it short: With rapidly declining attention spans, the chances of your viewer not watching your brand videos if it is super long are at an all-time high. Keeping your branded videos short and sweet is a great way to ensure maximum engagement.
In this video, KFC told their brand story through animated brand videos. As you can see, they explained their whole story in under one minute, which made it resonate with the audience better and made their message memorable.
2. Tell Stories: Simply explaining a concept or talking about your brand doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to weave a story around it to make your message more memorable and persuasive. Stories can also help build trust with your audience.
This branded video by Original Penguin explains their whole brand story. And after watching the video, the audience certainly can say that it knows and trusts the brand better.
3. Make it social: Social media is on the rise and the perfect platform to share your brand stories. Not only does it have a higher engagement rate, but it can also be a great way to make viral branded videos.
4. Be yourself: Don’t produce content like your competitors are. Be different, be you. Stick to what you know best and grow on it.
1. Don’t be sales-y: The biggest thumb rule of brand videos is to not promote your product or services. Branded videos should be about your story, initiatives, teaser, anything but your business offering.
This brand video by Envoy adheres to this rule. The video is not at all salesy and promotes the brand. Rather, it just showcases their vision for a smarter workplace. What is commendable about this brand video is it presents such a strong message without having any voiceover to it.
2. Don’t be inconsistent: Most people give up after one or two of their videos don’t work. And when they do that, a lot of good potential goes to waste. Being consistent can make you understand what works and what doesn’t so that you can make the necessary changes based on what your audience likes.
3. Don’t be incoherent: Everything that you put out has to be in sync with your brand identity. Being someone on LinkedIn and someone else on Instagram is only going to make your audience trust you less.
Branded videos can be the missing piece of your puzzle of marketing.
Being shareable, they can provide the extra reach and engagement your brand is looking for. And it can help make your message so much more memorable and persuasive.
We hope now you have a good idea as to how you can start with brand videos for your brand.
If you’re looking for someone who can help you out with branded videos, talk to our team now and unlock unlimited possibilities for you and your brand.
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