Writing An Effective Brief For Your First Corporate Video

You’ve decided you want to make a video for your business. Good choice, it’s by far the best way to promote your business these days. But, where do you begin? There are so many creative and strategic avenues to explore!

In this post, we’ll address some of the key points to consider when deciding what kind of video you want for your business, and how to translate your initial ideas into an effective video brief that will enable you to get a more accurate quote from a video production company:

Purpose and Core Message

Are you trying to sell your product or service, do some brand building, inspire and inform your staff, or something else? What made you think you needed video in the first place? Pinning down the purpose of the video early on may seem like common sense, but it’s very easy to lose sight of your purpose by getting lost in cool concepts and tech.

Platform and Distribution

Is your video for website landing page or for your social media channels? Will it be shown to a large group of people at an event, or will it take the form of a TV advert? The format of the video and the platform it will be distributed on is very important when it comes to concept and budget. A small scale corporate video shoot will differ greatly in price and scale of production to a national TV commercial.

Content

It’s worthwhile forming a rough idea of what the juicy innards of your video will be composed of. This includes elements such as like location, actors, voiceover, live action footage, animation, motion graphics, etc.

Anything that you envisage being a consideration will go towards building a more accurate idea of price and a more streamlined process. The more detail you can give to the video production team, the more likely it is that there won’t be any surprises further down the line.

For example, if you mention that there are two locations (your offices in Leeds and your offices in London), then the production company will know that there will be at least two filming days to add to the quote. If you say that you would like two actors to perform a scripted TV advert, then they know that they’ve got to consider the actors hire costs and expenses.

In short, if there’s anything you think is relevant, include it in your initial communication.

Audience

Video production companies will always aim to tailor your video to suit your audience. If you sell gardening tools, it’s unlikely they’ll suggest an edgy, MTV style of filming and editing. Letting them know your key demographic will influence the stylistic decisions that both you and the video production company make. Letting them know in the early stages who they are meant to be catering to will mean you don’t receive a video that’s completely inappropriate to your audience.

Sign-Off Procedure

One stage of the video production process that can take a surprising amount of time is the revisions between the first edit and the delivery of the final video. The more people involved in the sign off process, the slower the process runs. If we could suggest anything, it would be to have a hierarchy in place when it comes to suggesting re-edits and revisions. As the saying goes, “too many cooks spoil the broth”.

The clearer everyone is on the direction of the video before anything is filmed or edited, the more chance the video has of being a success within the company that’s commissioning it. If the head of marketing has been liaising with the production company throughout the process, but then the head of social media and communications get involved in the late stages, suddenly it starts to get a little bit confusing. If possible, supply the production company with a breakdown of who is responsible for what within your team. This avoids any potentially confusing and time-consuming miscommunication later on.