Brand Videos

Brand storytelling is your main piece of video content. You’re not specifically trying to sell a single product, or explain a process - you’re explaining who you are, why you exist, who you help, where you’re going. A good brand video could be something that sticks out in people’s mind and makes them think of you (bang! And the dirt is gone…). A good brand video could also be something that explains your founding ethos, your core values and your company culture. This could be played when recruiting staff, or building trust with customers. There is no single “right” brand video, but see it as your customers first touchpoint with you.

We would recommend around 60 seconds. You could run a little bit longer if you’re a historic company, or run a bit shorter if you’re creating a brand launch video and people may not stick around. There isn’t a correct length and it will depend highly on where the video will be seen, and who’s going to watch it. Potential employees in the recruiting stages, or new recruits in the on-boarding stages will watch a video far longer than a random visitor to your website. Context is king - which is why we ask 21 questions as part of our briefing workshop.

We chose to specialise in creating animated brand videos because it enabled us to work across industries. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with a wide range of companies across many sectors and industries. Check out our featured sectors to see work we’ve created in specific industries, or our showreel for a more general take on our portfolio.

Animated brand videos use animation and motion graphics to tell a story. Typically this means using images, typography (text), illustrations or CGI. It enables you to create a video that is entirely built around your brand from the colours, characters to the shapes and much more. Everything is unique to you and your brand story. We’re not reliant on what’s possible to film, we can create anything.

Live action brand videos rely on people or places to tell the story of your brand. You’ll need a set or location, an actor or presenter, and a crew to capture.

Every brand is different, and therefore every successful brand video is different. For a brand video to be a success, it needs a few things. Firstly, a defining objective. Is your video intended to sell the idea of your company, educate on the heritage, or relay your vision to employees? Secondly, who’s your audience? Are you trying to resolve pain for your audience, showcase how you can help them, explain your history to them? Finally, a great script. You need to deliver your message in a way that builds connection whilst keeping their attention. The script should be strategic, making sure they have all the necessary information.

A brand video will help improve pretty much every video marketing strategy. It will help you to communicate better with your audience - that’s why we say Tell It Better. It might improve your brand recall with your audience. Because you’ve explained to them more of who you are, there might be a greater connection between you, and you become easy to remember. It might improve your digital marketing efforts through higher converting performance campaigns or improved SEO on your website. It might improve your sales processes by shortening sales cycles, helping people to buy emotionally and not rationally, or warming up prospects before they’ve even spoken to you. A brand awareness video might help you stand out in a crowded market, or break into a new one.

We’ll work with you to create something entirely authentic to your brand. This could range from speaking and sounding like you through your tone of voice. It could be using brand characters and mascots in the video. Or using your logo, colours and any other brand assets. Normally, it’s a combination of all of the above. The advantage of using an animated brand video is that you can create a world that is entirely bespoke and unique to your brand. We can also work with you to develop brand assets to enhance them for storytelling and animation.

Because no two projects are the same, there is no set answer for this question. We say the sweet spot for any animation project is roughly 8 weeks. This gives enough time for us to create, present, gather feedback from you and any other stakeholders, amend and then represent. Each of our stages builds on the last, so we can develop the storyboard and the animation at the same time, they’re sequential. However, we’ve build a reputation on delivering high quality work, fast. So if you’ve got a specific date or deadline in mind, just drop us a call or an email and we’ll be able to let you know if we can rise to the challenge.

A brand video is a broad overview of who you are and what you do - your vision, mission, values, culture, etc. Your audience is as wide as possible, and you’re likely not trying to sell anything specific, you’re trying to sell you as a concept. Because of this, a brand video, especially a brand awareness video, has a very long shelf life and stays relevant to long term objectives.

A product launch video is probably targeted at a specific audience, potentially not your entire TAM (total addressable market). You’d focus on features and benefits, rather than heritage or culture.

Through our briefing process, we’ll work together to understand what your objectives are and ultimately what success looks like to you. You might want a brand awareness video to raise your visibility in the marketplace. It’s definitely measurable, but maybe not from pure performance website KPIs like visitors or bounce rates. From working on a wide variety of projects, we have some creative ways for you to understand if your projects giving you a good ROI.

We’d advise you to consider this for any brand video projects. You want to explain your brand to your customers across a wide range of touch points, not just a single one. It’s fairly easy for us to create different versions of the brand video; from multilingual translations for a global audience, to social media shorts or different sizes. Pretty much anything is possible, and that’s why we love animation.

There is no right or wrong length of time for a brand video. Obviously, if you’ve changed your brand, gone through a re-brand or a brand refresh/update, then it’s likely time for a new brand video. It may be that certain policies, processes, values or visions are also out of date; which should also be fairly obvious to identify. It could be that your brand video has aged, maybe the CEO has moved on, the footage has started to look old, or some of the data or language is out of date. The brilliance about an animated brand video is that they’re easy to update and change as your company does.

Culture is something completely intangible. It can’t be bottled up and put on a shelf. Animation lets you move past the physical and into the abstract. We can use animation and visuals to explain values, spirit, culture and much more. Animation also doesn’t age in the same way footage does. Live-action ages through fashion, people or even technology in a way that animation doesn’t. The animated brand video can be updated and changed throughout time alongside your company.

Yes, we’ll always include script writing as part of any project. Whilst we’ll need supplied materials from you to base this off, our writers specialise in storytelling but also strategy. A brand video needs to be just the right amount of time - too long and you lose people, too short and you haven’t said enough. It also needs to be captivating, but also authentic. There needs to be consideration for the visuals too. It might be list’s we can cycle through, metaphors that are set up, questions to be posed and asked. There’s also a sprinkling of psychology that needs to be considered. How can the language persuade or motivate? It’s not as simple as sticking a call to action at the end, it needs to run throughout the script.

Whether your project needs to stand out, or stand alone, if we get these three aspects of your video marketing strategy right, it’ll be successful. Firstly, a unique visual style. It could be disruptive, it could be conservative. If the style is creative and correct, then the foundations are strong. Secondly, a story. As humans, we connect with others through stories. Our brains perceive a story in a different way to regular information. Thirdly, emotion. No, we don't mean happiness or sadness. Your story could revolve around safety, security, desire, curiosity. Whether consciously or not, if we can strike a chord with someone's emotional state, your branded video will stand out.

We always start with an in depth strategy and briefing workshop. As a UK animation studio, we try to do this in-person where possible. We’ll ask a series of questions (don’t worry, nothing too challenging or complex) to give us a rounded sense of where you are and what you’re trying to achieve. Often, we’re working with companies with brand guidelines and tone of voice documents which can help to shape the creative look and feel. Then our production process starts with small steps like moodboards and styleframes to ensure we’re hitting the mark before starting the video.

Absolutely. A good branded video will work for both audiences. We’d still recommend slight differences if this was your intention. Small, subtle changes in language, visuals or structure could make a world of difference. A successful brand video knows exactly what it’s trying to say, who needs to hear it, and where they’ll hear it.

Based on who your audience is, we’ll work out what needs to be said (and when) to appeal to them. Typical storytelling approaches are building emotional connection, taking them on a journey, having character arcs and layering information strategically. If we can build our story on emotion, they’ll likely connect with it far more. We could create feelings of security through your company, or curiosity in your company journey. The journey itself could feature the audience's experience with your company before, during and after. Characters can be introduced, developed and used to tell a wider story - for example people coming together, meeting, building. And by layering information strategically, we carefully structure the video so key brand messages are delivered at exactly the right time.

There’s 3 real reasons why you might choose to partner with us rather than attempt yourselves. 

Firstly, we’re experts in this. As a company, we’ve been creating brand videos for over 5 years, but as individuals we’ve been in this industry for over a decade. This is our specialism, we’re not a jack of all trades, we’re a master of successful brand videos. 

Secondly, it can be extremely hard to resource the team you would need to do this internally. Do you have a script writer with experience writing for animation? Can your designers work on sketched storyboards, complex illustrations and prep design files for animation? Do you have brilliant animators that can layer sound effects, cut music and rig characters? If you do, can you resource them to your company brand video without needing them on other work?

Thirdly, it’s nearly impossible to mark your own homework! You’re very close to your own brand. You have your biases - we’re only human after all. We come in with a completely fresh set of eyes, find the value, find the story, find the true audience and put it all together for you.

Work is such a huge part of our lives that increasing numbers of people - especially younger people - are seeking companies and roles that align with their own personal values and beliefs. Company culture videos help to differentiate you from the competition, particularly when you’re seeking the very best talent that has options. You’re also getting your workforce aligned into your vision, mission and values. People who aren’t the right fit are going to see that straightaway, speeding up the process to finding the people who are the right fit.