How to Make a Corporate Video

The reason for making corporate videos is simple: to build credibility for your company and make the buying process easier. But what does that involve? In this post, I'll explain what it takes to make a corporate video and give you some tips on making yours better than most.

What is a corporate video?

A corporate video is typically a 1-3 minute video providing an overview of a company. It often consists of interviews with founders, owners, or key individuals, accompanied by visuals that represent the company. This type of video aims to showcase the company's values, mission, and uniqueness, giving viewers an understanding of the who, what, and where of the company.

Steps for making a corporate video

As someone who makes videos for a living, I've filmed many corporate videos. I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. So, here are the steps I'd take to make an engaging video for my company.

Decide on the style of the video

Start by finding a corporate video that you like. Use this as inspiration and to give direction to your video team. Specify what you like and dislike about the video and share your vision for your own video. I recommend searching YouTube and Vimeo for "corporate video," "company profile video," and "brand story video," potentially adding industry keywords as well.

Should you script the video?

If you are a marketing or communications person, you probably want to script the entire video. Let me just say, from my experience, this rarely works in making an engaging video. What I mean by that is having an interview-based video but scripting the answers for the interviewees. The problem is when someone has to memorize and recite someone else’s words, it doesn’t sound natural, and it’s very difficult to do.

The goal should be to have great questions and interview people who are knowledgeable on the subject. I understand that’s not always possible, so here are a few options:

• Give the interviewees short prompts for each answer, but do not write or let them write the answers before filming. We want it to appear natural, and we don’t want them to memorize anything.

• Use a teleprompter if you want to script it fully. But make sure to have the person reading the script reword it to make it more natural to them and in their own words.

• You could also create a scripted narration-based video. However, avoid using stock footage, as that will detract from the goal of building trust.

What story do you want to tell?

Decide what message you want viewers to take from the video. Once you know your key message, you can start structuring your video.

Let me give you an example. We recently filmed a corporate video for a construction company. The company was growing, and not many people in their network knew about their new capabilities, so one of the objectives was to showcase the services they offer. Apart from that, we also had to tell the story of their company and what makes them unique. Here’s how we structured the video prior to recording:

Video structure

• Impactful statement (hook)

• Introduction to interviewee

• A quick history of the company

• Services

• The importance of communication and relationships

• Culture

• Call to action

After creating a structure for the video, we can now create questions that will hit all of these key points.

Generate the questions

Write 2-10 questions that pertain to each part of the video structure. For right now, the more the merrier, and you can trim these down or add more after the next step. Try to think of the answer you would like to hear when writing these questions. Here are a few examples from the video I mentioned earlier:

Impactful statement

• What problem does [Company] solve for its clients that no one else can?

• What do you want [Company] to be most remembered for by your clients and the industry?

Introduction

• What’s your name and your role in the company?

• In one short sentence, what does [Company] do?

History

• How long have you been in the industry?

• What inspired you to start [Company], and how did your previous experiences lead you to this moment?

Services

• Can you briefly list the core services [Company] provides?

Call to action

• For those watching who are embarking on their next big project, what would you say makes [Company] the right partner for them?

• If someone wants to learn more about the [Company], where should they go?

Pre-interview

Prior to the actual recording, have the interviewer set up a call or video call with the interviewees to run through the questions. The goal of this is to build rapport between them, make them feel more comfortable for the day of the recording, and take note of the answers to the questions. I like to record these conversations and transcribe them. With this, you will better understand what the person will say and can further develop the story and questions before the main shoot.

Scheduling the shoot

Let’s assume the shoot will consist of several interviews and extra visuals that help tell the story. In the industry, we call these extra visuals ‘broll’. If all your operations are located in the same place, then most corporate videos will take one full day to film.

• 1.5 hour setup time for the video crew to conduct the interviews

• 1-3 hours for the interviews, depending on how many people. Plan for 45 minutes per interview with a 15-minute window in between each person.

• 2-4 hours filming your operations, employees, signage, etc.

Coordinate with the video team to choose a good location inside of your office to conduct the interviews. Take photos of the available spaces and ask them what would work best.

The shoot day

You'll need to do two things before the day of the shoot. First, tidy up all the areas and workspaces that might be included in the video. Second, prepare water and small snacks for the interviewees.

When each interviewee arrives, introduce them to everyone, make small talk and walk them through what’s about to happen. The more comfortable they are, the better they will perform on camera.

During the interviews, it’s VIPs only. We want to avoid having too many people watching or “judging“ their performance. The less people in the room, the more comfortable they will be.

Video editing

Since we planned the video structure before filming, the video editing aspect won’t be too complicated. It’s all about choosing the best answers for each part of the video.

If you want more control, the video team can send you a transcript of the interviews, which will give you the freedom to make the important decisions about what snippets to use.

Here’s how I edit a corporate video:

• Watch all the interviews and select the most impactful answers

• Like a puzzle, I start laying out these selected answers to match the structure of our story

• Once I’m happy with what’s said in the video, I’ll start overlaying the broll clips

• When I’m satisfied with the result, I’ll send a draft of the video to the client for review

• After the draft is approved, I will finalize the video by polishing the brightness, colours and audio

• I then send the video for download

An important aspect of any video is the first three seconds. And you don’t want to waste that time showcasing your company’s logo. In the first three seconds, we want to hook the viewer and prove that the video is relevant. This could be showing the company CEO, visuals of your industry or an impactful statement.

Final thoughts

I hope this sheds some light on the process of creating a corporate video. If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email, and I would be happy to chat. I’m Wes, and I operate a small video company in Montreal. If you need assistance with creating your corporate video, I would be more than happy to help.