So, you've decided a video can supercharge your marketing strategy – fantastic! But before diving headfirst into contacting video production companies, you need a winning video production brief. The good news? Even with limited video knowledge, you can create a clear and concise brief that gets you the results you desire.
Here's your roadmap to crafting a stellar brief, even if you're a video newbie:
The business problem.
Video content is a key pillar in any ambitious marketing and social media strategy, however it is only successful if it is working to solve a business problem. It's important that all stakeholders involved in a corporate video production project are aligned in what this problem is from the beginning and provide this clarity within your video production brief. Some common business problems could be:
- A need to drive traffic to your website?
- A need to change perceptions of your brand?
- A need to raise awareness of a new product or service?
- A need to cut down on customer queries and simplify a complex process?
The business goals
Once you understand the problem you are seeking to solve, you can better define the video objectives that need to be delivered. We would advise avoiding vague objectives like increasing reach, likes, or engagement because ultimately whilst these are good goals and have value - you can't really tell if they have worked to deliver a real-world business result. We would advise making your video content goals much more aligned with the tangible actions you want your audience to take such as:
- Increase applications from female engineers.
- Sell out tickets for your live event
- Increase the number of sales meetings with potential prospects.
- Sell out a new product campaign.
Real-world business goals make it much easier to determine whether the video content has led to a direct business result being achieved and the views and engagement help you adopt a 'test and learn' approach to see what your audience likes about your video and how long they watch, enabling you to make the best corporate video content to suit their specific tastes.
The target audience.
When video content fails to deliver a message it's usually because one of its most important elements has been overlooked, the Audience. No matter how good the finished article is, a one size fits all video doesn't work as the messaging is too generic. By trying to speak to everyone you end up speaking to no one and your message gets lost.
Within your video production brief you need to clearly describe your target audience beyond their standard demographics and really drill down into:
- Who they are as people.
- What do they care about?
- What problems do they have?
- What do they aspire to?
This will inform your video brief and enable your video production company to devise creative treatments and a story that speaks to them as people and connects your solution with their emotional triggers and needs, creating video content that is relevant to them.
The singular core message.
In today's digital world, attention spans are dropping so you want your video to stand out from the noise with messaging that has clarity and creativity. To help you achieve this we recommend sitting as a team and thinking about what you want your audience to think, feel and do after watching your video content.
For example, if you want to attract more Gen Z applications from diverse backgrounds then you will likely need them to see you as an inclusive, diverse employer. This is your singular core message, which defines the narrative, the creative direction, and the participants taking part in your video, which ultimately enables you to take a 'show not tell' approach.
This is about having a central point with one key message. The best corporate video productions give space to their message making it a much more engaging and persuasive piece of content to watch.
The video production budget.
How much does a corporate video cost to make - well the answer really is dependent on how much budget you have to spend. Your video can be made on a shoestring on an iPhone, but if you want to give off a polished and professional look then you will need the support of a video production company. The cost is dependent based on time, skill, and the number of crew involved in making your video. In our article video production costs - the comprehensive guide we break down all the different resources involved in making a corporate video and the day rates associated with each one.
Managing expectations is important, and as we said video content can be made for any budget, but what the budget will define is the amount of time a video production team can spend on the project and the level of skill that can be assigned to work on it. It is therefore helpful for your video production company to know from the offset how much money you are willing to spend on making your video a success, enabling them to provide you with a tailored creative video solution that not only fits your budget but still delivers upon your video content goals.
Creative video treatment
It's really helpful to get all stakeholders involved in your corporate video project together to gather all their ideas or videos that they like the style of. It is important to get alignment on this at the beginning as it's much more expensive to change the look and feel of a video later down the line. Include any links in your video brief as this gives the video production company a good idea of the desired end result you want to achieve.
The video production deadline.
It's important to be clear on the deadline for your video project from the offset. This will enable your video production company to schedule your project and allocate the right amount of resources to get your video made on time.
Be aware though that a super fast turnaround may result in a higher production cost due to having to work weekends or get in extra editors or animators to make your video in the required time.
At MHF we pride ourselves in being an agile video production agency that can scale up or down fast dependent on your business needs. If you would like to discuss your video production brief, - we'd be happy to help, alternatively check out our video production briefing document.
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