July 1, 2022

Brand Videography: 3 Essential Lessons

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s the case, then every video is worth a million.

Ever since its creation, motion pictures have changed how we tell stories. From orated to written to painted and photographed, videos are the only way we can take the dreams in our heads and bring them into the waking world to share with others.

As important as video is for your brand, how do you ensure you’re delivering the best possible product? Read on for our lessons about your brand videography.

How Videography Is Changing Business

Instagram, which started as the premier social media site for photography, dropped the moniker of being a “photo-sharing app” last year. According to the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, Instagram wanted to lean into video content as a major part of its business model. So with the world shifting more and more into a video-driven society, how does this affect your business?

It isn’t as simple as grabbing a camera or hiring a freelancer and getting to work.

1. Brand Videography Is About Story-Telling

An effective brand video is less about making a hard sale and more about raising awareness of who you are. You want a video that communicates your core values and allows someone to learn who and what your business is about. People have become increasingly numb to commercials and advertising that explicitly try to sell them something. They care more about being entertained, informed, or educated. In other words, they want to be presented with something of value.

Brand videography is about becoming aware of the brand, not just the service or product. So, what someone feels about the brand matters. Your brand video needs to be compelling and engaging. You want it to feel less like someone is watching a commercial and more like they are watching a movie or show — in other words, it needs to be cinematic.

Every business has a compelling story behind it, and a good brand video should be able to concisely and intriguingly share this story with the viewer. This story varies from business to business. Maybe it’s a testimonial, an origin story, a narrative, or a mission statement — it could be anything. An effective brand video captures that story in a 2-3 minute snapshot and tastefully shares it with the world.

2. Brand Videography Should Feel Familiar

A significant amount of pre-production research should be spent on intimately understanding the client’s existing brand. We’ve all seen a video or commercial and had no idea what the video was about until the very end when the logo appeared. This is a big mistake. 

Brand videography should feel familiar to the business, not out of place or like a highly produced one-off video. It should feel like it’s working in symphony with the website, the graphics, the photography, and all of the logos and iconography. It needs to feel like it belongs to the brand, not hired by it. 

When you watch an Apple, Google, or even an Old Spice Commercial, there is something about the colors, the editing, the tone, and the emotional impact of the video that gave the brand away from the first second. Good brand videography should always feel a part of the entire brand system, down to color and font selection.

3.  Brand Videography Needs the Right Music

This may come across as fairly intuitive to most people. When you scroll through a brand’s website or like a brand’s photos on Facebook or Instagram, have you ever thought, “what background music could be playing right now?” This is where music plays such an important part of brand videography. 

A website won’t have background music playing in most cases, so the videography helps establish the brand’s “sound” (especially true for online industries). Some songs capture the sound of an industry, but just because it’s a good fit for the industry does not mean that it is a good fit for the brand. Music should support the story, be relevant to the industry, and carry the proper thematic feel of the video. 

PHOS Tells Your Brand’s Story With Videography 

The beautiful thing about the medium of video is that you can take your lens and bring your vision to life in a way that can be shared with those around you. An effective and memorable brand video can capture what you see and let others see it too.

When you’re ready to leverage the power of visual storytelling through brand videography, connect with us. We’re here with our cameras ready. 

Angel Avalos

When you combine a love of stories, the ambition to succeed, and a drive to help people change the world for the better, you find Angel’s heart to empower and help clients to become everything they can be. Angel uses photos and videos to help clients share their unique stories to inspire, compel, and mobilize others. He uses his background in public communication and social media content creation to craft meaningful stories that highlight the unique charm and characteristics of a project without compromising the message.

When Angel puts the camera down, you can find him with friends at the movies, playing games, eating food, or setting forth on a new adventure. He’s open to almost anything as long as he has people with him. As far as he’s concerned, food tastes better when it’s shared, adventures are more exciting with traveling companions, and life is more fulfilling when you invite others into it.