How To Make A Promo Video
May 20, 2019
20th May 2019 by CH
Read time: 5 mins
In today’s ultra-competitive digital market, doing something different is one of the best ways to connect with people and stand out from the crowd.
Pushing out video content is a perfect solution to get noticed as well as promote your company or brand.
So read on to learn how to make promo videos that can really resonate with your audience.
Things to think about
Firstly, don’t rush anything. That’s true for producing any type of video, but especially for promotional assets.
Give yourself and your video agency lots of time for the whole production process and you’ll definitely see the benefits. After all, you’re investing in great content so give it your full attention to make the end result work harder for you.
Remember, your video will be totally bespoke. You don’t have to follow a typical ‘promo’ style or copy something you’ve already seen.
Promo videos can come in all shapes and sizes; from short and simple, to in-depth and explanatory. But the type of approach also depends on where the content is going to be shared and how, and these are things you need to communicate in your brief.
If your audience are going to scroll past it in an instant, make your video front loaded because the first few seconds are really key. If it’s going to be autoplaying on your website, consider if you need audio or maybe use captions and subtitles. On social, vertical or square shaped videos are a must.
In terms of style – you could go bold, colourful and eye-catching with big text headlines, like we did for Royal Caribbean . Or give it a ‘human’ edge, by casting the right type of actors or extras that suit the type of consumer that you want to engage with.
Is there anything in your logo or brand guidelines that could be developed into more artwork and motion graphics?
Or could you go totally off brand and create something that will shock people?
Either way, make sure you discuss your own ideas and agree on everything below before you even write your brief and share it with your video agency.
Pre-Production
What’s the goal?
Sounds simple, but everybody needs to be on the same page. Work out what you’re really aiming to achieve. Cut out the clutter and make your key points totally clear.
What’s the vibe?
Funny, serious, entertaining, contemplative? Pin down how you want to represent your brand and the ideal tone of voice.
What’s the style?
Does anybody in your team fancy themselves as potential Oscar winner? Are you thinking animation or live action would work? Try to align this with your archetypal end viewer and decide the right course of action.
Done? Now you’re ready to write your video brief .
Once you’ve sent the brief, discuss and develop ideas with your agency to lock down the creative approach and video style.
When everybody’s happy with the direction of the video, collaborate on the storyboard, script and shot list to flesh out the exact content and get everything signed off.
Production
Then comes the fun bit.
If your project involves shooting, get involved and be there while the filming is happening. If you’re using voiceover and music, listen to all the options provided and pick your favourites. If you’re creating motion graphics or animation, review the style frames and visual treatment to get a feel for what the end product will look like.
To learn more, check out our pre-production tips and this helpful guide for when your video is in production.
Post
To create the kind of promo you first envisioned and make sure the process goes smoothly, keep to deadlines for reviewing the first cut and subsequent amends. Be honest and clear with your agency and the end video will be totally worth it.
Here’s some great examples of promo videos that keep you watching to help you realise what’s possible, offer some inspiration and get you on your way.
Get your content out there
Once you’ve dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s, get your content in front of the people you want to reach.
Video is all over social, so if you can make a promo video that’s the optimal length , your message will come across in an impactful and digestible way.
And don’t forget about YouTube. It’s the natural place to share a video online, but be sure to optimise it first.
There’s a whole host of benefits from outsourcing creative video production so best to leave it to the professionals like us. We can help you reach your promo video goals, so say hi to give us your requirements and let’s get started.
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When Euronics came to us with a brief, it was a good one: take a true story about an extraordinary delivery and turn it into something worth watching. The Brief Joe, a Euronics delivery agent, had been tasked with getting a chest freezer to a customer in rural Wales. The road ran out. He carried on anyway, on foot, through fields, across rivers and over hills. The customer was delighted. The story deserved to be told. Euronics asked us to produce a short comedic video retelling that journey. The challenge was finding the right visual language to match the scale of the tale. The Concept We pitched several approaches centred on a comic-book aesthetic, bold, energetic and a little tongue-in-cheek. It felt like the right fit: a story that was equal parts heroic and absurd, told in a style that leaned into both. The concept paired real interview footage of Joe with AI-generated visuals to bring his journey to life. Where a traditional shoot would have required location days across Welsh countryside, generative AI gave us the tools to illustrate the story scene by scene. Creative Wrangling We filmed Joe against a studio blue backdrop, letting him tell the story in his own words. His delivery did a lot of the heavy lifting (puns intended!), dry, matter-of-fact and quietly brilliant. The AI-generated visuals were built around detailed multi-angle reference sheets for Joe, the Euronics van and the chest freezer.
Generative AI can easily open doors to help create bespoke, crafted content to elevate a video beyond the usual approaches. Recently we tested the latest AI tools to create vast scenic landscapes, humorous underwater worlds and visual effects shots for several campaigns. The tools have advanced a long way over the last few years and the barriers to creating believable or imaginative worlds are fading away all the time. Need an underwater disco full of dancing fish? Got it. A speaking anthropomorphic clown fish? Absolutely. The Key is Consistency It was key to ensure a good amount of consistency across each video. We created multi-angle reference sheets of characters and key objects and use node-based tools to link these, and additional brand references, to ensure the look was maintained throughout. The tools are now in a place where you can also direct and control the results much more closely. Camera moves, lens choices and lighting can be defined and adjusted to get closer to the image or video that you’re looking for and as the creative options expand, options for creativity within each shot expand infinitely.
We're thrilled to announce that we won not one, or two, but THREE Lens Awards at Communicate Magazine's prestigious awards event. We won awards for best One-off Video Campaign (Bronze) and Best Lifestyle and Wellbeing (Gold) for our work with Essity , a global hygiene and health leader that trusted us to transform essential H&S by producing a fresh and memorable induction video for visitors to their historic Oakenholt Mill. Delivering key messages with humour and heart, our approach stars children from real Essity employees as the mill’s pint-sized operators. It was a silver for Best Live or Experiential Video, celebrating our cinematic event work with PepsiCo . The Away from Home team’s breakout room at an international conference contained five ultrawide 4K screens stretching nearly 30 meters. Where we delivered 20 videos and nearly 70 assets overall, blending real footage, AI generated visuals, and synchronised side-screen magic. A panoramic feel that supported our client’s event in a whole new way. Thank you to our awesome team of in-house creatives. Photographed, a delegation from CH attended the event on behalf of the whole company.
