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In our current media landscape, corporate video production is more important than ever. Every artist, brand, or manufacturer has an audience out there waiting for them—but standing out enough to find them is tricky. One of the quickest, most cost-effective ways to break through the noise is to hire a corporate videographer who truly understands your vision and can deliver content worthy of your investment.

Defining a Corporate Videographer

Whether you operate a B2B or consumer-driven business, both corporate videography and commercial videography can help you drive sales and engagement, land new clients, and raise your brand’s profile in various communities. Storytelling is the universal fabric that binds us all, and your company’s story can be a part of that. Whether you need the perfect ad to sell your new product or an informative featurette about your business’s history, a videographer who grasps the fundamentals of filmmaking can be invaluable.

A corporate videographer can charge anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per project, depending on the complexity of the shoot, the schedule and number of deliverables, and the number of actors or participants involved. It’s a serious investment, but they supply all their own gear and do the vast majority of the work to bring your vision to life. And there are serious benefits, from building trust and brand awareness to increasing conversion rates and even improving your SEO authority online. Corporate videos are a powerful way to establish continuity and transparency when it comes to investor relations.

Corporate Videographer vs. Commercial Videographer

Although corporate videographers and commercial videographers use a lot of the same tools and techniques, they’re often separate roles with specific aims. For example, corporate videographers portray a company or brand as it is—training and recruiting new hires, explaining complex problems behind the scenes, documenting events. But commercial videography is strictly focused on marketing a specific product or service to the masses. The videos you might show employees or partners internally will naturally be a lot more detailed and B2B-minded than a commercial that airs on television, radio, or social media. Someone with a broadcast journalism or documentarian background is going to be a natural fit for the corporate videographer role, whereas commercial videographers might come from the marketing world or film.

Types of Corporate Videography

Promotional and marketing videos

Once you’ve decided to work with a corporate videography service or freelance filmmaker, you’ll need to think about what kinds of assets best serve the current phase of your business plan. If your current strategy’s based around getting the word out about the company itself, a great promotional clip or marketing video can be an entertaining, concise way to communicate your values—and the value you have to offer potential customers.

Training and educational videos

Any great enterprise begins with its team. It’s not enough to network and hire the right people: for your business to truly soar, you need everyone aligned and informed before their wheels leave the tarmac. A great training module or educational video is just one way to keep everyone on the same page, and the more engaging and informative you can make it, the more it will stick in your employees’ minds long after they’ve seen it. You want your team to go out and make a mark on potential clients and customers, so make an impression on them first with impactful storytelling.

Event documentation

Consider the most recognizable and valued brands in the world. What do many of them have in common? They have a story that brings people together across generations, and from different continents, to be part of their communities at in-person events around the world. Put simply, they have fans—and they inspire lifelong business relationships big and small. If your company is putting on a celebration, convention, or seminar, you’re missing out on a big opportunity if you don’t budget for corporate photographers and videographers to document it.

Internal communication videos

In today’s unpredictable corporate environment, there’s no end of important topics to keep your employees and B2B clients informed about. When you need to make a statement or address your colleagues in a way that goes beyond routine training, a corporate videographer can work with your internal communications team to craft a thoughtful video that strikes the right chord.

Skills and Tools of a Corporate Videographer

If you’re thinking of hiring a corporate videographer—or becoming one yourself—you’ll need some essential skills and equipment to deliver high-quality video production in a competitive marketplace. Filmmaking craft is really the baseline for a successful videographer; what’ll set your production projects apart from the rest are the intangibles such as creative vision and a good sense of communication theory. You need to know both what you intend to say and how you’re going to say it, which is always easier said than done.

Once you have your message hammered into shape, technical proficiency and a few tools of the trade will get you over the finish line. A great videographer needs professional-grade cameras, suitable lighting for the job at hand, editing software, and a sense of current video trends. Following YouTube creators like Drew Schettler and reading newsletters like The Motion are great ways to stay informed and inspired. Online content evolves quickly, and you have to play to the strengths of a given platform when you’re targeting its respective audience. Diverse and inclusive hiring practices can also help here.

The Takeaway: The Impact of Corporate Videography

Think about some of the best commercial video campaigns you’ve ever seen. From Guitar Center and Fender bringing together some of the most beloved musicians in rock history (or the ever-reliable Keanu Reeves) to celebrate their instrument—to Nicole Kidman’s now-legendary AMC Theatres ads (“We make movies better”)—the impact of a good production is everlasting. Multiple generations of consumers and entrepreneurs will forever associate certain commercials and video productions with their respective companies; some of us see a polar bear and think of Coca-Cola. With the right vision and a bit of luck, great corporate videography can be priceless.

There are some staggering statistics on the impact of video, starting with the fact that 93% of businesses find new customers through videos shared online. YouTube alone boasts the second-highest daily traffic of any website. And videos can drive up to a 157% increase in organic traffic from search-engine results pages, meaning it’s an essential component of any business’s content strategy in this day and age. If you’d love for your new marketing copy to go viral, videos posted on social media get 1,200% more shares than text and images combined.

FAQ:

What differentiates corporate videography from commercial videography?

Though the skills, equipment, and processes involved have a lot of overlap, corporate videography and commercial videography aren’t quite the same thing. Corporate videography can be informative, documentary, or celebratory in nature. A good corporate video production doesn’t need an explicit reason for existing; it simply tells potential customers and clients what your business stands for, or perhaps how it’s changed over the years. Commercial videography, by contrast, has a specific focus—you’re selling a particular product or service, rather than reminding folks who you are. Both are important for an effective, balanced comms strategy.

How does hiring a corporate videographer benefit my business?

The attention economy poses more challenges than ever when it comes to getting your message in front of the right audience. People need extrinsic motivation to break out of their current habits and seek your company’s value for themselves, and a great, professional corporate videographer will help you capture that audience with footage that really speaks to them.

What should I look for in a corporate videographer’s portfolio?

There are so many talented artists, copywriters, filmmakers, and photographers out there. But just as your business and services are unique, so, too, are the best corporate videographers. It’s not enough to find the best freelancer or production company and hire them. You need the one with a diverse portfolio and multiple standout projects—one whose values and vision align with your own. To get the assets and results you want, having the ability to communicate what you’re looking for is a must. And if you don’t see work that resonates with you in a given portfolio or reel, don’t be afraid to look a little further for the right client.

Image credit: Getty/monkeybusinessimages