Here’s an uncomfortable truth: most brand videos are expensive wallpaper.
They look pretty. They sound professional. They tick all the corporate video boxes. And they achieve absolutely nothing.
Why? Because they’re created backwards. Starting with what the company wants to say instead of what the audience needs to hear.
If you’re considering a brand video, this guide will help you avoid the expensive mistakes most organisations make. And if you already have one gathering dust on YouTube, you’ll understand why it didn’t work.
What most brand videos get wrong
Let’s start with the painful stuff. Most brand videos fail because of four predictable mistakes:
Self-centred messaging
“We’ve been in business for 30 years.” “We’re passionate about excellence.” “Our state-of-the-art facilities…”
Sound familiar? That’s because every company says the same things. Your audience doesn’t care about your anniversary or your office. They care about their problems and whether you can solve them.
No research
Most brand videos start with a boardroom brainstorm. Executives decide what message they want to send. Nobody asks the audience what they need to hear.
Sometimes it’s even worse. A marketing exec has always had a cool visual idea they wanted to try, and your organisation ends up footing the bill. The result might look slick, but does it actually work for your brand?
It’s like cooking a meal without checking if anyone’s hungry—or what they’re allergic to. You might serve something beautiful that no one can stomach.
Flash over substance
Drone shots are not a strategy. Slow-motion footage is not a message. Yet countless brand videos rely on visual tricks to hide the absence of real purpose.
Pretty pictures might win awards. But they don’t change minds or behaviours.
Creative led by assumptions, not evidence
“Our customers want to see our corporate values.” Really? Did you ask them? Or did you assume?
Most brand videos are built on untested assumptions about what matters to the audience. That’s not creative bravery. It’s creative laziness.
What a brand video should actually do
A proper brand video isn’t about you. It’s about the change you create in your audience’s world.
Build an emotional connection
Facts inform. Emotions inspire. A good brand video makes people feel something specific about your organisation. Not through manipulation, but through genuine understanding of their world.
Clarify your purpose
Why do you exist beyond making money? What change are you trying to create? A brand video should crystallise this in a way that resonates with people who share your vision.
Align internal teams
Often overlooked: brand videos work internally too. When everyone from reception to the boardroom understands and believes the same story, magic happens.
Inspire a specific response or action
“Raise awareness” isn’t a goal. It’s a cop-out. What do you want people to actually do after watching? Apply for jobs? Change their shopping habits? Support your cause?
Without a clear intended action, you’re just making content for content’s sake.
Warning signs your video might flop
Before you spend a penny on production, watch for these red flags:
No defined audience outcome
If you can’t complete this sentence, stop immediately: “After watching our video, we want our audience to…”
Vague goals create vague videos. Vague videos create no results.
No concept testing
Planning to go straight from idea to production? That’s like launching a product without market research. Test your concepts with real audience members first.
Brief sounds like a product brochure
If your brief lists features, benefits, and company achievements, bin it. Start again with audience needs, emotional goals, and behavioural outcomes.
Your video brief should read like a map of your audience’s journey, not your company prospectus.
Our method: design, not decoration
At Film Division, we’ve watched too many organisations waste money on videos that don’t work. That’s why we developed a different approach.
Sometimes that means creating the video you need, not the one you initially wanted.
You might come to us wanting a video about your company. Filming at your premises. Talking about your history. But after understanding your audience and goals, we might suggest something completely different. A video about your clients’ experiences. An animation that explains your impact. A story that doesn’t mention you at all.
This isn’t arrogance. It’s experience. Most video production companies will create exactly what you ask for, send the invoice, and leave you to it. We won’t do that. Not when we know a different approach would serve you better.
Research: human-led, audience-first
We don’t start with cameras. We start with conversations. Real research with real people from your audience. Not to ask what video they want (they don’t know), but to understand their world deeply.
What frustrates them? What would make their life better? What do they believe about organisations like yours?
Only when we understand their perspective can we design something that matters to them.
Rule of three: develop and test three distinct ideas
First ideas are rarely best ideas. That’s why we always develop three different creative directions. Not variations on a theme. Three genuinely different approaches to achieving your goal.
Testing these with your audience reveals surprising truths. The concept you love might fall flat. The wild card might be the winner.
Quality: never compromised for speed or convenience
Cutting corners shows. Your audience can smell cheap production like off milk. If you can’t do it properly, don’t do it at all. Spend your money on something else.
This isn’t about having Hollywood budgets. It’s about respecting your audience enough to give them something worth their time.
Process that balances creativity with strategy
Great brand videos live at the intersection of art and science. Creative enough to capture hearts. Strategic enough to change minds.
Our process keeps both in balance. Research grounds the creativity. Creativity brings the strategy to life.
Brand videos that actually worked
Let’s look at what happens when organisations stop talking about themselves and start understanding their audience:
Volvo: Epic Split
Instead of listing safety features, they had Jean-Claude Van Damme do the splits between two reversing trucks. Dangerous? Visually. But it demonstrated precision steering better than any spec sheet. Views: 90 million. Sales: up 31%. Sometimes showing beats telling.
John Lewis: The Bear and the Hare
No products. No prices. Just a hand-animated story about friendship at Christmas. By tapping into the emotion of giving (not getting), they created a video people waited for each year. It transformed them from department store to part of Britain’s Christmas tradition.
REI: #OptOutside
A retail brand closing on Black Friday? Their video showed employees hiking instead of working, customers exploring instead of shopping. They gave their audience permission to prioritise experiences over consumption. Result? A movement that strengthened customer loyalty beyond any sale could.
The Guardian: Points of View
Rather than claiming objectivity, they showed the same event from three perspectives. The video acknowledged bias exists everywhere and positioned them as the news source brave enough to admit it. Subscription growth followed honesty.
Each of these worked because they started with a truth about their audience, not a message about themselves. They identified what their audience cared about and created videos that served those values.
That’s the difference between brand videos that waste budget and ones that build movements.
And while these examples come from brands with deep pockets, that doesn’t mean this approach is out of reach. With the right concept, clear focus, and a bit of bravery, we can help you do the same—for your audience, your message, and your mission.
When a brand video makes sense
Not every organisation needs a brand video. But the benefits go beyond solving problems:
Building emotional connection
People buy from people. Showing the faces and passion behind your brand creates connections that text never can.
Boosting engagement
Video gets 1200% more shares than text and images combined. But only if it’s worth sharing.
Improving SEO and dwell time
Visitors spend 88% more time on pages with video. Search engines notice. But only if the video actually holds attention with valuable content.
Establishing credibility
Seeing your team, workspace, and work in action builds trust instantly. Especially crucial for online businesses where customers can’t visit in person.
Clarifying complex offerings
If people struggle to understand what you do or why you matter, video can clarify in minutes what websites can’t explain in pages.
Signalling change or growth
Launching something new? Shifting position? Video announces change more memorably than any press release.
Creating internal alignment
When different departments tell different stories, customers get confused. A brand video gives everyone the same powerful story to share.
But skip it if you’re looking for a quick fix to deeper problems. Video amplifies what’s already there. It can’t create substance from nothing.
Ready to explore what’s possible?
Creating a meaningful brand video starts with asking the right questions:
- Who exactly is your audience and what matters to them?
- What specific change do you want to create?
- How will you measure success beyond view counts?
- What makes your story worth telling?
- What resources can you commit to doing this properly?
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the answers yet. That’s exactly what we help with.
Our discovery process helps you clarify these elements before any cameras roll. We dig deep into your audience’s world. We explore different creative directions. We make sure your investment delivers real results.
Book a discovery call and let’s explore what a brand video could do for your organisation. No pitches. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about your goals and whether video is the right tool to achieve them.
Because great brand videos don’t start with treatments and storyboards. They start with understanding what change you want to create.
If you’re also wondering whether a homepage video could help you make that change, we’ve got a guide for that too.
And we’re rather good at figuring that out together.
