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Brand Videos: How Much Do They Really Cost?
When creating a brand video, the first thing you're probably going to ask is, “How much is it going to cost?” We break it down here.
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These days, brand videos are everywhere. Over the past few years, video has quickly become the favorite marketing medium for brands and consumers. Many people say that watching a video is their preferred way to learn about a new product or service.
If you’re looking to create a video for your brand, the first thing you’re probably going to ask yourself is, “How much is it going to cost?” So, let’s break down brand video production costs.
What is a brand video?
Simply put, a brand video is created to drive online brand awareness. It is often distributed across social media and company websites as a way to introduce your company to your audience. This type of video helps consumers understand your company and its offerings and contributes to your customers’ perceptions of your business.
Rather than promoting your product or services, a brand video is meant specifically to showcase your company’s overall brand. It explains what your business is about and can exponentially help its success.
Costs of creating a killer brand video
Generally speaking, two major factors affect cost when making a marketing video: talent and tools.
Talent
The talent, or expertise of the people involved, will determine how much your video will cost and the quality of the final product. If you go to a video production company, you’re likely to meet plenty of talented individuals who are passionate about video marketing. But this amount of experience and drive comes at a price.
Here are some ranges of costs for professional talent:
- Actors: Between $50 and $1500 per day each
- Cameraman: Between $25 and $400 per hour or $750 to $5,000 per day depending on experience, crew size and equipment needs
- Video editors: Between $300 to $800 per day depending on experience and complexity of the project
If you decide to use a professional production team, focus on businesses that prioritize measurement and conversion tracking, not just creative execution, according to Rob Gundermann, owner of Premier Marketing Group. “A beautiful video that doesn’t drive action is just expensive art,” he said. “Ask potential partners how they’ll integrate your video assets with your existing marketing systems and what KPIs they’ll track beyond vanity metrics.”
Meanwhile, if you’re looking to save money, there’s no solid rule that you must use professionals. If you feel confident in front of the camera, you could create a quick video blog and post that as your brand video. It’s simple and cost-efficient.
Tools
There are so many devices you can use to create videos, from smartphones to state-of-the-art video cameras. Which tools you should use depends on how much you are willing to spend.
You can get a slick, professional video created in just a couple of weeks from a production company. All you have to do is hand over a couple of thousand dollars and they do everything for you with their own production tools ― video cameras, editing software, professional voiceover recordings and perhaps animation software.
The total cost of a brand video by a production company can range from $5,000 to $25,000. The lower range would include simple interviews with founders or executives with basic b-roll footage and a total time of two to three minutes. The higher range would have a cinematic aesthetic, and include multiple shooting locations and advanced graphics with professional voice-over.
However, not everyone has that much money to spend. So, it’s great that there are tools at your disposal to assist you in creating your own brand video for almost no cost at all. “Budget shouldn’t limit quality,” advised Rodney Moreland, founder of Celestial Digital Services. “I recommend starting with smartphone filming using a $30 tripod and natural lighting near windows. Clear audio matters more than perfect visuals — invest in a $50 to $100 clip-on microphone before upgrading cameras.”
While sometimes natural lighting suffices, you can also get a ring light for around $160. For software, try Apple iMovie, which is free for Apple users, Movavi Video Suite (starting at $29.95 for a one-month subscription) or Wondershare Filmora, which has three tiers on its subscription offerings, starting from $49.99 a year.
You can always film yourself and market that as your brand video or, if you’re camera-shy, create a video about your website or app. In this case, you would record your website on one of your devices and edit the footage using free editing software.
Brand video production costs
When you decide to create a video, you can either make one on your own or spend more money to have it done professionally. Let’s delve deeper into the types of brand videos you might create to determine the actual costs.
Type | How it works | Cost |
|---|---|---|
Amateur | If you already have the technology you need, you won’t have to invest any more money into your brand video ― only time. However, if you decide to make a screen-recorded video, you will need to record a voiceover to explain to the viewer what is happening on screen. | On average, renting an audio recording studio costs $30 to $100 per hour. |
Professional | If you decide to work with a professional video marketing company, you will have a much more polished video at the end of the process, but you will have to spend a lot more money. Passing all of the work to the professionals will also save you time. So, if time is something you’re lacking, hiring a professional might be the best option for you. | Professional productions vary in price. On average, a semipro team costs $1,500 to $3,000 per minute while a professional video marketing company charges $5,000 to $20,000 per minute. |
How to make a brand video
When creating a brand video, here are six key steps to follow.
1. Identify and understand your customers
Before you can begin to plan your branded video, you need to figure out who your target audience is so you know exactly who would view your video.
2. Develop a strategy
To avoid creating an ineffective branded video, develop a plan beforehand. Understanding the objective of your video and designing it specifically with your target audience in mind will help you craft one with a strong appeal.
Aaron Whittaker, VP of demand generation and marketing for Thrive Internet Marketing Agency suggested, “Our key takeaway here is that branding videos hit harder when they reflect your audience’s world back to them, not just your product. We recommend to clients that they frame these pieces as human stories based on real data. Show your values, your people and the impact you are making.”
3. Choose relatable stories
People want to hear your story, but it has to be relevant, relatable and interesting to keep your audience’s attention. When crafting your brand story, include information that shows your brand is unique and worth supporting.
4. Portray your brand
As a brand, people expect you to look and communicate in a certain way based on how you’ve built and established yourself. In your video, let your audience learn your personality and hear the brand voice they have come to expect from your previous promotions. For instance, is your brand casual or does it lean on the professional side? This will reaffirm your tone and tie your brand together.
5. Showcase your logo
In a branded video showcasing your company, you must keep content consistent and in line with how it usually looks. Add some elements with your brand colors and keep your logo in sight as often as you can throughout the video. This increases brand awareness and establishes your identity further.
6. Share your video
Since a branded video is meant to represent you, it’s great content that’s worth sharing with as many social media networks as possible. A well-curated resource should be used to draw in new customers by sharing a relatable and intriguing story.
3 brand video examples to inspire you
To give you an idea of what an effective and clever branded video looks like, here are three examples.
- Google Ads (case study video): With over two million Google Ads accounts, the tech giant lacks case studies to highlight its products. In a case study from 2007, back when Google Ads was known as Google AdWords, the company highlighted a dog daycare called Happy Hound. This ad works because the setting is casual and the customer (the owner of Happy Hound) explains her problem, highlights the benefits of the service and seamlessly includes stats in her story.
- Chanel (origin story video): Chanel’s brand video does a great job illustrating the history and background of the company’s founder, Gabrielle Chanel. The script is formatted as a classic bedtime story while the narrator delivers the voiceover flawlessly. The video comprises archived images of the founder, her designs and the locations where she lived to illustrate the idea that everything is connected and to highlight the brand.
- Spotify (explainer video): Spotify’s promo United States launch video from Magnus Östergren is an excellent example of an explainer video because it is short ― clocking in at slightly more than one minute ― and it features exciting, active music to keep you engaged. Additionally, the video explains the benefits and features that make Spotify competitive in the current market.
Importance of branding videos
Brand videos can bring so many benefits. Here are some important ones to consider.
They can increase your SEO.
Everyone wants to rank high in the search engines and videos can help you improve your SEO. Pages with video are far more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results than those without videos. According to Wyzowl, 86 percent of those surveyed said video marketing helped them increase web traffic.
They humanize your brand.
It’s common knowledge that people prefer to do business with those they know and trust. Videos are a great way to humanize your brand and build trust with your customers. Consumers feel a stronger connection to companies when they understand who they are and what they’re about ― and they have an easier time saying no to products when they don’t have any personal connection.
They increase conversions.
Videos are significantly more appealing to consumers than reading through a bunch of paragraphs on a website. According to Wyzowl, videos help companies generate conversions and increase sales by 87 percent. Consumers can learn more about a brand, their personality and their tone by watching a branded video, rather than reading text. It gives customers a better sense of your business and helps improve customer loyalty.
Jennifer Dublino and Sean Peek contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.
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