How to Prepare a Great Brief for a Corporate Video

Creating a corporate video is a significant investment in time and resources. A well-prepared brief is essential to ensure that your video production company understands your vision and can deliver a final product that meets your expectations. In this blog post, we will guide you through the key components of a great brief for a corporate video, helping you lay a strong foundation for a successful project.

1. Define Your Objectives Start by clearly outlining what you want to achieve with your corporate video. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, launching a new product, or training employees, having specific objectives will guide the entire production process.

• Example: "The objective of this video is to introduce our new product line and highlight its unique features to potential customers, aiming to increase sales by 20% in the next quarter."

2. Identify Your Target Audience Understanding who your video is intended for will shape the content and style. Define your target audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points to ensure the video resonates with them.

• Example: "Our target audience consists of tech-savvy professionals aged 25-40 who are interested in innovative gadgets and technology."

3. Craft Your Key Messages Determine the main messages you want to convey through your video. These should be clear, concise, and aligned with your objectives.

• Example: "Key messages: 1) Our new product offers unparalleled performance, 2) It integrates seamlessly with existing technologies, 3) Special launch discount available for the first 100 customers."

4. Describe the Desired Tone and Style Provide guidance on the tone and style of the video to ensure it aligns with your brand identity. Specify whether the video should be formal, casual, humorous, inspirational, etc.

• Example: "The tone of the video should be professional yet approachable, with a modern and innovative style that reflects our brand's cutting-edge technology."

5. Outline the Video Structure Give a brief overview of the desired structure of the video, including the introduction, main content, and conclusion. This helps the production team understand the flow of the video.

• Example: "The video should open with a captivating introduction showcasing our brand, followed by a detailed demonstration of the product features, and conclude with a strong call-to-action."

6. Provide Brand Guidelines Include any relevant brand guidelines, such as logo usage, color schemes, fonts, and any specific visual or audio elements that must be incorporated to ensure brand consistency.

• Example: "Please use our official logo in the introduction and conclusion. Adhere to our brand colors: blue (#0000FF) and white (#FFFFFF). Use the Arial font for any text."

7. Specify Technical Requirements Detail any technical specifications such as video format, resolution, aspect ratio, and duration. This ensures the final video meets your platform’s requirements.

• Example: "The video should be produced in 1080p HD resolution, with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and should not exceed 3 minutes in length."

8. Include Reference Materials Provide any reference materials that might help the production team understand your vision better, such as links to similar videos you admire or any internal documents relevant to the project.

• Example: "Here are links to two videos we like for their style and execution: [link1] and [link2]. Please also refer to our latest product brochure attached."

9. Set a Budget and Timeline Clearly outline your budget for the project and provide a realistic timeline, including key milestones and deadlines. This helps the production company plan and allocate resources effectively.

• Example: "Our budget for this project is €10,000. We need the final video delivered by September 30th, with a draft version ready for review by September 15th."

10. Establish Points of Contact Identify the main point of contact within your organization for this project and provide their contact information. This ensures clear and efficient communication throughout the production process.

• Example: "John Doe will be the primary contact for this project. He can be reached at john.doe@example.com or +353-123-4567."
  

A well-prepared brief is the cornerstone of a successful corporate video project. By defining your objectives, understanding your target audience, crafting clear key messages, specifying the tone and style, outlining the video structure, providing brand guidelines, detailing technical requirements, including reference materials, setting a budget and timeline, and establishing points of contact, you can ensure that your vision is effectively communicated to the production team. This not only saves time and resources but also increases the likelihood of producing a high-quality video that meets your business goals.