Most companies commission a brand film for the same reason they spend money on an impressive reception area. It says: we’re serious, we’re established, we’re worth your time. And then it sits there, looking good, while the actual hard work of convincing people is done somewhere else.

The problem isn’t the brand film. It’s the expectation loaded onto it.

A brand film is a first impression tool. It works on people who’ve never heard of you, at the moment they’re deciding whether to look further. That’s a necessary job but it’s a narrow one — and somewhere along the line, “video” became synonymous with “brand film,” and companies started relying on one film to do a lot.

‘Nice’ video isn’t enough

It can’t close a sceptical CFO. It can’t tell a candidate what it’s actually like to work there on a difficult week. It can’t answer the specific question your best prospect has at 11pm before they decide whether to move forward.

Those are different moments. They need different films, built around different people, answering different questions.
The brand film — the sweeping music, the smiling team high-fiving in slow motion, the statement about doing things differently — is performing confidence which is increasingly hard to buy into anyway. What actually earns trust, especially in complex B2B decisions, is specificity. Real people. Real answers. The kind of thing that makes a buyer feel understood rather than impressed.

With all this in mind, we’re exploring a strain of videos with an emphasis on real value, designed to be used and help people make decisions. More to follow!

Nick
Director/Bouche