Video Brand Guidelines - how to get started

99% of brand guidelines give zero direction for how the brand should be used in video.  Video Production houses, advertising agencies and internal marketing teams are left to their own devices to determine how the text alignment and spacing of a company logo should translate to the film they are producing!

Here are some of the starting principles we look at when helping our Global clients to ensure brand is consistent across their video marketing.

Animated assets

Lets keep it easy to start.  Having an animated logo ident to end and possibly start each video is a good way to build brand association immediately.  There can be concerns that this at times feels a bit too corporate, hence maybe leaving it to the end.  Top tip, if you do insist on having it at the beginning, have it on screen quickly, never more than 3 seconds, because on a lot of platforms, you will have already lost the viewer at this point.

Other assets could include title graphics for introducing people or adding text on screen.  All created upfront and then rolled out by whoever is making the video.

Sound

Often brand guidelines are focused on visuals, but with video you are hitting multiple senses.  Sound is absolutely key to the success of video.  Quality should come as standard (we hope), so lets look at it from the perspective of building on the brand.  The choice of music, tone of voice, and spoken word will be reflecting your brand.  Make these choices wisely to ensure it meets your brand standards.
Also consider the power of sound, for example how effective a radio jingle was in the past. Evident today with the Netflix “da-dumm”, immediately recognisable around the world.  Using consistent sound effects can work wonders.

Consistency in style

If there are types of videos that you are regularly producing, it is worth considering how these are setup.  From the framing of shots to the style of lighting and colour grade.  We see this often with interviews setups, or pieces to camera.  Having a standard setup, makes it easier for multiple departments across the business (likely using multiple production suppliers) to have a level of consistency across all video marketing.  This can also be a way of measuring supplier quality, rather than leaving it to their interpretation.

Consider your platforms

When producing video for multiple platforms, a beautifully branded film that works on YouTube, may not translate as well for TikTok.  So consider your breadth of platforms that you currently use and ensure your decisions will work across them all.  You can consider having a stripped back styling that keeps core branding elements for other platforms.

Each business and brand is different so sadly there is not a strict process to follow here. When we work with our clients to map out video brand guidelines, we run workshops to fully understand their brand, their audience personas and platforms they are using.  Analysing the video content they are producing across the organisation and challenging them at times on why certain content is currently being created.

Looking at adding “video” guidelines to your brand guidelines is a great opportunity to streamline the video production across the business and identify areas where you can get most return on investment from your video marketing. Focusing the video marketing plan for the years to come.