A Manager's Guide to Commissioning a Corporate Video - writing a Brief outlining your specific requirements for a corporate video

A Manager's Guide to Commissioning a Corporate Video

Step 2 - Writing a Brief

A Brief is merely an outline of what you want in terms of a video in which you address the main points that need to be considered. Although you may consider you haven’t got time to write a Brief, just working through the process can save you time and money later. It makes communicating your requirements to a production company so much easier. Simply attempt to write down your requirements as discussed below and any other information about your company or other requirements that you would like a production company to be aware of.

At this stage it is not necessary to have all the answers to what you want in your corporate video - you may well change you mind as you find out more about producing a corporate video. You are merely producing some guidelines.

When you begin to look for a production company you may be offered advice on the presentation of the content in your video. Be open to such advice - be willing to draw upon the expertise offered. Producing a video is an 'art' and is not merely based on technicalities and calculations.

Here are some of the main points to address when writing a Brief:

• What is the purpose of your corporate video?
  
  As already discussed in Setting the Objectives, the first question you need to consider is what you actually want to use your video for.
  
  The exact purpose of your corporate programme will influence the choice of the content, the length and overall style of the programme. Therefore it is essential to decide what you actually require before commissioning your corporate video.
  
  Do you require a video for exhibition use, your corporate video streamed for playing on your website, a promotional video to send out to potential customers or to promote new products to existing customers, a training video or a video to capture an important corporate event?
  
  
  
• What is your message?
  
  As discussed already in Setting the Objectives, you need to have a clear idea of your message as the whole production will be built on this message. Every television programme you watch has a very carefully scripted message and uses both sound and vision to communicate it to the viewer. The same applies to every successful corporate video.
  
  Ideally, your message should consist of no more than three points - the simpler the message, the more likely the audience is to see the message being presented and be won-over by watching your corporate video. You need to decide what objectives you want the video to meet and what exactly you want the audience to get out of watching it.
  
  
  
• What is your target audience?
  
  Your target audience may be ‘captive’ as in a training video or you may have to entice them, as in the case of an exhibition stand. You may be wanting to promote a new product to existing customers or to widen your market-place by reaching prospective customers. If your target audience consists of existing customers you may not need to provide as much background information as if you are targeting prospective customers who do not already have experience of your company. It is best to decide on just one category for your target audience. If you have more than one target audience you should really be looking to produce two programmes possibly with similar content but presented in such a way as to appeal to the different audiences.



• What do you want the duration of your corporate video to be?
  
  This will be closely related to the purpose of your video and the target audience. However, it is advisable to avoid producing a long corporate video unless perhaps it is a training video, in which case it may be unavoidable. For example, a video for exhibition use should only be a few minutes long but looped, as viewers are not likely to stand and watch for long. Even for promotional videos the message needs to be clear and concise. This way the audience is more likely to sit and watch to the end and therefore more likely to get the message than if it is too laboured and drawn out.



• Do you require a voice-over or presenter?
  
  This will again relate to the purpose of your video. There is little point in having spoken narration if your video is for your exhibition stand as it is unlikely to be heard, but on the other hand if your video is for sending out to prospective customers you may want a presenter or voice-over.



• Do you require actors?
  
  It can be an advantage to have actors in front of the camera rather than members of the staff who may be camera-shy, although you may prefer to have your own employees in your corporate video representing your company. You may need to have skilled members of your workforce demonstrating techniques. It really is a matter of personal preference and available budget.
  
  
  
• Do you have any specific music requirements?
  
  There are three main categories of music to choose from for your corporate video:
  
  - commercial recordings of popular or classical music
  
  - library music
  
  - music written for your corporate video according to your specifications
  
  Generally, library music is the most favoured option for a corporate video, the other options tending to be more specialist and therefore often requiring a larger budget and more production time.
  
  If you want a specific piece of commercially produced music you need to make the production company aware right from the beginning of the process as getting copyright can be time consuming and costly.
  
  
• How many locations are to be involved?
  
  This is worth considering now from the organizational point of view and also with regard to the price of your corporate video which is likely to increase accordingly. Your company may be based on a number of sites and therefore it may be essential to the message you want to portray to have a number of locations.



• What is your available budget?
  
  You may not know how much available budget you have for your corporate video at this stage but if you can come up with a rough figure to include in your Brief you are likely to find that production companies will often do their best to work around that figure. Some companies have online quotation facilities to help give you some idea of a realistic budget for producing a corporate video, others you may need to ring in order to get a feel of the cost of a corporate video. For more information see Step Three - Setting your Budget.



• When is your deadline?
  
  Bear in mind that you will need to make allowances if duplication is to be done following the production of the master. Ideally you should be allowing at least three months to produce your corporate video from the time you commission a production company. Your production is likely to have to be scheduled to fit in with other productions already in progress and so you may have to be flexible when arriving at your deadline. If your video is for an exhibition you really ought to start planning for the production of your corporate video well in advance of the dates of the next exhibition rather than at the last minute.
  
  

Hopefully the above points will have been helpful in beginning to work on the requirements for your corporate video. If you still have any questions about writing a Brief please give us a call on 01629 55817.

Next: Step 3 - Setting your Budget