A brand is a combination of design elements and written tone that highlights the distinguishable qualities of a product or service. More importantly, a brand is a strategic theme that creates an emotional connection between your company and your audience, be it external prospects or your employees. It’s that emotional connection, that relatable visual narrative, that makes the art of branding so effective.
Video is one of the most compelling tools for creating meaningful engagement, which is why it’s no surprise that the demand for video is steadily increasing. Video is expected to be 82% of all mobile traffic by 2022. Do you need to brand your internal and external videos? Absolutely. Your videos are a promise to your viewers about what your brand has to offer. In order to be effective, your videos need to live up to the viewer’s expectations as well as your own brand standards.
A well-branded video focused on visual storytelling with a mission-driven narrative can do wonders for your company’s brand awareness and employee morale.
Before you wow your audience with rich animated videos, here are some guidelines to help you craft your own uniquely branded videos.
Six tips for branding your videos
1.) Be authentic
If you want to attract and retain loyal viewers with your videos, convey a sense of authenticity by using colors, fonts, textures, and animation styles that align with your brand promise. An unrelenting focus on your brand ethos will help you create a fruitful video that your viewers can both enjoy and absorb.
Incorporating your company’s logo and fonts and working from your brand color palette will help guide your storytelling style and maximize your brand impact. For example, in Vyond we have three styles of characters and props to choose from: Contemporary, Business Friendly, and Whiteboard Animation.
If your company is all about arts and crafts, Whiteboard Animation would be a great option. If your company is a pioneer of innovation, you’ll want to stick with a more contemporary style. And if you are a bank or legacy company, a more traditional style like Business Friendly style might be a good option for you.
Leverage your videos as a tool to shape your brand in the viewer’s mind and allow people to quickly connect with your company on an emotional level. As viewers begin to personally identify with your videos, your brand will live in their hearts and minds and they’ll feel a kinship with your company in a way that will guarantee loyalty.
At Vyond, we focus on concept-based branding in which an idea becomes the crucial ingredient of our videos, with an emotional approach to images and their symbolism.
2. Set the right tone
A video that is on-brand delivers the right message at the right time. In order to really connect with your audience, the viewer should be trusted to be smart enough to subconsciously grasp what your brand is supposed to mean to them.
In addition to your pre-existing brand colors, you can supplement your video with colors that help you to tell your story. Choose the kind of story you want to tell about your brand and let that lead your decision about what additional colors and fonts to incorporate.
Want to tell your audience that your company is trustworthy and stable? Use a broad palette of blues. Want to highlight a commitment to being environmentally friendly? Use earthy green and browns. And if your company is all about creativity, you’ll want to be sure to incorporate pinks and oranges which psychologically feel the most creative.
Thinking about how someone will feel when they watch your video is important to keep in mind. People may forget the specifics of the content of your video but they will never forget how your video made them feel.
Through branding, you will infuse your videos with your company’s unique voice.
3. Don’t just say it – show it
Branding is not just about getting your target audience to pay attention to you. It’s also about getting your viewers to see your company as the best fit for them. You want your video to be styled in a way that subconsciously drives home your company’s mission. This will help to create a positive outlook in the public’s eye and provide employees with direction and motivation.
Visually convey why your company is the best fit by evoking not just positive feelings, but the right kind of positive feelings. If your company offers exciting innovation, use inspirational colors such as teal, bright green, and yellow. If you are a leader in the financial industry, use the “money color” green. The same goes for textures. Trying to convey a peaceful vibe? Use soft textures and props with rounded edges.
The biggest mistake people make is putting all their emphasis on the script and neglecting to edit the visuals in a holistic way. It’s crucial to remember to pay close attention to the background and smaller props. The decision of what type of lamp to put in the background is just as important as styling the main character.
Every single element in your video should speak to your mission in a way that makes the viewer instantly understand your brand promise. This means strategically incorporating colors, sounds, and effects to help you get your message across. Making small customizations such as having the characters in your video wear clothing and accessories in your brand colors will help to visually pull your video together.
4. Be a curator
When brainstorming how to brand your videos, always think about your audience first. Your video will only get an average of two seconds to grab someone’s attention, especially with videos on social platforms.
In order to maximize the impact of your message, it’s important to mindfully curate and design your videos. Videos that share a common theme not only deliver engaging brand experiences, but also connect with your audience in an effortless way that integrates your brand into their lifestyle.
Does the video reflect the values that I want to portray to my customers and internal audience? Are my brand colors and fonts incorporated? Does the video accurately capture the heart and soul of my brand? What kind of emotions will the viewer feel when they see my video? Let these questions guide you while branding your video.
5. Don’t cut corners
Creating a high-quality video should always be your end goal. A viewer will respond much better to a short, well-branded video with a killer storyline than a longer video with more information but executed with less attention to detail.
Whether it’s thanks to a lack of mission in your narrative, mismatched fonts, or an off-brand color palette, viewers can tell if a video has been thoughtlessly thrown together. And that speaks volumes about your brand and the people who run it. Yes, branding your video can seem overwhelming or even tedious at times, but if you want the pay-off of a high-quality video, you’ll have to make brand recognition and visual consistency a priority, even internally. We promise the time commitment is well worth it.
Watch your finished video with a critical eye. Go back and tweak any areas of visual tension you discover, even if it seems small or insignificant. By doing this, you eliminate any awkwardness the viewer may subconsciously pick up on. When you only have a few seconds or minutes to create a positive connection with your viewer, the small details make all the difference.
Browse this on-demand webinar to learn how to improve the production quality of your animated videos with better scene transitions, camera movement, sound effects.
Access the template videos shared during this webinar here.
6. Produce like a pro
By cultivating your own video branding practices and pursuing viewer-focused opportunities, you will set yourself apart and make the investment in video worth it.
In order to take full advantage of the many benefits of branded videos, you want to make sure you are equipped with the right tools to feel confident in your work. A little bit of training and familiarization with your software will give you a huge leap forward in unlocking the potential of video for your brand.
What really separates generic videos from branded videos is strategy. Companies with well-branded videos enjoy a wide range of benefits from employee productivity to growth in market share to the development of new intellectual property.
Brand your videos in Vyond
Ready to create branded videos? Get started with a 14-day free trial of Vyond. Vyond lets you create branded videos easily with our library of templates, audio, props, characters, and so much more.
Watch this Vyond webinar to learn step-by-step how to import your logo, save a brand color palette, create custom characters, and more helpful branding tips for video:
Looking to learn more about branding your videos? Take a look at these resources:
