The Art of Corporate Video Production: Balancing Creativity & Professionalism

By definition, creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something. In reality, creativity has different meanings to different people. What’s considered creative for one, might mean something completely different for another.

Professionalism, on the other hand, could be defined as the skill, good judgement, and polite behaviour that is expected from a person or company who is trained to do a job well. 

Corporate videos have become a powerful tool for companies to engage with their audience and showcase their brand, products, and services. In a world of millions of people and opinions, how do you find the perfect balance between creativity and professionalism for your video?

How To Balance Creativity and Professionalism 

Corporate video production in itself requires thought, planning, strategy and excellent execution. It involves creating a video that accurately represents a company's brand identity while also captivating the audience. 

In this article, we’ve highlighted a few tips to help ensure your corporate video has the ideal balance of creativity and professionalism. 

Tip 1: Keep Your Video Focused on your customer

You’d want to start by creating the ideal customer profile. Who they are, what they like and what their pain points are. With that in mind, you’ll know how to approach them and create a video they’ll resonate with. 

Instead of targeting a super wide audience, try getting as specific as possible. This will lead you to accurately defining your target audience and in turn, help you create your personalised message. 

Remember, people don’t like to work with faceless organisations and definitely don’t want to be treated as just another sale. They want to know that you care and see them as human beings with specific needs. 

Tip 2: Get To The Heart of Your Story 

People of all ages like stories; it’s what has kept us connected through the ages. Marketers have used storytelling very successfully to share companies’ core ideas and to present the people behind these ideas. 

Now with video, you’re able to take storytelling to the next level. When you’re deciding what goes into your video and defining your script, ask yourself whether the video is too one-dimensional. 

For example, if you have a brand video and it’s just a company representative talking for a few minutes straight, then it’s going to feel too predictable and won’t keep people engaged. Instead, try breaking the video up into different scenes to keep the balance between professionalism and creativity. 

Tip 3: Avoid Sounding too “Salesy”

We get it, the ultimate goal for every company is to grow revenue, but there are ways to do it without aggressively shouting about all that you offer. Your videos will drive better results if you present yourself as a partner, not a salesperson. 

Instead of selling your products and services, use a corporate video to create a real connection with potential customers, showing them how you can help them overcome their unique challenges. That is the sweet spot – where captivating content and professionalism meet.

Tip 4: Limit Confusing Jargon and Business Language

Yes, a corporate video should represent your company’s professionalism. No, it shouldn’t be a bore. Nothing loses a viewer's attention faster than using a bunch of complicated words.

People want to be able to relate to a company or brand, and communicating in a high-level corporate language is a surefire way to make people switch off right then and there. Keep it relatable, exciting and authentic and you’re good to go. 

Tip 5: Finetuning Post-Production

During post-production, you’ll be able to edit and add final touches to your video. At this stage, you’ll also look at sound, colour grading and other technical aspects that will bring your corporate video together. 

Post-production will allow you to balance the creativity and professionalism of your video as you go through the footage with a fine tooth comb. Your corporate video should be creative enough to capture the audience's attention, but it should also maintain a level of professionalism that accurately represents your company's brand identity. Your corporate video is a reflection of your company's values and it should be produced accordingly.

Bonus tip when you’re in the post-production phase: Less is definitely more. Trying to say too much often results in a diluted message. Placing too much information in your corporate video can be overwhelming for the audience, so keep it short and simple.

Here’s our roundup of 5 corporate videos that successfully balances creativity and professionalism:

1. Creative Corporate Video: Hive

Hive is an all-in-one project management tool built especially for designers and agencies. Their brand video strikes a good balance between professionalism and creativity; featuring normal people in an everyday office setting, with interactive graphics, good lighting and an overall easygoing ambiance.

2. Creative Corporate Video: StacksCity

In 2019, StacksCity Project was looking to build a decentralised smart WiFi advertising ecosystem which would address the need of internet users in public areas. This explainer video uses animation to communicate their message effectively in a fun and interactive way.

3. Creative Corporate Video: BIC

The description says it all: “For 75 years, BIC has made sure that everyone, everywhere can light birthday candles and bonfires, write love notes and lesson plans and express themselves exactly as they wish. Here's to many, many more.” And here’s to a corporate video with heart.

4. Creative Corporate Video: Vervoe

Vervoe is an AI-powered skill-testing platform that uncovers hidden talent through real-world tests and tasks, making it more effective for HR and recruitment managers to hire the right people. Their testimonial-meets-explainer video is both humorous and informative, and it simply works!

5. Creative Corporate Video: BDO LLP x SKELETON

For our last creative corporate video example, we thought we'd feature one of our own. Not only because it stretched us to execute a video that touches on a topic that viewers are passionate about, but also because we were entrusted by our client BDO to create something brave, thought-provoking and inspirational for their internal teams that could also break out into the wider world. The end result? An emotive call to arms that achieved BDO’s vision of sparking conversations.

When creating a corporate video, it's crucial to get the balance between creativity and professionalism just right. Reach out to us if you’re looking to partner with a corporate video production agency!