What Are Brand Videos and Do You Need One?
Most businesses can tell you what they sell. Far fewer can tell you why anyone should care, and that gap is exactly where a brand video earns its place. So what is a brand video? It is a short film that sells the company rather than the catalogue: who you are, what you believe, and why a customer should choose you over the near-identical firm down the road. Product videos show the thing. A brand video shows the reason the thing exists, and in a market where almost everyone claims "quality" and "bespoke", that reason is often the only thing that genuinely separates you.
The appetite is there, too. 84% of consumers say they want to see more video from brands in 2026, and 89% say the quality of that video shapes whether they trust the brand at all (Wyzowl, 2026). People are not just tolerating brand video. They are asking for it, and judging you on how well you do it.
What is a brand video, exactly?
A brand video is a piece of content built to communicate your identity and values, not to push a single product. It usually runs 60 to 120 seconds, leads with a feeling rather than a feature, and leaves the viewer with a clear sense of what you stand for. Where an advert asks for the sale and an explainer answers "how does this work", a brand video answers a quieter and more important question: who are you, and why should I care?
That is the whole trick. A brand video is not a list of services set to music. It is the emotional and strategic umbrella that everything else sits under, the piece that makes a stranger feel something about your company before they have read a word of your website.
What a brand video is actually for
Three jobs, mostly. The first is awareness: putting your company in front of people who have never heard of it in a way they remember. 93% of video marketers say video has helped them increase brand awareness (Wyzowl, 2026), and brand film is the format built specifically for that job rather than for conversion.
The second is trust. For any business selling judgement that a client cannot inspect in advance, a service firm, an agency, a specialist supplier, trust is the whole sale. A real face, a real voice and a team that plainly knows its craft do in ninety seconds what a page of copy struggles to do at all. Our awareness film for Epilepsy Action works precisely because it leads with lived experience, not with a list of what the organisation does. That is brand video doing its proper job.
The third is difference. Anyone can copy your website copy in an afternoon. No one can copy your people, your story, or the specific way you see the world. A brand video captures the things that are actually yours, which is why it tends to outlast every other asset in your marketing.
What a good brand video includes
The good ones share a handful of traits. A clear point of view, so the film says something rather than everything. Real people over polished actors, because audiences can smell the difference. A story with a shape, not a feature list with a soundtrack. A consistent visual and tonal identity that matches how the rest of the brand looks and speaks. And a light touch on the sell: the moment a brand film starts hard-selling, it stops being a brand film and starts being an advert people skip.
Above all, one feeling to leave behind. If you cannot name the single emotion a viewer should walk away with, the film is not finished being planned, let alone shot.
Brand video versus product video: which comes first
This is the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends on where your buyer is stuck. If nobody knows who you are, lead with the brand film: you have to earn attention and trust before anyone cares what your product does. If people already know you but do not understand what you sell, put the money into a product or explainer video first and fix the comprehension problem. When we made the Expend explainer, the job was clarity, turning a complex fintech product into ninety seconds a finance lead could grasp, which is a different brief entirely from a brand piece.
Most companies need both in the end. The brand video is the umbrella; the product and explainer videos live underneath it, doing the closer, more practical work. Start with whichever gap is costing you customers today.
Types of brand video
Brand video is a family, not a single format. The origin or brand story film traces how and why the company began, and works well when the founding has genuine character to it. The manifesto or values film is pure point of view, a bold statement of what you believe, and lands hardest for businesses trying to stand for something in a crowded field. The culture and people film shows what the organisation is actually like from the inside, and doubles neatly as a recruitment video when you are hiring. The founder-to-camera film is the cheapest and often the most disarming: one credible person, one clear idea, no gloss. And where the idea is abstract or the subject impossible to film, an animated brand piece carries it, which is where the choice between 2D and 3D animation starts to matter.
Brand video examples worth learning from
The famous ones are famous for a reason. Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" never mentions the product and builds more trust for it. Chipotle's "Back to the Start" sells values through animation rather than pushing burritos. We pulled fifteen of these apart, with the single lesson to steal from each, in our guide to the best corporate video examples. The pattern across all of them is the same: the brand films that work sell a feeling and let the product sit quietly in the background.
So do you actually need one?
Not every business needs a standalone brand film on day one, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. If you are pre-revenue and nobody understands what you do, spend on an explainer first and come back to the brand piece later. But if you compete on trust, values or judgement, or you are hiring and want the right people to find you, a brand video is one of the very few marketing assets a competitor cannot lift. In a landscape where video is now the baseline rather than the edge, the absence of a brand film is increasingly what marks a company out, and not in the way anyone wants.
Frequently asked questions
What is a brand video?
A brand video is a short film, usually 60 to 120 seconds, that communicates who a company is and what it stands for rather than promoting a specific product. Its job is awareness, trust and differentiation, not the direct sell.
How long should a brand video be?
Most sit between 60 and 120 seconds. Long enough to make you feel something and establish a point of view, short enough to hold attention on a feed. If a brand film is running past two minutes, it usually needs a tighter edit rather than more footage.
What is the difference between a brand video and a product video?
A product video shows what something does and pushes towards a sale. A brand video sells the company behind the product: its identity, values and reason for existing. One answers "how does this work", the other answers "why should I care about you".
Should I make a brand video or a product video first?
It depends on where buyers are stuck. If nobody knows you, lead with the brand video to build awareness and trust. If people know you but do not understand your offer, make a product or explainer video first. Most businesses eventually need both.
How much does a brand video cost?
It varies widely with scope, from a single founder-to-camera piece through to a fully crewed, scripted production with original music. The right number depends on what the film has to achieve and where it will run, so the sensible first step is a conversation about the goal rather than a fixed price off the shelf.
Make your mark
A brand video is how a business stops being a name on a website and starts being a company people remember. If you are in Leeds, West Yorkshire or anywhere in the UK and you want a film that says who you actually are, we would like to help you make it. Rune Films makes brand videos, and the rest, for businesses that would rather be seen than blend in. Get in touch and let us make your mark.