Creating videos for brands may not be as complex as bringing dinosaurs to life in the movies, but we have developed a comprehensive process to ensure we provide our clients with the best results and ROI. 

Like any marketing initiative, creating a video starts with identifying a need. Do you need a video to help launch a product, bring energy and excitement to a marketing campaign, showcase your brand’s differentiation, or create excitement for an event? This process outlines five steps that are taken to ensure we get the best results when creating video for marketing initiatives. 

Step 1: Discovery
The discovery process for creating a video starts like it does with any other project. A series of questions are posed that enable us to develop a deep understanding of the project, including your objectives and KPIs, audience needs and pain points, competitive analysis, brand perception, brand guidelines, and key product benefits to develop messaging and visuals around.

Never making assumptions and taking the time to learn this information ensures the video is reverse-engineered to hit customer needs and pain points head-on.

With the information gathered, we develop a creative brief for client approval prior to beginning Step 2.

Step 2: Script Writing
With the direction set and goals clear, a script is developed in the brand voice and written based on the messaging priorities. Most of the scripts are written in an active voice—versus passive— and clearly connect the solution benefits to customer needs. Before the writer starts, some of the questions you can be expected to be asked are:

• Writing style: Do you have a writing style guide that we need to review?
• Video format: Is this a pure marketing video showcasing benefits/features or will we need to showcase functionality, such as in the form of a walkthrough or demo?
• Primary messages: What are the top 3-4 primary value propositions in priority order?
• Supporting messages: What are the proof points that support the primary message? Should any part of the script demonstrate a use case? Are there any analytics or proof points?

Step 3: Creative Concepts
If the creative strategy of the video is directly extending an existing video style, this step may not be necessary. It’s our experience that even with rigid brand guidelines, marketing and sales teams look for differentiation and a wow factor within their brand footprint which typically warrants a creative concepts phase. This phase is essential to capture the creative vision and provide alignment prior to the storyboarding phase. Some of the questions you can be expected to be asked are:

• Brand guidelines: Do you have a brand style guide that we need to review? Even if we are moving to a unique video style, it’s essential to follow font, color, iconography, and possibly other brand guidelines to ensure we don’t go too far off course (i.e., “go rogue”).
• Creative strategy: Does the marketing team internally have any creative needs that we should be aware of, or should there be alignment to an existing video style?

With this information and much more, the design team audits the brand guidelines if provided, and brainstorms creative directions first before design begins. A typical creative concept presentation includes mood boards or styles along with fresh creative samples.

Step 4: Storyboards
Like building a house, each step completed gets us closer to a finished product. With the creative concepts and script approved, a storyboard designer, working with an Art Director, creates the illustrated artwork, researches the footage, and creates the motion graphics for each scene. Through brainstorming, the team carefully crafts each scene to activate the script and highlight the key points or messaging that needs visuals to bring it to life. 

The presentation of the storyboard is keyed to the script for easy review and is presented with voiceover artist samples for the client to review and select their preference. Once the script and the storyboards are approved, the voiceover recording is scheduled

Step 5: Animation 
The final step in the process is animation. The animation team reviews storyboards and goals, usually meeting with the storyboard designer and Art Director first to review their notes and ensure the creative vision is communicated. Through 2D software, like Adobe After Effects, or 3D software, like Cinema 4D, or both, the animator puts the animation in motion.

The voiceover recorded track is provided, and the animator ties it all together. A review link is provided to you to capture your notes, and once the video is revised and approved, a downloadable link is provided to use as needed. 

Wrapping it up
This process could take weeks or months, depending on the needs and scope of the video. A Project Manager conducts the effort like air traffic control and ensures that information is gathered at each key step, feedback flows through to the right team member at the right time to keep us on schedule, and that clients provide approvals at every interim step.