If you are looking into creating a corporate video, you are probably caught off guard by the variation in price quotes you get from different providers. As with any creative service, costs can vary drastically. So the answer to "How much does a video production cost?" sits in this frustratingly unclear territory. I am here to help clear up the confusion and bring some clarity into why there is a variation in price throughout the market and how to make sure you are getting the best quality corporate video for the right cost. But before we jump into the cost, let us first understand what a corporate video is and why your company needs one.
What is a Corporate Video?
Corporate video is an umbrella term used to define all video communications used for internal or external corporate messaging. Or, to simply put it, it is any video produced by a corporation or business. The main distinguishing factor between corporate videos and your traditional commercial advertising is the target audience. The former is targeted towards a business audience, whereas the latter is targeted towards the general public.
Often corporate videos are used for exposure and brand positioning, but they can also serve countless other purposes such as;
Capturing Live Webinars
Investor Presentations
Training / Explainer Videos for Employees
Customer Testimonial Videos
Company Introduction Videos
Why Do We Need Corporate Videos?
The world is rapidly moving towards digitization with this more and more people are looking to consume their media and information through video. As of 2021, 83.8% of internet users in the United States accessed digital content (statista). It is important to adapt and make your information more accessible; this is why corporate videos are so important. Here are some reasons how they can directly help your business.
Video content is the easiest method to consume information. Senior executives are turning to videos more frequently for their source, with 75% of them watching work-related videos on business-related websites weekly (Forbes insight).
Helps create engagement for your company and website.
Has a major impact on SEO.
Video content is statistically more memorable, thus raising brand recognition.
Videos are easy to share by customers and employees, leading to rapid reach.
Corporate videos deliver what would be dragged out and boring information in a more exciting package. In other mediums such as reading, the audience would probably lose interest before getting to the end, whereas if the information was delivered through a video the likelihood of that happening would drastically decrease.
Unfortunately, not all corporate videos are the same. Companies try and tackle creating corporate videos in house but do not have the experience or resources that top corporate video companies do and end up with a result that has the same pitfalls as other mediums.
Let’s continue and see how you can avoid airing a terrible corporate video that turns out to be an ineffective, costly mistake.
How Much Does A Video Production Cost?
Video production pricing is always a complicated topic. When asking a company, "How much does X video cost?" you will generally get the same answer across the board "It depends." This answer can be frustrating when trying to plan a budget.
You may think by giving the length of video such as "2 minutes", "60 Seconds" or "30 Seconds" would allow for a production house to now give you the cost. Unfortunately, you will still get the answer "It depends." There are a lot of factors that go into a video production and depending on the clients wants and needs they can change drastically.
There is no need to panic. We will guide you through all the information you need to understand what goes into the cost of a corporate video.
Before we go down the rabbit hole, I would like to give an example of corporate video production costs. We have produced a 4 minute video that cost around $4,000 and took us only a week to create. We also produced another 4 minute video that cost $11,000 and took upwards of 3 weeks to create.
You're probably still scratching your head about the price difference. Well, it boils down to the technical skills required and how many days it takes to finish the video.
Let us guide you through the process on how we breakdown the cost.
Corporate Video Production Cost Breakdown
Talent, time, and tools, the three factors that have the largest effect on corporate video production costs. In smaller budgets compromises will need to be made among these factors, this is fine as long as there is a balance between the three.
Costs are agreed upon in advance with the client, so the expectations are set before we begin the project. There are cases where costs can shift after production begins due to the project taking longer than necessary as the client adds requirements along the way. The client is always informed when adding new requirements that this will reflect in the costs.
As you can see here, communication is key. By the production company and client being on the same page problems are prevented along the way.
One important thing to remember is if you push the budget too low, you are compromising quality.
Conceptualization
First things first is for the client and production company to get on the same page; this ensures the production company understands the requirements to the reach the clients goal. This stage is usually one meeting that generally lasts between 30 minutes and 1 hour.
The concept and content are the leading factors into how much you spend on different areas of video production. Everyone should have a pen mind here, compromise and collaboration will make sure that expectations are kept in check and everyone is happy by the end of the project.
Pre-Production
This can be split into two stages; Scriptwriting and Planning.
The script is a written run-down of everything that happen in the video. Your in-house team can handle this part, but if you are unsure of the direction, you can get in touch with the video production house to create the script. This of course, comes at a cost. Usually this is billed at an hourly rate between $75 and $200 depending on the scale of the project. With the script finished you will now have the perfect blueprint to execute your concept. We can now move to the next phase of pre-production.
Planning is where we gather everything we need to execute the production. Again, depending on the scale of the project, the hours can vary here. This phase includes:
Creating a shot list and lighting plan
Preparing interview questions
Equipment & Crew preparations
Some corporate videos may require additional work such as:
Casting
Shooting Permits
This is very important for work done in the UAE. There are various types of permits that range from, public governmental permits to drone permits. The cost here can rack up but is sometimes unavoidable. A recommendation when saving costs is to avoid locations with high permit costs.
Location Recce
Production
If the conceptualization and pre-production was done correctly, everything from here on out should go smoothly. Production houses generally charge by day rate for production shoots. Thus, the more days a production is shooting, the higher the cost. Here it is important to understand that production house timers do not start when the camera starts filming; it starts once the crew arrives for call time. By taking this into consideration, the less setups and location changes the production crew has, the more time can be spent shooting,
Post Production
Most of the video production time is spent here and is an area that clients struggle to understand. Time in post-production can vary depending on the following:
How much footage there is
Waiting on client feedback
How complicated the script is
If any specific skills are required such as; color grading, vfx or motion graphics.
Delivery
Now all the stages are complete, the corporate video can be delivered to the client.
These stages are majority universal between all video production companies and can also translate into different types of video production. If they are followed correctly, you will now have an engaging video to show your stakeholders.
Overview
If this is your first involvement in video production, it is okay for it to be intimidating. To avoid a waste of money and complete failure is to make sure you understand exactly what you want before you move into the pre-production stage. If you keep pushing for something you are unsure of costs will add up and the quality will go down, leading to no one being happy.
Make sure to not be hasty when picking a video production company. Find one that can speak your business language and makes you feel confident in their abilities. Have a look online for different types of corporate video content that you like and take note.
For a personalized video production cost estimate, do get in touch with us now!
