9 creative video ideas to wow your audience

We get it — consistently coming up with fresh and engaging video ideas can sometimes be a daunting task. Fear not! In this blog, we have compiled nine professional video ideas that are sure to inspire and empower you on your creative journey.

1. Create a whiteboard video

Whiteboard videos offer a dynamic approach to engage your audience while delivering informative content. Inspired by renowned publishers such as Moz, AsapSCIENCE, and more, these videos are a form of explainer content that employs hand-drawn or animated illustrations to educate viewers on various subjects. With their concise format, whiteboard videos effectively convey information and conclude with a compelling call to action.

Whiteboard Video Example

2. Offer tips and tricks

Tips and tricks videos have a surprising range, from super-short snackable videos on YouTube to longer content with valuable, replicable advice when it comes to topic shortcuts. They’re also excellent at building brand trust, as it’s easy to establish subject matter expertise when you’re problem-solving.

Tips and Tricks Video Example

3. Get behind-the-scenes

Behind-the-scenes videos provide a captivating window into your creative process, offering viewers a unique and intimate experience. So, whether it’s a product, event or project, focus on highlighting interesting details, sharing funny or insightful moments, and showcasing the teamwork involved.

Behind-The-Scenes Video Example

4. Record a time-lapse

Time-lapse videos provide a visually captivating and unique perspective on the passage of time. By condensing hours, days, or even months into a short clip, they reveal dynamic transformations that are not easily perceptible in real-time. Whether capturing the movement of clouds or the bustling of a city, timelapse videos create a mesmerizing visual experience that engages and fascinates viewers.

Time-Lapse Video Example

5. Use animation

You can use animated videos in lots of different ways, from simple typography animations to animated illustrations, flat icons, even full character animation videos. Animation is powerful for communicating concepts in explainer and story-based videos, as well as content for younger audiences thanks to the cartoon-like nature.

Animated Video Example

6. Tell a story

Utilizing storytelling in business videos can significantly enhance your impact and resonance. Stories have a unique ability to captivate audiences, evoke emotions, and create memorable connections. By incorporating storytelling elements into your videos, you can engage viewers on a deeper level, establish a stronger emotional connection, and effectively convey your brand’s message and values.

That said, storytelling for short online videos is different to other mediums, so familiarise yourself with the ‘emerging’ vs. traditional story arc, for example.

Storytelling Video Example

7. Make a parody

Parody videos use comedy to poke fun at people or situations. If you’re a brand, it pays to be aware of fair use guidelines for parodying pre-existing content; however, brands parodying themselves are engaging because it shows a sense of humour (and humility)! Check out our ‘Shootsta: The Movie’ parody below, which pokes fun at our company’s founders:

Parody Video Example

8. Shoot a publicity stunt

Publicity stunt videos are pre-planned events to attract attention and raise awareness, often for a brand or new product. The best stunts are big, bold and have creative flair — the type of videos that go viral, especially in marketing, thanks to their originality and / or audacity. So think big!

Publicity Stunt Video Example

9. Employee Spotlight Videos

Boost morale and showcase the faces behind your brand with employee spotlight videos. These short clips can highlight individual employees, their roles within the company, personal anecdotes, or unique talents, helping to humanise your brand. Each video could focus on a different team member, sharing their journey, key projects, and their impact on the company’s culture and goals. Not only do these videos shine a light on your team’s diversity and expertise, but they also enhance internal pride and external brand affinity. Use them across social media, in newsletters, or on your company’s “About Us” page to strengthen connections both inside and outside your organisation.

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Check out 9 more creative video ideas to wow your audience now!

How to come up with video ideas that work

Most teams hit a wall not because they lack creativity but because they treat every video as a standalone project. The fastest way to generate video ideas is to start from the audience and the channel, then work backwards to the format:

1. Pick the audience. Sales prospects, employees, customers, candidates. Each one cares about different things.
2. Pick the channel. A LinkedIn post needs a 15-30 second hook. A landing page can hold 60-90 seconds. An internal town hall can run 3-5 minutes.
3. Pick the job to be done. Explain, demonstrate, persuade, celebrate, or teach. The job sets the format.
4. Match to a proven format. Explainer, testimonial, behind-the-scenes, how-to, animated, employee spotlight, product demo, founder story.

If you want a structured generator, the Video Brief Planner walks you through audience, channel, and format in under five minutes.

How-to video ideas for business

How-to videos are the highest-leverage format for sales, support, training, and onboarding because they answer a specific question the viewer already has. The best how-to video ideas come straight from your inbox, your help docs, and your sales objections.

• How to onboard with our product in 10 minutes - a screen-recorded walkthrough for new customers, replaces a live kickoff call.
• How to set up [feature] correctly - the top three support tickets, turned into 90-second screencasts.
• How to use [tool] for [job-to-be-done] - role-specific tutorials that pull in target accounts via search.
• How to read [report or dashboard] - turns a complex deliverable into something a customer can actually action.
• How to interview for [role] - candidate-facing recruitment content that doubles as employer brand.
• How to brief a video project - an internal how-to that lifts the quality of every brief that lands on the production team.
• How to film yourself on a phone - a how-to-shoot video that unlocks self-shoot at scale across the business.
• How to deliver a piece to camera - the executive-coaching version, 60 seconds, used as a primer before a town hall recording.

For more how-to video ideas tied to a specific function, see our 30+ B2B video ideas by function guide, and for training-specific how-to formats, see 15 training video ideas your L&D team can produce this month.

How to film a video idea once you have one

The fastest path from idea to finished video has three steps: brief it (audience, channel, message, length), shoot it (self-shoot on a phone, a Shootsta kit, or a videographer), edit it (in-house, with software, or with a production partner). Most enterprise teams skip the first step and pay for it later in edit rounds. A 10-minute structured brief saves three hours of revisions.

For more guidance, see how to enable non-creatives to create on-brand video and how to produce a corporate video using online tools.

Keep reading

• 9 More Creative Video Ideas to Wow Your Audience
• Creative Video Ideas for UK Businesses
• 5 Corporate Videos You Need to Create

For B2B and enterprise teams

Most of the ideas above work across audience type, but if you are producing video for a B2B or enterprise audience specifically, the formats and benchmarks differ. We have built out a deeper set of resources for that:

• B2B video ideas: 30+ examples by function - the full hub, organized by marketing, sales, internal comms, product, customer, HR, and leadership.
• 25 marketing video ideas that drive pipeline
• 20 sales video ideas reps actually send
• 25 internal comms video ideas that land
• 20 product launch video ideas for B2B

More from Shootsta Academy

Related reading

• For longer-form formats that scale across cuts, a podcast is one of the highest-leverage plays. Read about planning an engaging business podcast.