What Is a Corporate Video? Types & Costs

What are corporate videos?

Corporate videos are any videos made by or for a business. The definition is broad on purpose. It covers internal communications, training, marketing, recruitment, event coverage and customer testimonials. If a company made it for a business purpose, it counts as a corporate video.

The term can still put people off, because they picture stiff, scripted videos with stock footage and a voiceover. That was the older style. Corporate videos today are shorter and more candid, and they are made fast enough to keep up with the way your business talks to people week to week.

Here is a good example of what modern corporate video production looks like:

What types of corporate videos do companies produce?

Internal communications

This category covers CEO updates, company announcements, change management messages and culture videos. They stand in for the all-hands email that gets skimmed and closed. A 90-second video from a senior leader lands differently than a 500-word memo. Read our internal communications video guide for the full breakdown.

Training and onboarding

Training videos replace repeat workshops with lessons people can watch on demand. You record a module once and every new hire can use it after that. Compliance training, system walkthroughs and onboarding programs suit video because employees watch at their own pace and rewatch what they missed.

Marketing and promotional

This group includes brand awareness videos, product launches, campaign videos and social media clips. Marketing video production is often where a company starts, because video fits almost every marketing channel. You can post it on LinkedIn, run it in a campaign and add it to a landing page to explain the offer.

Customer testimonials and case studies

Testimonial videos are one of the strongest sales assets a B2B team can have. A real customer describing their experience on camera builds a kind of trust that written reviews struggle to match. The best testimonials focus on a specific problem, how your product solved it and the results the customer measured.

Recruitment and employer branding

Recruitment videos show candidates what working at your company is like day to day. Employee testimonials, day-in-the-life features and hiring manager introductions on your careers page help the right applicants decide to apply.

Events

Event videos turn a one-day conference or product launch into weeks of content. Keynote highlights, attendee interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage can be repurposed across channels long after the event ends.

How much do corporate videos cost?

The cost depends on the production model you choose. Each one below suits a different volume of work.

A traditional agency prices each video as a project. The fee covers a crew, creative direction, filming and editing, and turnaround is usually measured in weeks. This model works well for flagship videos, but it gets too slow and costly once you need video every month.

A freelance videographer costs less per job than an agency and suits occasional projects. It is harder to scale, because one person can only take on so much. Read our freelancer vs Shootsta comparison for the trade-offs.

A subscription platform charges a flat monthly fee for ongoing production. Your team films on phones or with a supplied kit, and professional editors deliver branded videos in about 48 hours. The per-video cost drops as you produce more, and Shootsta's per-video cost runs 50-60% below agency rates. This is the model that scales when you need videos every week.

How long should a corporate video be?

Length should follow the job the video has to do. An internal announcement from a CEO holds attention for about two minutes. A product explainer lands between 60 and 90 seconds. A training module can run five to eight minutes if it is chaptered, because people choose to watch it.

The first ten seconds decide whether people stay for the rest. If the video opens with a logo animation and a slow fade, a lot of viewers leave before the point arrives. Open with the point and put the branding at the end.

Who is involved in producing a corporate video?

A corporate video needs a small team, and one person is rarely enough. Someone owns the message and someone appears on camera. You also need someone who films, someone who edits and someone who signs it off. In a small business, two people can cover all of that between them.

The role that gets underestimated is the approver. Video approvals run slower than document approvals because there is no track-changes equivalent, so every round costs a re-edit. Agreeing who signs off, and at which stage, saves more time than any camera decision.

In-house, agency or subscription: which model fits?

There are three ways to get corporate video made, and the right one depends on how often you need it.

• In-house team. An in-house team is fastest for small, frequent jobs and the best fit for confidential work. It is expensive to set up, and it stalls the week your one editor takes leave.
• Production agency. An agency is the right call for a flagship film where craft matters most. It prices per project, so a full content calendar gets costly quickly.
• Subscription or managed service. Your team films and a partner edits to a locked brand template. This suits volume and consistency, and the per-video cost falls as output rises.

If you run video across a large company, a mix usually works best. You hold back a project budget for one or two hero films a year and use a repeatable model for everything else. Where the line usually falls is covered in how a video partner extends an in-house team.

Corporate video FAQs

What is the difference between a corporate video and a commercial?

A commercial is bought media aimed at customers, usually short and paid to be seen. A corporate video is owned content aimed at a defined audience, whether that is employees, candidates, customers or investors, and it is distributed rather than advertised.

How much does a corporate video cost?

An internally filmed update with a professional edit costs little, while a scripted brand film with a crew and talent can run to tens of thousands. A more useful measure is the cost per video across a year, because that is what your budget has to carry. The video production cost calculator gives an order-of-magnitude figure.

Can a corporate video be filmed on a phone?

For internal comms, updates, testimonials and training, yes, and the results hold up once audio and lighting are handled. See how to shoot corporate video on a phone. For a brand film that will run for three years, hire a crew.

How many corporate videos does a business need in a year?

The rhythm matters more than the number. A video every two weeks that people start to look for does more than one a quarter that arrives without warning. Pick a cadence you can hold and build the library around it.

How do you start producing corporate videos?

Pick one format and prove it works. If leadership alignment is the priority, start with CEO update videos. If pipeline is the priority, start with customer testimonials. If you're hiring, start with recruitment content.

Make a small batch of videos in the first month. Check whether people watch them and whether they meet their goal, then expand to a second format. Add new video types one at a time as each one proves its worth.

See the full list of formats in our enterprise video playbook, or take the video quiz to find out which types will have the biggest impact for your team. Read the complete guide to corporate video production, or explore all our corporate video production capabilities.