Article - Geared for Innovative Success with Creative Corporate Videos


25 Oct 2020

Corporate videos are used for a variety of purposes nowadays. They are used across the globe in business settings and cover a range of topics from employee training and investor presentations to company interviews and financial reports for stakeholders. Over the years, they have transformed and can bring innovation and creativity to a company.

Taped Training and Role Playing

Corporate concerns produced in-house training videos. Role-playing employees, attending interactive training courses, might be recorded on video, enabling them to view and fine-tune their techniques thereafter. At that time, the material was recorded on tapes that were played on VCRs that were in either produced in Betamax (Beta) or VHF format.

Young people, who entered the job market for the first time during the late 70s and for some time thereafter, were typically subjected to organisational videos that were intended to introduce them to the business entity, its organogram and hierarchy, company culture, corporate focus, and products and services. Sadly, some of these well-intended induction recordings were often boring and unimpressive.

Corporate training videos were usually more enthusiastically received because they contained information that was relevant to responsibilities, duties, tasks, and the acquisition of additional knowledge, elements that were important for performance, achieving personal goals, success and/or future opportunities for promotion. Tapes, whether intended for corporate or entertainment purposes, were encased in cassettes. Whatever was on the tape could be recorded over or wiped clean, ready for another recording. Eventually, tapes would stretch, leading to jumpy, unsteady images, poor audio quality, or failures, so they weren’t particularly durable.

Digital Technology

Soon, the digital era arrived. Music and audiobooks were recorded on compact disks (CDs), soon to be followed by new video technology, via DVDs, which also offered a somewhat better audio quality than CDs, depending on the DVD format – mono, stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby 5-channel surround sound or better still, DTS.

Blu-ray AV was next in line, but really only applied to entertainment and gaming activities, not ideal for company-focussed applications. Once South Africans reached the following stage, the internet and online age, corporate videos began appearing online.

Sources of Online Information

Today, many successful business concerns feature video content as part of their company websites and in popular online search engines. Fundamentally, people consult websites and search engines to obtain information and knowledge, so this is where the purposes, benefits, and content of corporate videos enter the picture (pun intended or not, as you wish).

Human beings absorb information and learn differently; each person does so most effectively in his or her own, individual way, even if the actual subject or message contained in various media is identically worded. The method of presentation may influence the extent to which persons absorb and retain information.

Styles of Information Acquisition

Just as most humans have a dominant left or right brain, they are also inclined to favour one style of learning and acquiring information over another. Companies which utilise corporate videos may benefit from being aware of learning styles because it’s an important consideration when defining the purpose of the material and medium, the contents to be included and emphasised, determining the target audience, and how best to engage the watching audience.

Numerous styles of knowledge acquisition have been identified, but most persons mainly prefer to utilise one of three senses and styles.

  • Visual: Most inclined to use the eyes to follow and understand via images and pictures.
  • Aural/Auditory: Acquire information by listening.
  • Verbal/Linguistic: Preference for words – spoken or written, listening actively, reading, and studying

A well-produced, interesting and focussed corporate video has the ability to engage all these learning styles simultaneously, something which few other media are able to achieve.

Additional Uses of Corporate Videos

  • Promotion
  • Marketing and lead generation
  • Testimonials – others’ experiences and impressions
  • Communication – a powerful tool
  • Information about the company, its products and services
  • “How to” demonstrations
  • Build and enhance brand awareness, company image, customers’ trust and brand loyalty
  • Increase interest and time spent on web pages, reducing bounce rates
  • Increase conversion rate and sales
  • Allows viewers to engage repeatedly, at their own time and pace

At XCO Group, we’re experienced, ready and waiting to assist you with almost all your wholesale corporate needs – clothing, workwear, protective gear, branding, promotional items, and online digital marketing services.

  • Organic SEO
  • Social media
  • Google AdWords
  • Brand strategy
  • Web & graphic design

Geared for innovation, XCO looks forward to becoming your partner in bringing your corporate videos to life and introducing them to your target market. Whether you require engaging live photographic or exciting animated content, we’re geared for success.

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