Gourmet Trading grower interview
Brand interviewOne grower, ninety seconds, and the whole brand argument. Strategy usually means deciding to make this instead of a three-minute anthem.
Corporate video strategy
What to make, in what order, and why. Most companies buy the wrong video first, and it is almost always the expensive one.
The planning we do before quoting. Map the formats to the funnel, then film the ones that pay for themselves first. Or build your own estimate in two minutes.
Strategy work we have shipped
Four formats at four points in a funnel, each bought for a specific job.
Databricks company film
Company filmThe company film that everything else hangs off. Build this first only if the rest of the library is already planned around it.
Veld Group, selling a business
Client storyA client story that carries the sales conversation. Most B2B teams should own three of these before they own one brand film.
Kaiser Permanente brand film
Brand filmA brand film at enterprise scale. This is the right first purchase for perhaps one company in ten, and the wrong one for the rest.
How we build a video strategy
Six steps, and you can do the first three yourself before you ever call us.
Name the business problemNot "we need video". Whether it is a slow sales cycle, a hiring gap, low conversion or a repositioning. The format falls out of the answer.-
Map formats to the funnelBrand films work at awareness. Testimonials and case studies close. Explainers reduce support load. Recruitment films fill roles. Buying them out of order wastes the budget.
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Audit what you already ownMost companies have usable footage they have forgotten. Re-cutting it is $750 per version against $6,000 to $8,000 for a new shoot day.
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Plan the shoot days, not the videosOne day at one location can produce a brand cut, two testimonials and a month of social. Planning by day rather than by video is where the saving lives.
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Sequence by paybackFilm the thing that pays for itself first, usually a customer story or an explainer, then reinvest. Brand films are the last purchase, not the first.
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Set the refresh cycleTestimonials age well and ad cuts do not. Decide up front what gets refreshed quarterly and what lasts three years.
Which format solves which problem?
Four common business problems, and the format that actually addresses each.
This page
Sales cycle too slow
Customer stories and case studies
- Length
- 1 to 5 min
- Runs on
- Sales decks, nurture, RFPs
- Cost
- $3,500–$15,000
Cannot fill roles
Employee and culture films
- Length
- 1 to 3 min
- Runs on
- Careers page, LinkedIn, job ads
- Cost
- $9,000–$35,000
Nobody understands the product
Explainers and product films
- Length
- 60 to 90 sec
- Runs on
- Homepage, onboarding, support
- Cost
- $6,000–$25,000
Nobody has heard of you
Brand story film
- Length
- 2 to 3 min
- Runs on
- Homepage, campaigns, events
- Cost
- $14,000–$35,000
If you cannot say which row you are in, you are not ready to buy a brand film. Start with the customer story, which is the cheapest row on this table and the one that pays back fastest. Ranges follow our pricing page.
What corporate video strategy means here
Corporate video strategy is deciding which videos to make, in what order, and how many can come out of a single production day. It maps formats to stages of the buyer journey, audits what footage a company already owns, and sequences the spend so that early films pay for later ones.
The mistake almost everyone makes is buying the brand film first. It is the most exciting thing on the menu, the most expensive, and the hardest to attribute to anything. Meanwhile three customer stories filmed in a single day would have shortened the sales cycle measurably and cost a third as much. Strategy here mostly means resisting that, and planning by shoot day rather than by video, because the second and third film from one day cost a fraction of the first.
1Who is it for?
Marketing leaders with a budget and no plan, companies that have made one video and are unsure what comes next, and teams commissioning video for the first time.
2What do you get?
A written plan: which formats, in what order, how many shoot days, and what each one costs, with the ranges we would actually quote.
3Does it cost anything?
No. The planning conversation happens before a quote, because we would rather scope the right project than win the wrong one.
Every corporate format, and its job
Nine formats, and what each one is actually for.
What a corporate video programme costs
The published ranges for every format, so you can plan a year rather than a video.
| Package | Typical range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Customer testimonial | $3,500–$15,000 | One story, or a batch day covering several |
| Corporate or interview video | $6,000–$15,000 | Leadership, company and interview-led films |
| Product video | $6,000–$25,000 | Product films, demos and explainers |
| Training or internal video | $6,000–$25,000 | Onboarding, compliance and internal comms |
| Recruitment or culture video | $9,000–$35,000 | Employer brand across one or several sites |
| Video podcast series | $9,000–$25,000 | Recurring episodic production |
| Brand story film | $9,000–$35,000 | Multi-location brand film with cutdowns |
| Commercial or video ad | $9,000–$50,000+ | Written, directed and produced for paid media |
Building your own scope? Pre-production runs $1,000 to $1,500, a shoot day $6,000 to $8,000, and editing $2,000 to $4,000 per finished film. Cutdowns are $750 each. These match our pricing page and budget estimator.
Why most video budgets get spent badly
The brand film goes first
It is the most exciting and the least attributable. Three customer stories would have moved the pipeline and cost a third as much.
Nobody counts the shoot days
Budgets get planned per video. The second and third film from one day cost a fraction of the first, so plan by day and the same money buys twice as much.
Existing footage is forgotten
Most companies own usable material they have not looked at in two years. Re-cutting is $750 a version against $6,000 to $8,000 for a new day.
The deliverable list arrives late
Vertical, square and short cuts are cheap when planned and expensive when retrofitted, because coverage is either shot for them or it is not.
Everything is treated as permanent
Ad creative fatigues in weeks and testimonials last years. Budgeting them the same way overspends on one and underspends on the other.
Nobody named the problem
A video commissioned without a business problem behind it cannot be judged, so it gets judged on production value, which is the one thing that does not matter.
Corporate pages teams read next
The rest of the corporate cluster, and the service pages behind each format.
Corporate video production
The full service page: formats, process and pricing.
Types of corporate videos
Ten formats, and when each one is right.
Our production process
What actually happens, phase by phase.
Testimonial videos
The format most companies should buy first.
Brand videos
The format most companies buy too early.
Video production pricing
Every line item, published.
Where we film
Irvine Los Angeles San Diego San Jose San Francisco New York and nationwide for multi-site systems. Back to all industries.
What clients say about working with us
Kaiser Permanente, Databricks, Google, Porsche, Abbott and Veld Group have all planned multi-format programmes with us rather than one-off films.
They impressed us with prompt responses, ensuring we met all filming objectives without missing a beat. The quality fully met my expectations.
7 Hills Productions went above and beyond in terms of quality, professionalism, responsiveness, and timeliness. They captured our vision perfectly.
They did an amazing job providing a great product. Very easy to work with, we decided to keep working with them for a year-long campaign.
Corporate video strategy FAQs
What video should we make first?
Almost always a customer story. It is the cheapest format at $3,500, it addresses the most common business problem, and it pays for itself in the sales cycle rather than in brand awareness you cannot measure.
How many videos do we need?
Fewer than you think, filmed in fewer days than you expect. Two to three shoot days across a year usually produces six to ten finished films plus social cutdowns.
When is a brand film the right first purchase?
When you are repositioning, when you have an event or funding round that needs one, or when the rest of the library already exists. Otherwise it is the last thing to buy, not the first.
Do you charge for strategy?
No. The planning conversation happens before a quote, because scoping the right project is worth more to us than winning the wrong one.
Can you work with footage we already have?
Yes, and we ask about it first. Re-cutting existing footage is $750 per version against $6,000 to $8,000 for a new shoot day, so it is the first place to look.
How often should video be refreshed?
Paid ad creative fatigues in weeks. Customer testimonials last two to three years. Brand films last three or more. Budgeting them identically is how companies overspend on one and starve the other.
How do we measure whether it worked?
By the problem you named at the start. Sales cycle length, application volume, support ticket count, landing page conversion. Production value is not a measure of anything.
Can we spread a programme across a year?
Yes, and most clients do. Two or three shoot days spaced across the year, with cutdowns released between them, keeps a library current without a second production.
Where do you film corporate video?
Across California and nationally. We are based in Irvine and film regularly in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and the Bay Area.
Plan a video programme
Tell us the business problem and roughly what you can spend. You get a written plan and a number back, usually the same day.
4.9 on Google5.0 on ClutchShot and edited in houseRaw footage included
Start your corporateReply within one business dayGet a quote
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