How to: Create Cohesive Branding in Video

Branding is the way that your company can present a cohesive brand personality across all of your content- website, social media, and video to name a few examples.

When you incorporate a cohesive feel into your video projects, your videos will feel polished, professional, and they’ll more easily grab the attention of a potential viewer. But what makes your branding cohesive and how can you achieve it? We’re so glad you asked.

Defining Brand

Your brand is the cohesive presentation style that gradually creates an awareness of you in others. To stand out from the crowd and be remembered for consistent quality, you need a brand. By forming your reputation from the first impression and every follow-up, you’re cementing a brand look and personality. When the way others think of you matches what you want them to think of you, your brand is complete.

A guide to cohesive branding, also known as brand guidelines or a brand style guide, helps you stay consistent across videos. Whether decided by leadership with input from marketing, or by one person for their small channel, most brand guidelines start with the big ideas like core values, mission, position and vision. But because video is so dynamic, there are many more elements to define. When creating video brand guidelines, consider:

Color

What colors should be seen in clothing, backgrounds, or transitions? Lighting can be filtered, props can be selected, and mood can be adjusted by color. Pick a small color palette for use in your content. These colors don’t need to be the only thing seen, but they should be prominent.

Language & Tone

How will you connect with your audience when speaking? The way you speak creates a clear feeling, from “casual and friendly” to “professional and formal” or from “lighthearted and funny” to “serious and direct” so pick a tone to reach people with emotion rather than rationality.

Logo

How can your logo be oriented or transformed? Where can the logo be used or not used? Your logo promises a certain level of consistent quality, so if you change the logo over time, keep recognizable elements. Animated logos are great in videos, but you need a static form as well.

Music & Sound

Like with tone, what do you want people to feel? Think about instruments, genre, and style. Many brands choose one jingle to use everywhere, including as background. Pick an idea or emotion that your audio will convey and express.

Presentation

How will you edit your videos consistently? Start with the first thing most people see, thumbnail style, and then consider whether or how you will use acting, camera setup, cutaways, fade-ins, format, graphics, intro, layout, lighting, montage, overlays, parallel editing, slow-motion and time-lapse.

Target Audience

Who do you expect to watch your videos? What do you want them to take away? Most brand guides contain a few ideal customer profiles, and you should do the same for video.

Typography

If you use text in video, when and where? Not every video has a lot of text, but those that do should stay consistent. Think about font, placement, and size.

Making Video Cohesive

Good branding in your videos provides several benefits. First, you can then take any section or still from the video to other forms of marketing. Second, the brand guidelines can go beyond video to help design content in other mediums. And third, consistent branding helps others decide to partner with you or what other content you could take part in. Not everyone needs or wants to have a cohesive brand across all of their content. But for those who wish to become more than just one voice among many, branding is essential. If you’re interested in creating a cohesive brand using video, reach out to us today!