The document discusses the history and purpose of corporate and promotional videos. It explores how corporate videos are used internally by companies to communicate with employees, and how promotional videos are used externally to advertise products and services. The document provides examples of both, including a current Frontier Airlines corporate video and a HARIBO promotional video. It also discusses the evolution of these types of videos over time, from expensive reel-to-reel productions in the 1970s to inexpensive digital productions today, which more companies are utilizing on their websites and social media.

1. Unit 28 - Essay on codes, conventions and current practice in corporate and
promotional video production.
By Chelsie Brandrick
I. INTRODUCTION
For centuries companies have been promoting their services and advertising their
products in a variety of ways, from newspapers ads to music videos to posts on social
media sites. Promotion is important to businesses as it enables them to showcase their
company and brand whilst raising awareness about the services they can offer. Many
multinational corporate companies will not only publish advertisements to the world but
will also release corporate videos to assist their staff members, which can ease staff
workloads and will generate good morale and publicity for the company thus creating
more revenue. The advertising industry is worth $600 billion a year and more
companies than ever are investing into promotions. This essay will explore why
companies are investing in adverting and why advertising works, as well as examining
the history of the methods businesses choose to promote themselves and the impact the
methods of advertising are having on the audience.
II. CORPORATE VIDEO
Corporate video is an umbrella term used to define all video communications used for
internal or external corporate messaging. Companies, corporations or organisations
often commission corporate videos to present statistics to stakeholders, highlight new
initiatives within the company, aid staff when training new members of the team and
promote the brand of the company. The format of corporate video varies but it will be
typically presented as a DVD, HD video, streaming video or online video. One-way that
corporate video can be distinguished from traditional video advertising is its target
audience, as they are intended for a specific audience rather than the general public. A
successful corporate video is educational and informing whilst still entertaining the
viewer. Due to the increase in technology, corporate videos are used on company
websites and social media pages, which have acted as a new, less expensive, form of
promotion and advertising for companies.
Many corporate videos are being produced using the same production techniques and
style as broadcast television programmes (such as using outside broadcasting facilities)

2. as a way of engaging audiences who are used to viewing popular media, a corporate
video could even be themed on a well-known television series.
A corporate video production company will act in a similar way to a major production
company by taking the client brief, developing a script and liaising with the client to
agree on a production schedule and delivery date. The time and scale of a corporate
video production can vary greatly. Some videos may use only minimal crew and basic
equipment, whilst some larger scale corporate videos may have similar budgets and
level of production than a broadcast television programme or TV commercial. The
corporate video production process will frequently involve the common stages of pre-
production, production and post-production.
HISTORY OF CORPORATE VIDEO
Corporate videos have been used since the 1970s when the arrival of reel to reel editing
machines encouraged the production of this new phenomenon within the corporate
sector. However a reel-to-reel studio in the 70s could easily cost £100,000 and were
primarily used for television productions, resulting in corporate videos only being made
by elite companies that could afford the high production costs. However those that
could afford the high price embraced the big budget and used wild animals, exotic
locations and expensive television personalities as part of the video; a £50,000 -
£100,000 price tag wasn’t unusual.
As the 80s progressed Sony, the main supplier of video and media equipment, started to
bring prices of professional equipment down, which enabled small companies to start to
produce corporate videos. Digital Video Effect machine prices dropped from £100,000
to a low end of £15,000. These allowed scenes to fly on, or appear in interesting ways
like circles and cubes. The price drop resulted in the growth of independent video
studios that didn’t depend on television as their main income. In the 1980s a corporate
video would be edited in a local studio on a cheaper semi-pro format such as Hi-Band,
where the completed video was made at offline quality. The offline was then taken to
the television studio to compile the offline at full online quality. This was a laborious
time consuming process compared to today, but it allowed any company with a message
could afford to share it.
Additionally graphic PCs emerged all capable of delivering the most important video

3. elements – graphics and captions. Graphics were a big breakthrough in corporate videos
as they enabled invisible things to be seen such as the inner workings of a machine or
technology process; or with training videos, the key points to remember could be seen
as captions, making the learning process easier.
By the 90s hybrid editing suites that contained a mixture of reel-to-reel machines and
computers rose in popularity as it allowed producers to add effects, transitions and
graphics to their productions as well as a quicker way to edit. But in practice these new
edit suites using computers were limited by the speed of the PCs of the time and all the
clips in a video now had to be rendered, which made production times in the studio
much slower.
While the editing standard in the 1990s was still a long way from today’s digital
environment, it reduced the price of corporate videos to acceptable levels similar to
modern prices.
In the early 2000s, corporate video production had become a worldwide phenomenon as
everything corporate could be shot on a reasonably priced camera and edited completely
on a computer.
Technological advances saw the progression from DVDs to HD, which increased the
quality of corporate videos.
Nowadays this marketing tool is inexpensive to film and edit, yet is effective when
promoting a brand or gaining new clients and all companies are using corporate videos
to their advantage. Many companies are choosing to release their corporate videos on
social media as a way to advertise their brand. Research has shown that by adding a
corporate video online increases the amount of traffic from search engines and is fifty
times more likely to hit the front page of Google than a single text web page.
EXAMPLE OF CORPORATE VIDEO
A good example of a current corporate video that was released online was published by
Frontier Airlines to promote their renowned customer service (the video can be found
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DjuUln6xZs).
The video opens with green text on a white background that mentions the company’s

4. name and that there have been changes within the company, which keeps the viewers
interest to continue watching their message. The following scenes feature the staff at
Frontier Airlines building one of their famous aeroplanes, the sequence shows the
progression of the build, from start to finish, which demonstrates the importance of the
staff at the company, enables the audience to relate to the workers and tells the viewer
what service the company offers and is promoting. Another text screen of green font on
a white background is shown after which mentions the companies ‘best asset’. The
shots that follow are of the staff at the company which suggests the people who work
for the airline are more important to company than what that airline actually does;
building and flying aeroplanes to carry passengers around the world. The rest of the
video features a selection of staff members introducing themselves, stating their job
roles and why they love the company which enables the audience to invest interest in
the staff and as the staff members shown are aged 30-50, the same age as the target
audience, the viewer can relate to the staffs accounts which will make them more likely
to want to work for the company or travel with the airline. All the staff members
interviewed are smiling whilst talking about their work which links their job and
workplace with a positive image and suggests that the workplace is happy. Featuring
staff interviews as a part of a corporate video shows that the company cares about the
staff that works for them as well as gives the staff an opportunity to boost the airlines
reputation with little work involved for the company. Immediately after the last staff
interview the video ends with a final title screen that states the companies name
alongside a logo, which connects the positive comments made by the staff to the brand.
The corporate video doesn’t feature a narrative but instead shows what the company
does on a day to day, which makes the video more relatable than a storyline. There are
strong mentions of the brands colour scheme, green white and blue, that is shown in the
title screens and throughout the video on the staffs uniform and the aeroplanes paint
work. This significant use of the company’s colours allows the viewer to associate the
positive video with the company. The video is shot using a documentary; fly on the wall
technique that gives a more personal and relatable result rather than the staged
alternative. As the video only features positive messages by the staff members and
focuses solely on the company brand there is no basis for a claim of defamation whether
it be slander or libel or any copyright infringement.

5. Overall the video is a good advertisement for the company and brand as it achieves its
aims to promote the ethos, values and working environment at Frontier Airlines in a
hope to attract new employees and customers. However it could be improved by
featuring shots of the staff in action and an aeroplane taking off as I feel it would
demonstrate what the company actually does rather than mentioning it in the staff
interviews.
III. COMMERICAL PROMOTION
Promotional videos are a form of commercial advertising used in broadcast media,
which are used to promote a programme airing on television or radio. They are also
used to advertise a product that a consumer can purchase, such as a mobile phone or a
car. Promotional videos are usually 15 to 60 seconds long, but 30-second adverts are the
most common. The majority of television and radio promos show a selection of video or
audio clips of scenes from an upcoming programme. Some utilize a monologue format
in which a star or host breaks the fourth wall, which is often done in a humorous
manner. The release date and where you can consume the product or show is always
included in the promotional video as well as the company’s brand and logo.
Commercial promotional videos are often used for advertisements, music videos and
informational videos.
HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL PROMOTION
In the 18th century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in England.
These early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books and newspapers,
which became increasingly affordable with the advances in the printing press; and
medicines, which were sought after in disease ravaged Europe. However, false
advertising became a problem, which ushered in the regulation of advertising content.
In the 19th century Thomas J. Barratt became “the father of modern advertising”. Barratt
created many effective advertising campaigns for Pears Soap Company, which involved
the use of targeted slogans, images and phrases. One of his slogans, “Good morning.
Have you used Pears’ soap?’ was famous in its day and into the 20th century.
In the 20th century advertising increased dramatically in the United States as
industrialization expanded the supply of manufactured products. In the 1910s and

6. 1920s, advertises in the U.S. adopted the idea that human instincts could be targeted and
harnessed into the desire to purchase commodities. In the 1920s the American
government promoted advertising by Herbert Hoover delivering an address to the
Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in 1925 called ‘Advertising Is a Vital Force
in Our National Life’.
In the 1930s tobacco companies became major advertisers in order to sell packaged
cigarettes. The tobacco companies pioneered new advertising techniques by creating
positive associations with smoking when they hired Edward Bernays, a nephew of
Sigmund Freud, who had been previously linked to the method that human desires
could be targeted through advertisements.
After the Second World War the idea of mass consumption became mainstream due to
luxury products like televisions, cars and clothing becoming increasingly affordable.
The rise in consumer products accompanied explosive growth in the television
advertising industry resulting in the 1950s and 1960s becoming the era of attempts at
marketing and advertising. Popular cartoon characters were used to sell cigarettes in an
early form of product placement and drive in cinema goers were exposed by video
adverts for food and drink at every intermission. The 1950s saw the birth of the long-
standing advertising trends that are still used today. Family was linked to consumption
and the ‘ideal’ family of two parents and two children began to be used to represent
consumers. Today the idea of family is still being used to promote products, particularly
household products such as cleaning products. Focus groups also began in the 1950s
and these are vastly used today to measure and assess the effectiveness of a promotional
video.
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and MTV,
which pioneered the concept of the music video. As cable television became
increasingly popular, specialty channels entirely devoted to advertising emerged, such
as QVC, Home Shopping Network and ShopTV Canada.
In the early days of the Internet, online advertising was mostly prohibited. Major
network NSFNet had ‘acceptable use policies’ that banned network ‘use for commercial
activities by for-profit institutions’. Consequently the first publicized example of online
advertising was via email on 3 May 1978 by Gary Thuerk, who sent an email to most of

7. the American west coast internet users promoting a computer for sale.
Online banner advertising began in the early 1990s as page owners sought additional
revenue streams to support their content. The first clickable web advert was sold by
Global Network Navigator in 1993 to a Silicon Valley Law firm. More recently,
companies have begun to merge their advertising messages into editorial content or
valuable services. Examples include Red Bull’s Red Bull Media House streaming Felix
Baumgartner’s jump from space online and Coca-Cola’s online magazines. Advertisers
are also embracing social media and mobile advert spending has grown 90% each year
from 2010 to 2013.
EXAMPLE OF COMMERCIAL PROMOTION
A popular example of a modern online advertisement is the Starmix Advert released by
HARIBO in 2016 (the video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_izZxRiNPqg).
The advertisement starts by displaying a familiar scene, a group of adults are waiting for
a train at a train station, one actor has a packet of HARIBO Starmix sweets and the rest
of the group want some of the sweets, which suggests that the product is too irresistible,
which can also make them too irresistible to buy. The familiarity of the opening scene
captures the attention of the adults in the target audience and gains their interest to
watch further. The scene is portrayed by adults, which attracts the same age range of 20-
40, as this is the section of the target audience that can purchase the product despite the
product being primarily aimed towards children. The dialogue in the advertisement is
spoken by children and then dubbed over adults miming to look like the adults have the
voices of children. In addition to children performing the dialogue, the speech used is
very humorous and features phrases that only children would use, for example, ‘I like
the eggs as they look like spaceships’, this enables the product to be attractive to
children and adults as it is a funny technique that captures the audiences attention. The
advert ends by playing the brands catchy theme song and displaying an image of the
product and the company name, which summarises the advert and allows the consumer
to know what was being promoted and what to buy.
The advert follows a narrative of a story about commuters waiting for a train and
amusing themselves in the meantime with a bag of sweets as a child would. The shots

8. used are very saturated and rich in colour, which represents the colours of the sweets in
the product as well as attracting children, the target audience, to watch the advert. The
video is shot in the style of a television show as it is scripted and staged which allows
the company to focus the attention on the product being promoted. The advert only
focuses on the HARIBO brand and as the advert is scripted it doesn’t feature any
slander and the visuals show no libel so there is no basis for a claim of defamation. The
video only uses the approved slogan; product placement and theme song so there are
also no copyright infringements.
Overall the video is a good advertisement for the HARIBO product Starmix sweets that
features an innovative sound technique, explosive and rich colour scheme that
successfully captures the attention of the diverse target audience of adults and children.
However, to improve this advertisement I would revert back to the brands old formula
of showing children in the video as I feel it would attract the target audience and built
on the dialogue technique further.
IV. FILM TRAILER
Film trailers are a unique combination of corporate and promotional video production as
they promote a film made by a production company as well as shows the companies
values and strategies. A film trailer incorporates the successful method that adverts use
by featuring all the best scenes and dialogue in the movie, which encourages the
audience to watch the film, as it would encourage them to buy the product. In addition
to this method the film trailer showcases the production company behind the film and
tells the audience who made the film and whom they should go to if they want to watch
more films of this standard, which creates customers for the company. Plus the film
trailer can demonstrate the production company’s values like delivering entertainment
to a target audience.
The term ‘trailer’ originates from when short clips were shown after, or ‘trailing’ a
feature film. This was found to be ineffective as the audience often left the theatre
immediately after the movie ended. After reviewing the practice, exhibitors moved
trailers to show before a movie starts. This practice is still used today in thousands of
movie theatres around the world.

9. HISTORY OF THE FILM TRAILER
The first trailer shown in an American film theatre was in November 1913, when Nils
Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew Theatre chain, produced a
short promotional video for the musical ‘The Pleasure Seekers’.
Up until the late 1950s trailers were mostly created by the National Screen Service and
consisted of key scenes from the film being advertised. But in the early 1960s the face
of motion picture trailers changed. Text less, montage trailers and quick editing became
popular, which was largely due to the arrival of the ‘new Hollywood’ and techniques
that were becoming increasingly popular in television.
By the 1970s the movie industry had completed changed from the ‘new Hollywood’ era
to global corporations focused on making a profit. One of the most notable turning
points in the new distribution era was in 1975 with the release of Jaws. During the
summer before the release of Jaws, Sony featured the trailer in between television
shows as well as before the start of a movie. Sony aimed to get the most out of the
$700,000 they invested in television advertising by showing the trailer all summer long
and their investment paid off as Jaws earned $7 million in its first weekend alone.
Nowadays, movie trailers have progressed from being shown on DVDs and before
movies at the theatre to being broadcasted online. Over 10 billion videos watched online
annually and film trailers rank third out of the most watch categories, many people are
now choosing to watch film trailers online to inform themselves on what content is
being released at the movies. As a result of this, more money is being allocated to
advertising than ever and editors of film trailers are now facing problems to make their
movie stand out in a sea of blockbuster style content.
EXAMPLE OF A FILM TRAILER
A film trailer that has achieved this well is ‘The Mummy’ which will be released at the
cinema in late 2017 (the video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6B8iOuW8iw&t=1s).
The trailer starts out by showing an establishing shot of the landscape and world that
this story is set in, which allows the viewer to immediately know what this story could
entail and grips them to want to watch more. The following scenes are an action

10. sequence that reveals Tom Cruise (a high status actor that would bring in his own target
audience), a shooting scene and shows the characters discovering a tomb with a hidden
evil, which shapes the story of the movie, tells the audience the genre and immediately
grabs the viewer’s interest. The series of shots slow down after the first action sequence,
which allows the audience to connect to the characters more and develop an attachment
to the storyline. A second action sequence follows and it is accompanied by dramatic
music and less dialogue as the tension rises to leave the trailer on a cliffhanger of
adrenaline. The video ends with a compilation of shots that have been edited to
represent a brief outline of the storyline and shows the fight between good and evil.
The trailer follows a narrative as it shows the storyline of the full film without giving
the details away to the audience, which leaves them with questions, so will likely make
the viewer want to watch the full movie. The shots are extremely professional and it is
obvious within the first few seconds of the trailer that the budget is high, however the
budget and standards will have to be if the production company expects the public to
pay to see the film. The target audience would be predicted to be 18-50 as the actors
represent the same age group and the themes of the movie would be inappropriate for
anyone under the age of 18. The colour scheme starts out being light and bright but
fades to dark and dull towards the end of the trailer, which represents the challenges, the
characters face during the story. Assuming the production company has permission to
use the music and as the footage is owned by the studio, there has been no copyright
infringement. The trailer is scripted as it is a film and the dialogue and visuals used do
not negatively impact the film so there is no basis for a defamation claim.
Overall the video is a good advertisement for the film ‘The Mummy’ as it has been
edited successfully to show the storyline of the film which enables the viewer to know if
they would like the full film as well as featuring a good range of action shots that
intrigue the audience to want to watch the full movie. However, to improve this trailer I
would condense the time, as 3 minutes is too long to invest in a film the audience may
or may not be interested.
V. COMPARISON
The format of film trailers are different to regular promotional videos as they focus
more on entertainment than selling a product, as with a film ensuring it is entertaining is

11. its selling point. But there are many similarities between the promotional videos; such
as ensuring the video is relatable to the target audience by using a cast similar in age to
the target audience or displaying the product in a way that would interest the target
audience. A high standard of production and camera quality is maintained in both types
of promotion, which in our modern society is a necessity to be taken seriously. Not all
the videos I have looked at used a narrative to promote their product or service but I feel
as though a narrative works better as it captures the audience’s attention and keeps it
more efficiently. All videos use a colour scheme that compliments the company and
target audience, whether its colours that symbolize the product or the company. None of
the advertisements I watched contained any libel, slander or copyright problems,
however this could be because I watched videos published by very successful brands
that would have a good legal team working for them preventing problems like
defamation. Videos produced by smaller companies may contain more legal issues and
less expensive equipment, which would result in a less effective finish.
VI. CONCLUSION
Whether a company is promoting their brand to the world in the form of a television
advertisement or internally by commissioning a corporate video, promotion is
important. Despite there being visual differences between adverts and movie trailers the
same range of emotive psychological techniques and high quality production and finish
are used. The same format is used as it is proven to get positive results and make the
business profits. In the 1930s public relations pioneer Edward Bernays found that
linking positive memories and connotations to products in an advert, results in a desire
to buy the product being advertised. For decades since, companies have been
successfully using this tried and tested method of advertising to make a profitable
income, which has boosted the advertising industry to being worth an all time high of
$600 billion a year. This technique is seen in the Frontier Airlines corporate video by
featuring happy, smiling staff members talking about their work, which creates a
positive link between the company and staff opinions. As well as being used in the
HARIBO Starmix advert as the actors are all smiling whilst mentioning the sweets,
which makes a positive connection from the public’s opinions to the product, thus
making it more likely to sell. Film trailers don’t use this technique as obviously as
adverts but the method is still present. In trailers there is always a selection of scenes
where the actors are upbeat before trouble stirs, most commonly the happy images are

12. shown at the beginning of the trailer as the audience is most likely to only remember the
start and the end, so they will remember the upbeat scenes and the drama at the end
along with the movie title.
In conclusion, the same codes and conventions are used in promotional videos
regardless of what the company are trying to advertise. Creating positive links between
an opinion and the product makes the product more likely to sell and keeping the
advertisements short and relatable is the most effective way to gain the audiences
interest.
Word Count: 4407.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Articles
Barraclough, L. 2016. Global Advertising Spend to Rise 4.6% to $579 billion in 2016.
Variety. [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available from:
http://variety.com/2016/digital/global/global-advertising-spend-rise-2016-1201735023/
Books
Brandt, A. 2009. The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and deadly persistence of the
Product That Defined America. 2nd Edition. New York: Basic Books.
Journals
Briggs, R and Hollis, N. 1997. Advertising on the Web: Is there Response Before Click
through? Journal of Advertising Research, p.33-35.
Ambler, T. 2000. Persuasion, Pride, Prejudice: How Ads Work. International Journal of
Advertising. 19(3), p. 299-315.
Newspapers
Coates, T.F.G. 1908. Mr Thomas J. Barratt, The father of Modern Advertising. Modern
Business. September 1908, p.107-115.
Reports
Interactive Advertising Bureau. 2013. Internet Advertising Revenue Report. [Online].
PricewaterhouseCoopers. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available from:
http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_Internet_Advertising_Revenue_Report_FY_2012_r
ev.pdf

13. Websites
Film Maker IQ. 2014.The History of the Movie Trailer. [Online]. [Accessed 13 April
2017]. Available from: http://filmmakeriq.com/2014/03/the-history-of-the-movie-
trailer/
Knife Creative. 2011. The History of Corporate Video Production Part 1. [Online].
[Accessed 10 April 2017]. Available from: http://www.knicecreative.com/blog/the-
history-of-corporate-video-production-part-1/
Knife Creative. 2011. The History of Corporate Video Production Part 2. [Online].
[Accessed 10 April 2017]. Available from: http://www.knicecreative.com/blog/the-
history-of-corporate-video-production-part-2/
Rixton, R. 2016. The Early History of Promotional Video: The Golden Age of
Advertising. [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2017]. Available from:
http://www.perspectivepicturesfilms.com/blog/golden-age-of-advertising
Tatum, M. 2017. What is a Promotional Video? [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2017].
Available from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-promotional-video.htm
Wikipedia. 2008. Advertising. [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
Wikipedia. 2016. Corporate Video. [Online]. [Accessed 10 April 2017].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_video
Wikipedia. 2006. Edward Bernays. [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
Wikipedia. 2015. History of Advertising. [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available
from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_advertising&dir=prev&action=hi
story
Wikipedia. 2011. Promo (Media). [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2017]. Available from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promo_(media)
Wikipedia. 2006. Promotion (Marketing). [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017].
Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(marketing)
Wikipedia. 2005. Trailer (promotion). [Online]. [Accessed 13 April 2017]. Available
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_(promotion)