Which type of video do you need?

Most businesses ask for a video when they actually need three different things, or ask for three when one would have done. A plain guide to what each format is for.

When someone asks us for a video, the first question back is always the same. What is it for, and where will someone see it? The answer decides the format, and the format decides almost everything else.

What is a brand film?

A brand film says who you are, not what you sell. It is usually two to five minutes, it lives on your home page and gets used in pitches and at events, and it has a shelf life of years. It works when a customer needs to trust you before they buy, which is most service businesses and almost every trade.

It is the wrong choice if you need to move a specific product this month. A brand film builds belief slowly. It does not sell a thing on Thursday.

What is a commercial or product film?

A product film has one job: make someone want a specific thing. Thirty to ninety seconds, tight, and built around the moment of proof. For a lure that is the fish eating it. For fence security that is the bolt cutters failing on it. Everything else in the edit serves that moment.

These are the highest value videos most brands can make, because they sit next to a buy button and do measurable work. They are also the easiest to get wrong, because the temptation is to explain the product rather than show it working.

What is social content?

Short vertical pieces, cut for a feed, made to be scrolled past unless they earn the first second. Reels, shorts, and the like. Individually they are worth little. As a run of them, posted consistently, they are how most regional businesses actually get found now.

The mistake is treating social as an afterthought cut from the brand film. Vertical is a different shape, a different pace and usually a different edit entirely. It should be planned into the shoot, not rescued from it.

What about a documentary?

A longer piece, usually five minutes upward, built around a real person or a real event rather than a product. It is the most expensive thing on this list and the hardest to justify on a spreadsheet. It is also the only one people choose to watch, share and remember, which is why brands with something genuinely worth saying keep making them.

So which one do you need?

If nobody has heard of you, start with the brand film. If they know you but are not buying, make product films. If you are already selling and want more of it, make social content consistently. Most businesses need all three eventually, and the cheapest way to get there is to film them in the same week rather than across three separate jobs.

If you are not sure, tell us the problem rather than the format. We would rather talk you out of a video you do not need than sell you one that will sit unused.