Advertising 101 – Video Production for Commercials

Modern advertising takes many forms but there is no denying the importance of video commercials. This form of advertising isn’t just critical for consumer-based businesses either, but also for B2B enterprises.

This is where understanding some basics of video production for commercials is so important.

Making effective commercial videos for advertising purposes is a distinct skill. The outcome must captivate, engage, and drive results, and getting it right is essential for your brand’s reputation and success.

The Ingredients of a Great Commercial Video

What makes an advertising video stand out from its competition?

A clear value proposition – how does your unique offering solve your target audience’s specific problem? How can it improve their life/work/business? It must be simple and concise.

Targeting – each commercial needs to speak to a single product/service, problem/solution, and essentially a specific audience.

Professionalism – high-quality production is essential for the success of your ad campaign and the reputation of your brand. This means ensuring you have crisp, appealing visuals and clear audio, as well as polished editing and visual design.

Robust Storytelling – which requires an authentic narrative and visual appeal. While words matter, visuals pack a much bigger, much more instantaneous, attention-grabbing punch.

Emotion – even for a B2B video ad, building an emotional rapport with your audience is a very powerful driver of results. This could mean highlighting growth potential, exploiting aspirations or concerns, triggering peace of mind, inspiration, satisfaction, and more.

Call to Action (CTA) – this needs to be clear, concise, compelling, and effective. Encourage website click-throughs, bookings, subscriptions, downloading an app, and anything else – but make sure each ad has a single CTA.

Commercial Video Production – Step-by-Step Tips

What is Your Objective? What is the point of your ad – what do you want it to achieve? From lead generation to boosting brand awareness, promoting a specific product or service to driving subscriptions, or anything else, you must clarify your objective for the ad before you do anything else.

Who is Your Audience? Knowing your target audience is the next step. Who are they? What matters to them? What specific problem do they have that you have a unique solution for? What type of ad is going to appeal to them? You must tailor your video ad to meet these specific preferences and needs.

Script & Storyboard Creation. Every video ad needs a script and a visual story. These act as a metaphorical roadmap for the creation of your final product and the effective delivery of your brand message. Your script and storyline need to be cohesive and flow naturally, and the language and tone must comply with your brand identity and suit your target audience. Your visual storyboard helps you visualize the video sequence, frame-by-frame before it is created.

Equipment Selection. Quality here matters and the type of ad you’re making will determine the equipment you need. Animated ads require software for graphics creation and video animation and a microphone for voiceover. A live-action ad will require a professional video camera, lighting equipment, audio recording equipment, and more. Only professional equipment will deliver the quality you require for a professional ad.

Shoot! Edit! Brand! Refer to your script and storyboard and shoot your video scenes based on these. Record voiceovers where required and use editing software to clean it up, cut and transition, add sound effects and music (royalty-free!), create animations, and ensure the whole product flows cohesively and is of the highest professional export quality. This aspect of commercial video creation is likely the one most people will need help from an experienced video production professional.

You’ll also need to incorporate your unique branding into your video. This should be in the form of subtle brand elements that influence but don’t distract audiences. Consider your branding palette, logo, and identity.

Distribution. Where will your video be published? (Note that this will inform the aspect ratio of your video). It could be on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, via email, on Google Pay-per-Click ads, webinars, on television, in cinema, at events, or other platforms.

The potential of video ads is unlimited – and getting it right from the outset is imperative for your greatest return on investment.
Need Help? Outsourcing to a professional agency for the best outcomes in video production for commercials can be a very wise investment with profitable returns for your business.