Where Should I Show My Corporate Film? How to Reach the Most Customers

You’ve had a corporate film produced. Where should you show it now – and above all, how do you make sure it reaches your target group? Here we have compiled the most important online and offline channels for you.

Where should I show my corporate film?

You’ve had a corporate film produced, and now the whole world should see it! Or at least all your potential and existing customers, employees and stakeholders. 

Choosing the right channels is almost more important than choosing the right film production company or deciding on the content of your corporate film. In the right medium, even a mediocre corporate film can go through the roof in terms of reach, while even the best corporate film won’t perform well in an unsuitable medium.

So companies should ask themselves where to use their corporate film before and during production. But don’t worry if you only think about the options after it’s finished: we have summarised the most important channels for you here. Let’s go:

Where does my corporate film have the greatest reach?

Deciding where to use your corporate film is also a marketing question: where does your corporate film have the greatest reach? Or to put it another way: where are a particularly large number of your customers and stakeholders?

You can use your corporate film for the following purposes:

• More attention for your company (A-IDA)
• Getting people interested in your company (A-I-DA)
• Influencing a (purchase) decision in your favour (AI-D-A)
• Longer dwell time (on the website or the trade fair stand)
• Encouraging viewers to share the film with friends

When we think of video marketing and high reach, social media channels and video platforms immediately come to mind – above all Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. After all, you keep hearing about videos that have “gone viral” and companies that suddenly experienced a real boom in buyers or applicants. Of course: the sheer number of members on these sites offers potential for enormous gross reach.

For your corporate film to reach – or ideally even exceed – its target, it needs great reach, i.e. as many people as possible who can see it – ideally even having it conveniently presented to them without having to look for it. So it’s about using your corporate film where your users already spend their time. As the figures show, social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube have the greatest potential reach because of their large number of members.

But reach alone doesn’t help if you reach the wrong target group there. So the next question is:

Where are my customers?

In B2B in particular, companies increasingly ask themselves: are my customers really on social media? Or are there much better channels on the marketing keyboard that you could actually play brilliantly in your sleep, but forget about when it comes to “creative and modern online marketing”? Don’t worry, we’ve listed a few!

What matters is knowing where your customers are. Is it more the younger generation that spends time on Instagram and YouTube? Or the older generation, who probably use Facebook privately but comparison portals and websites for work?

To find out, you need to know your target customers exactly: are you addressing decision-makers, HR managers or buyers? Experienced specialists or young trainees? Are your target groups more modern or more conservative?

For example, you may meet your customers at trade fairs and events. If you are clear in advance about where your customers are, you can avoid the risk of showing your corporate film on sites that make no sense for you.

The good news: there are countless ways to show your corporate film. The most popular channel for a corporate film is still your own website, followed by your own premises, trade fairs and events. Here we have listed the most common uses, divided into online and offline measures.

Using your corporate film online

There are many options for your corporate film online, and they can be divided into four categories:

1. Website
   • Landing page
   • Online shop
   • Recruiting portal
2. Video platforms
   • YouTube
   • Vimeo
3. Social media
   • Facebook
   • Instagram
   • Twitter
   • Xing
   • LinkedIn
4. External online portals
   • Online shops, e-marketplaces
   • Comparison portals
   • Job portals

Use your corporate film on your website

The most popular channel for a corporate film is still your own website. Customers looking for information about your products or services will automatically come across your film. Some undecided visitors can be convinced of your quality this way, and the number of your customers grows.

Of course, the corporate film should be clearly visible and placed prominently. Many companies choose the home page (often directly in the banner) or the “About us” section. 

Your own sub-portals deserve special mention, such as landing pages, the online shop (if you have one) or your own applicant portal. Landing pages used for SEO and SEA campaigns perform many times better in Google rankings and increase dwell time and conversion. Video content also has a positive effect in online shops and applicant portals, because videos make decisions easier and faster.

Unlike on social media, however, the reach of the corporate film on your website is determined by your website’s visitor numbers, so you can’t expect utopian view counts if your website only gets a few visitors. In that case, you can fall back on a few tricks of the internet:

Create synergies on video platforms

There are two ways to embed your corporate film on your website: “natively”, i.e. directly via the file itself. This has the advantage that the browser can index it directly, but the disadvantage that the large video file is loaded as soon as someone visits the page. With increasing mobile use, still-limited data volumes and patchy broadband coverage, this can be annoying for your users.

The second option is to upload your corporate film to video platforms and embed the link on your website. The file stays on the video platform and is only loaded when someone clicks the video.

This option gives you two advantages at once: besides better performance thanks to less data, your film can also be found via two of the biggest search engines in the world: YouTube and Vimeo.

YouTube is still the largest online video platform in the world, with over 1 billion hours of video watched every day. You should upload at least a Full HD 1080p file.

Besides YouTube, Vimeo is a popular video platform where you can upload your corporate film. There you can, for example, allow videos to be downloaded or present them in a particularly polished way. The user groups also differ: mainstream (YouTube) and artists/creatives (Vimeo).

Because of the sheer number of users and the advantages for companies, however, YouTube is usually the better choice. The advertising agency or film production company you trust will surely help you make the right decision.

How a corporate film works on social media

To use your corporate film on social media, you should first look at users’ habits. It’s ideal if you have a profile yourself and analyse your own behaviour:

User behaviour on social media is passive. Unlike on Google, comparison portals and blogs, we don’t actively look for information there but let content wash over us. Our attention span is 10 seconds at most and is controlled by algorithms: the more personas in your target group have watched or interacted with the film, the more similar people it is shown to. And the more personas have clicked it away or scrolled past it, the fewer people it is shown to. What this means for you:

On social media, your corporate film has to really pack a punch – i.e. be extremely attention-grabbing, ideally within the first five seconds. Keep this in mind if you decide to show your corporate film on social media. Many companies even decide to commission a special version just for social media: the same film, but with a different edit and timing, often with text overlays and sometimes even different music. 

Corporate films on social media also have special requirements, for example regarding length: on Instagram, your corporate film may not be longer than 60 seconds – and is ideally in 1:1 or 4:5 format, because it then fills more of the screen. It’s different if you want to show your corporate film in an Instagram Story or on IGTV: these have a portrait format and therefore have to be designed completely differently.

If you keep all these conditions in mind, you can use your corporate film on social media without hesitation.

More visibility on online portals

You may now be wondering: what is my corporate film doing on online portals? Let me explain:

Online portals (such as shopping portals, comparison portals, blogs or job portals) are digital magnets that attract huge numbers of visitors, comparable to a trade fair. Wouldn’t you want to be present as an employer at the biggest job fair? Or show your own corporate film in the biggest department store?

Potential customers and applicants use online portals to find information and make a (purchase) decision. You can’t upload your own videos on all of them, but wherever you have the chance, you should use your corporate film.

Use your corporate film everywhere

In the digital world, we often forget the tried-and-tested classic marketing channels. Here, too, we show the four most relevant ones in which you can use your corporate film – plus a little bonus tip:

1. Your own premises
2. Events
3. Trade fairs
4. Cinema & TV
5. Bonus: competitions and corporate film festivals

Use your corporate film as your receptionist

If you have the technical means, show your corporate film on a screen at reception! This gives visitors, applicants and customers an immediate, varied impression of your company and shows that your marketing is audiovisually up to date.

Showing your corporate film on a screen on a loop is particularly worthwhile if you have a lot of walk-in visitors. In any case, you can use your corporate film temporarily when you hold applicant days or are expecting important customers.

Your corporate film can also be used outside the reception area, for example as an opener for presentations and as an overview for groups of visitors from schools, local authorities and politics. Your field sales team can also conveniently show the corporate film on a tablet or laptop.

Show your corporate film at the company party

Corporate films are very popular at company parties, anniversaries or internal meetings. The film reminds employees that it was a joint project and so strengthens the working atmosphere. At the same time, it shows employees once again the core and identity of the company they work for and can strengthen team spirit, identification with the company and employee loyalty.

At anniversaries, big or small, team spirit is the focus. A corporate film in which your employees appear or give insights into their area of work is always a highlight among colleagues.

Corporate films produced especially for anniversaries are particularly nice, in which managing directors or managers express their personal thanks to employees and show the film on the big screen in front of the whole team.

You can also show your corporate film on a loop on monitors or a big screen at an open day or summer party. This not only attracts attention but also entertains your visitors.

Is your corporate film suitable for trade fairs?

You have a corporate film and you are planning a trade fair appearance – why not combine the two? If you want to use your corporate film at a trade fair, the film has to meet two conditions.

1. The film is optimised for trade fairs
2. You have the necessary usage rights

If you want to show your corporate film at a trade fair, it has to be optimised for trade fairs. Trade fairs are often very noisy, crowded and hectic. Hundreds of people stream past your stand; many only glance at it briefly and decide in a split second whether to stop or walk on. Your corporate film has to be optimised for these special conditions.

Very important: at trade fairs, your corporate film has to work without sound. This means either the images speak for themselves – i.e. they are understandable and self-explanatory at first glance – or the film has subtitles. Interviews, personal statements from managers and technical instructions have little chance of success at trade fairs. However, aerial footage, very close detail shots, animation and slow motion work particularly well.

Here, too, many companies opt for a version of the corporate film optimised for trade fairs. It costs a small amount, but pays for itself many times over thanks to the stand’s greater pulling power.

For trade fairs you also need a separate usage licence from the agency or film production company that produced your corporate film. The usage licence for corporate films derives from German copyright law and is fair in that a corporate film shown at large events and in mass media is seen by more people and therefore has a higher value for you.

Just ask your film production company or agency for a no-obligation quote. Sometimes the usage rights for trade fairs are already included in the original quote and often aren’t that expensive at all. The costs then usually count towards your trade fair budget and pay off through greater reach and lead generation.

Is your corporate film ready for cinema & TV?

While we’re on the subject of mass media, cinema and TV advertising should at least get a mention. Is your corporate film suitable for cinema and TV? A fair warning at this point: 99% of all corporate films are not suitable for cinema and TV.

One reason is length, because commercials are based on the available time slots in the programme. These are typically 10, 15, 20, 30 or 40 seconds. The longer the duration, the more the broadcast costs, of course.

Suitability for cinema and TV also depends on the content. Here you want to generate attention quickly and to the point – like a snappy line in passing. But your corporate film was most likely produced with the aim of building trust and a relationship through personality – like a good conversation over a glass of wine.

It is often not just difficult but practically impossible to modify a corporate film so that you can use it in cinema and on TV. This works best with a different kind of company film: the commercial.

Read more about what a commercial is and how to use it profitably to boost sales and revenue in our article:
“The commercial – everything companies need to know”

Bonus: corporate film awards – your corporate film as a winner

Corporate film awards? You’ve heard of the Academy Awards aka the “Oscars”, the Golden Globes and the Emmys, and the big festivals like Cannes and the Berlinale mean something to you – but do such things exist for company films too?

Yes, they do! And they are even worthwhile – both for the producing agency or film production company and for the company. They bring more reach and attention – even internationally and among decision-makers. These festivals are called corporate festivals, and leading the way is the well-known French city of the entertainment industry: Cannes Corporate for company films and Cannes Lions for commercials. Brands such as Porsche and Audi, as well as independent awards, also present awards that specialise either in industries or in particular criteria of the entrants. A selection:

• Audi Generation Award for young talent
• Porsche Award for mobility
• Audi Innovation Award for innovations
• Clio Awards for fashion & beauty, healthcare, sport, music and entertainment
• WorldMediaFestival for every kind of corporate and marketing film

In most cases there is an entry fee, per category or per entry (yes, you can enter several corporate films, commercials and marketing films in one year). Companies and the film production company or agency often share the entry fees, though.

How do you get your corporate film into a film festival or an award? That is mainly the job of the film production company or advertising agency – and this is exactly where your big opportunity lies: if you are already setting aside budget for a corporate film, why not look for a really good film production company that can win competitions?

We’ll certainly keep our fingers crossed for you!

Conclusion: you can use your corporate film everywhere

If you want to use your corporate film, you have many options, both online and offline.

Your own website and video platforms are a must, and social media is probably the strongest area for achieving great reach. Depending on the target group, other places such as trade fairs or your own premises make at least as much sense.

You could even say: the more, the better. Because no matter how much your corporate film cost, if nobody sees it, it was clearly too expensive. Speaking of costs:

Read all about corporate film costs and how to calculate them here:
“What does a corporate film cost? How to work out the costs.”

Read more about the return on investment of corporate films here:
“Corporate film ROI – how your corporate film pays off.”

A word from the author:

I hope this article has given you an insight into the ways you can use your corporate film, and I’d be delighted if you take away an idea or two.

If you have feedback, suggestions or further questions about film production, video or online marketing, feel free to contact me or my colleagues personally.

I wish you every success with the right corporate film for you.