Employer Branding & Recruiting in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

We've been attracting skilled professionals through multimedia since 2008.

Employer branding rarely fails because of the strategy. It fails because candidates never get to experience it. Pathfinder Studios is one of Germany's most experienced agencies for strategic video and brand communication. We make your employer brand tangible — through video, photography and copy, ready for every channel.

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Why Your Recruitment Efforts Need to Be Visual

Authentic Corporate Culture

Text and job postings convey information, while photos and videos convey a feeling. Through visual storytelling, we authentically showcase corporate culture and team spirit.

Preventing a Shortage of Skilled Workers

Top talent isn't just drawn by salary and benefits—they're also drawn by their colleagues and a sense of purpose. Our audiovisual content inspires professionals even before they apply.

Finding the Right Candidates

Your recruiting efforts need the right professionals. Our photo and video concepts are tailored specifically to your talent marketing and to help you find the right professionals for your organization.

Strengthen the employer brand

Your employer brand is our foundation. Our multimedia recruiting formats give your employer brand a face, authentic emotions, and long-term visibility.

Candidates are more likely to apply for an open position if they have previously watched a recruitment video from the company.

ⓘSource: Jobvite / Aberdeen / Glassdoor

Companies that use employer branding videos receive more organic applications and see their cost per hire cut in half compared to companies that do not use videos.

ⓘSource: Aberdeen Group / LinkedIn

Companies can build greater credibility among applicants through authentic recruiting videos featuring video testimonials from real employees.

ⓘSource: Edelman Trust Barometer

"Job postings can't convey an employer brand. Your employees can."

The biggest challenge in employer branding: “Flat hierarchies, a dynamic team, and the obligatory fruit basket”—the text-based job posting has become a generic checklist. If the employer brand isn’t something candidates can experience firsthand, the best candidates will, when in doubt, choose the competition, whose image is more tangible.

Why Video Is So Important for Recruiting: Photos and videos in recruitment marketing offer a glimpse into authentic day-to-day work life. Whether staged or documentary-style, funny or serious—video works. Career sites featuring high-quality employer videos increase conversion rates by up to80%ⓘSource: Glassdoor / Aberdeen Group / LinkedIn. And they do so at any time of day and in all languages.

Emotions make all the difference: Text conveys information. Videos convey personality. Your employees in their day-to-day team life—whether through employee testimonials or trainee vlogs.

Let's work together to visualize your recruiting process.

Together, we'll discuss how we can support your recruiting efforts through communication. Free of charge. No obligation. Personalized. We're here to advise you! #gerneperDu

Portrait of Yvonne Schwalowski / Ivy Thomas, Producer & Consultant at Pathfinder Studios

Yvonne Schwalowski
Senior Producer

+49 (0) 2251 / 773 9966
office@pathfinder-studios.de

Schedule a call

EXPERTISE YOU CAN RELY ON

Two perspectives, one method: strategy first, production second. What sets Pathfinder Studios apart is the combination of 18 years of expertise from film director Tom Wolt and business consultant and author Yvonne Schwalowski.

✔ 18 years of marketing experience

✔ Internationally experienced team

✔ 450+ successful client projects

✔ Personal advice, as equals

Tom Wolt

Creative Director

Tom Wolt has spent 19 years directing films and advising brands, mid-sized companies and public figures.

Tom combines ambitious storytelling with the highest visual standards. His 450+ corporate films, documentaries and music videos for global brands like AUDI, MIELE and YAYLA have reached millions of viewers worldwide — on TV, in cinemas and online.

After more than 1,000 days on set, no project can rattle him. When he's not making films or watching them, you'll find him playing sport and following the global markets.

Tom Wolt on LinkedIn
Tom Wolt on IMDb
» more about Tom

Yvonne Schwalowski

Producer & Consultant

Yvonne Schwalowski has spent 14 years producing films, advising and writing copy for brands and mid-sized companies.

A former journalist and business consultant — for e.g. the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and Evonik — she is the strategic mind behind Pathfinder Studios. Under the name Ivy Thomas, she produces international feature films, music videos and award-winning shorts.

When she isn't consulting for companies, she has written 13 novels under the pen name Yvonne Westphal, published by e.g. Piper, Ullstein, arsEdition, and Egmont.

Yvonne Schwalowski on LinkedIn
Ivy Thomas on IMDb
» More about Yvonne

Awards won by Pathfinder Studios for its corporate films and international short films (part 1)

Awards won by Pathfinder Studios for its corporate films and international short films (part 2)

"When everyone promises everything, the ones who deliver win."

— Tom Wolt, Creative Director at Pathfinder Studios

How We Make Your Recruitment Marketing Stand Out

Strategic Recruitment Videos

Through intensive workshops, we’ll work together to identify the biggest pain point in your recruitment marketing. That’s how we align your values with the expectations of your target audience.

Concepts for Employee Marketing

Drawing on 18 years of experience, we develop sustainable strategies to communicate your employer brand to your target audiences in an authentic, modern, and credible way.

Corporate Values Through Storytelling

People love stories. As experienced storytellers, we craft powerful stories to authentically and lastingly infuse your values with emotion.

Authenticity Through Film, Text, and Images

Whether it’s a recruitment video, employee testimonial interviews, or an apprentice vlog—we provide the multimedia assets you need for successful change communication and transformation.

How we bring the recruitment process for over 450 client projects to life

"Straight-talking advice meets emotional storytelling."

As a strategic production company, we combine hard facts with real emotion — so that our videos, photos and multimedia assets actually reach your goal.

The most common problem in B2B corporate communication: it's strong on substance but empty on emotion. That's where we come in. With roots in international feature film and in business consulting, Pathfinder Studios combines strategic thinking with emotional storytelling. After 18+ years working with global brands and hidden champions, we know one thing: facts win the mind — but decisions, whether it's a major contract or a new job, are made in the gut.

Strategy first: starting from your goals, we build the right solution from the full range of filmmaking tools.

Corporate Film

A corporate film is the foundation of good visual marketing. Big or small, documentary or staged — we make yours worth watching.

» Check out our promotional videos

Still from a Pathfinder Studios corporate film for F&S concept, showing a family laughing together outdoors

Still from a corporate film for F&S concept, showing a happy older couple outdoors in front of a housing development

Corporate portrait photography for Deutsche Mechatronics, showing two executives together

RECRUITING FILMS

Recruiting videos are the hidden champion of corporate film. As an employer brand film, honest employee interviews or an apprentice film — we bring your culture to life.

» Discover our recruiting films

Photography

Great photos inform and inspire your customers. We shoot with a trained eye for aesthetics. Employee portraits, product shots, buildings and facilities.

» Discover our corporate photography

Corporate photography for Deutsche Mechatronics, showing a welder carrying out a quality inspection

Corporate photography for Deutsche Mechatronics, showing a welder at work

DigiHub Erklaervideo Unternehmen_0005 Large

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos make content stick. Animated or filmed, with interviews or without — and always with a smile. Let's get your knowledge across.

» Discover our explainer videos

What Our Clients Say

Companies across every industry choose Pathfinder Studios to move their marketing forward and make their values tangible. For 18 years, we've been proud to contribute to our clients' long-term success with films, photos and videos that carry emotion and purpose. Our 450+ projects for mid-sized companies, industry, research, education and the public sector across Europe have grown into lasting partnerships between equals. Because partnership starts with trust.

"Pathfinder Studios understood immediately that we couldn't deliver this content as yet another dry e-learning module. They had the courage to challenge our original brief and created a training film that sparks real emotion and genuine pride. The internal reaction was overwhelming: 'Finally, a mandatory training that actually lands.'"

– Marlene Managache, Sales & Customer Service Academy, MAN Truck & Bus SE

"Great ideas, excellent advice and an innovative approach to our strategic goals. Thank you for the outstanding result."

– Prof. Dr. Christiane Vaeßen, Managing Director, Aachen Region

"Exceptionally professional, consistently pleasant to work with, and a film result that's simply excellent."

– Michael Meese, Team Leader for Start-ups and Business Development, IHK North Westphalia

"Working with Pathfinder Studios was a real success. It mattered to us that our own people appeared in the film rather than actors. That's what makes it honest and authentic. You couldn't show the day-to-day and the people behind FACTUR any better. That genuine insight is what makes this project so valuable to us."

– Silke Görgens, HR Marketing & Employer Branding, FACTUR Billing Solutions GmbH

"A fantastic film — our customers still bring it up."

– Jürgen Carl, Managing Director, Deutsche Mechatronics GmbH

"My personal thanks for the professional and thoroughly pleasant collaboration. Our Australians are very happy too."

– Ralf Spies, Managing Director of FilterCare GmbH

Book a free consultation

How to Make Employer Branding & Recruiting Successful
PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO

EVERYTHING UNDER ONE ROOF

Ensuring Your Recruitment Efforts Have a Long-Term Impact

For us, our work on your employer branding and recruiting doesn’t end with the strategy and a concept for your authentic HR marketing communications. As a full-service agency, we also offer the following services—among others—to B2B clients in the SME sector, industry, research, technology, and the public sector:

Service Area	What We Do
Strategy & Content	✔ B2B Workshops, Strategy & Concepts ✔ Cross-Media Campaigns (film + Web + Photography) ✔ Social Media Snippets & Short-Form Content ✔ Corporate Learning & E-Learning Formats
Video Production & Film	✔ Corporate films ✔ Recruiting videos & HR videos ✔ Commercials ✔ Training and safety instruction videos ✔ Product videos ✔ Explainer videos ✔ Event and trade fair films
Corporate Photography	✔ Corporate photography ✔ Business photography ✔ Employee and employer branding photos ✔ Product photography ✔ Event and architectural photography

Emotion You Can Actually Feel

You have the substance. We have the strategic thinking and the cinematic craft to get it across to your audience the right way.

For us, "emotional" doesn't just mean tears or laughter. Emotion is also curiosity, anticipation, insight, concern, acceptance, awe — or pride.

Felt something? Let's talk.

Ready to take your visual employer branding to the next level?

Together, we'll discuss the potential for your multimedia recruitment marketing. Free of charge. No obligation. One-on-one. We're here to advise you! #gerneperDu

Yvonne Schwalowski
Senior Producer

+49 (0) 2251 / 773 9966
office@pathfinder-studios.de

Schedule a call

Questions & Answers on Employer Branding and Video-Based Recruiting

Is Pathfinder Studios the right partner for our employer branding?

Pathfinder Studios is one of Germany’s most experienced film production and media consulting firms serving European small and medium-sized businesses. For over 18 years, we have been supporting B2B companies and “hidden champions” in manufacturing, industry, research, and technology—as well as corporate groups and startups—with authentic, sustainable communication in employee branding, recruiting, and HR marketing.

How long does it take to develop our audiovisual employer branding?

Audiovisual employer branding and recruiting with videos is a long-term process and doesn’t happen overnight. Our individual employer branding and HR marketing projects for companies are typically completed within 1–4 months. These include consulting on the visual representation of employer branding and recruiting, as well as promotional videos, recruitment videos, employee photos, and trainee vlogs.

In a personal introductory call, we'll give you a realistic timeline for your specific project.

How much do audiovisual employee marketing and recruiting videos cost?

Audiovisual employee branding often involves a combination of various measures, such as videos and images. Experience shows that individual measures for audiovisual employer branding—such as a recruitment video, employer brand film, corporate video, or WBT onboarding videos—cost between €5,000 and €50,000, depending on the objectives and content focus.

Drawing on 18 years of marketing experience, we'll advise you free of charge on which measures best fit your needs and your budget.

What services does Pathfinder Studios provide for authentic HR marketing in small and medium-sized businesses?

As a full-service agency, Pathfinder Studios provides all the services you need for authentic talent marketing—from analysis, concept development, and strategy to audiovisual, photography, copywriting, and video production, such as corporate image films, recruitment videos, training videos, employee profiles, corporate photography, and much more. Upon request, we can provide you with long-term consulting and support.

Drawing on 18 years of marketing experience, we'll advise you free of charge on which measures best fit your needs and your budget.

How can we make our B2B small-to-medium-sized business attractive to apprentices and skilled workers?

Apprentices and skilled workers are different target groups with varying needs depending on the industry. At Pathfinder Studios, we identify the right audiovisual style and medium to attract the talent you’re looking for. We recommend creating specific, honest insights for both target groups. Based on your company’s unique situation, this could include authentic recruitment videos, employee testimonials, or “A Day at the Office” narratives.

In a personal introductory call, we'll make concrete suggestions for your project.

As an unknown "hidden champion," how do we build a strong employer brand?

As a hidden champion, you already possess the most important elements for a strong visual employer brand: business substance, job security, and highly specialized technology. We communicate these aspects through audiovisual media (videos, photos, podcasts), honest Q&A videos, and formats that also give voice to employees’ concerns. This is how we make your employer brand visible, tangible, and authentic.

Are recruitment videos worth it? What is the ROI of talent marketing using photos and videos?

The ROI (return on investment) of visual employee branding and recruiting videos is usually easy to calculate for small and medium-sized businesses. When you compare the one-time production costs for professional employer branding videos to the costs of unfilled positions, job portals, and headhunter fees, the investment usually pays for itself with just the first or second successful hire. According to LinkedIn, a strong visual employer brand can reduce the cost per hire and time to hire by up to 50%.

Talk to our experts

Phone: +49 (0) 2251 / 773 99 66
(Mon–Fri 8am–5pm CET)

Email: office@pathfinder-studios.de

Schedule a call

A selection of our clients

Pathfinder Studios is a proud partner to mid-sized businesses, corporations, startups and the public sector across every industry. Can you picture your logo among these? If so, get in touch and see for yourself. We'd love to hear from you.