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7 Internal Communication Videos for Your Inspiration

Posted by Valerie Nolan on June 24, 2016

When it comes to creating engaging internal communication videos, there are no set rules for what is the most effective way to immerse your employees. But there are examples of what has worked in the past.

While difficult to find, we’ve sourced a few videos and outlined their successful aspects, with tips on how to take cues from them in your own internal videos.

1. The Whiteboard Video

Finding new and engaging ways to dramatize abstract ideas is one of the benefits of a whiteboard video. These videos add a sense of play to corporate culture. It helps build a pressure-free environment without losing the call-to-action drive you expect your employees to embrace to be successful.

Low on production costs but high on creativity, these videos are a great bang for your buck. Because your canvas is a whiteboard, the sky is the limit in terms of visual content you can introduce; if it can be drawn, it can happen.

2. The Internal Meeting

Steve Jobs knew how to run a successful business, and his internal key notes to employees were part of that equation. Watch the way he addresses them in a casual, friendly manner; heart-to-heart, as a fellow peer.  Employees want to work for people and companies they respect, and Jobs’ down-to-earth, motivational and honest address really inspires his team to want to reach excellence for a company they love to work for.

Hire a camera crew that compliments your speaker. You need a team that understands how to shoot live events, capture organic moments, and understands the importance of framing your keynote speaker in an aesthetically pleasing way. Shorts optional.

3. The Corporate Film

One of the abilities of video is to take real life concepts and transform them into metaphors for the values and ideals that your company represents. The corporate film should never be thought of as a commercial, but as a short story, with a cause-and-effect plot, with the effect showing employees why your product correlates with their own beliefs and values.

Give them a reason to be inspired.

Note how effective the combination of strong, riveting visuals and a powerful soundtrack is. Make sure you have a talented cinematographer on board and a strong camera and grip/electrical department to back them up.

4. The Internal Training Video

Safety is crucial. Despite its importance in the workplace, safety videos that lack flair may lose your audience’s attention and information won’t be digested. A training video that makes learning an entertaining process will make sure those necessary safety facts stick in your employees’ minds.

Creative content is key. Borrowing from current pop culture references and tropes are great, but be careful what you pull from; you don’t want to base a training video on a trend that will be irrelevant in a year from now, so don’t be afraid to generalize your references in order to maximize on reusability. Humor is a tool you can use to your advantage, but keep it light.

5. The Recruitment Video  

The recruitment video is for giving potential employees the opportunity to visualize a positive and promising future with your company. They want to see the behind-the-scenes magic, the need for creative problem solving and how immersive their work experience could be.

Apple accomplishes this through a combination of slick product close ups, charismatic interviews and b-roll of fascinating day-to-day operations.

The right combination of these visuals edited together can create an informative and inspirational video that acts as a call-to-action for talented work applicants. Set your interviewees in front of dynamic backgrounds, give your cinematographer references for how you’d like product shots to look, and remember that color is an important reactive tool you should utilize.

6. The Internal Announcement

This is a classic example of putting a face to the name; allowing the founder of a company to address employees personally, combined with slick design transitions so that the entire video isn’t just a talking head, yet distributes information in an effective manner.

Be careful of the speaker’s eyelines; if they can memorize the script prior to shooting, having their eyes look directly into the camera creates more of a personal feel for viewers than someone who is distracted reading cue cards. You want to create a connection, not a disconnect.

7. The Corporate Internal Interview

This is your opportunity to answer questions about the productivity and success of your company without creating a forced format to distribute it in. Since it feels like a conversation between two informed individuals, your employees will feel like they are part of the discussion rather than being talked at.

Coverage is important. Make sure your crew incorporates an establishing two shot in your shot list. Showing both the interviewer and interviewee in the same space will set the stage for the conversation. This will give your editor more to work with when cutting to ensure the pace of the interview is consistent, and so that we’re not watching the same two close up shots over again.

Want to know where to get started for your internal video? Give Crews Control a shout! With years of experience and efficient management, Crews Control can help you with all of your video production needs. Click here for our free quote form.