Commercials and brand films serve different purposes. They can be shot together, using the same cameras and crew, but the final films are chalk and cheese. Knowing which best suits your needs, and which you should invest in to hit your goals, shouldn’t be a difficult decision. Especially with Gusto’s help.
Let’s take a look.
What is the difference between a brand film and a commercial?
The job. Everything else follows from it.
A commercial prompts action in a paid slot. That could be to buy a product, make a donation, enquire about a service, or change a behaviour. It’s only got 30 or 60 seconds to do its job, and perhaps will only be seen for a few months, so it’s backed with a strategy and media plan to get it in front of the right eyes.
On the other hand, brand films tell viewers who you are, what you stand for and why they should engage with you. It might be used to signal a new mission, a change in direction, or as part of a brand refresh.
It’s evergreen, so it’s got no slot to fill and nothing to sell by Friday. It just has to be good enough, and press the right emotional buttons, that people watch because they want to. That’s not to say that a brand film can’t prompt an action, especially in the charity sector, but it’s not the main push.
Where does each one live?
A commercial gets shown wherever media is bought: television, video on demand, paid social, out of home. Other than living on YouTube for those deep nostalgia-dives, when the spend stops, so does the film.
A brand film lives where you already are. It could be your website’s homepage, pinned to the top of your social profiles, the opening slide of a pitch deck, the all-hands meeting, or in the new hire’s welcome pack. Nobody pays for each view, which is why it can go on for years.
How is each one judged?
A commercial answers to the campaign goals. Whether it’s reach, response or sales, you can judge success or failure pretty quickly. Some ads end up doing their job very well, others go viral, and a select few achieve the holy grail and become a quotable part of pop culture (ask any millennial if “there’s a magical place, and they’re on their way there”, and see what happens…), but they all have to hit their numbers.
A brand film is slower and harder to pin down, but the brand is always front and centre, and it can quietly go about its work for years to come. For example, does your sales team open with it without being told to? Does it still slowly and steadily rack up the views on social media? Have your customers responded (even subconsciously) to your refresh?
Those are softer measures, but they’re the right ones for this kind of film.
Can one shoot give you both a commercial and a brand film?
Often, yes, if it is planned that way from the start. There can be a lot of crossover between an ad and a brand film, and in the case of a brand refresh or a wider campaign, it’s common for both, as well as the relevant social reels and cut downs, to all be created at once.
Some shots may be differently paced to hit the shorter length, the script might be altered, and the edits will be very different, but one shoot can yield plenty of outcomes.
For Whizz Kidz, one production delivered a 60-second hero film, a 30-second commercial, six social assets and two audio creatives. The hero film follows eight-year-old Charlie. The shorter cuts make the ask.
What does not work is shooting a commercial and hoping a brand film falls out of the offcuts, or vice versa. The two are framed, paced and written differently. However, they can all be part of the same story and complement each other well, especially when there’s a robust publication and amplification strategy in place.
Brand Film vs Commercial: Which should you commission first?
It all comes down to one question: What do you need people to do?
If the answer is to act now, on this offer, and before this date, you want a commercial production partner. If the answer is to understand who we are and remember it, you want a brand film.
And if the answer is both, say so in the brief and we can plan properly from the outset. The brand films that arrive with a family of shorter cuts are some of the hardest-working things we make.
We offer a wide range of brand film production services to brands, charities and organisations of all sizes. So do you have your idea in mind? Contact us to find out how we can help.