How to make a brand launch video worth sharing

Plenty of launch films are watched mainly by the team that made them. The ones that travel share a handful of decisions, and almost all of those decisions are made before anyone picks up a camera.

This is how we approach a brand launch video in the house: one idea, an opening that earns attention, a script built for the edit, the founder cast with care, a shoot planned for every version, sound treated seriously and a plain test before release.

Start with one idea

Write the idea as the sentence a viewer would use when sending the film to a friend. If that sentence needs the word "and", you have two films, and each will be weaker for sharing the running time.

Strong launch ideas tend to take one of a few shapes.

• A demonstration. The product doing the thing people doubt it can do.
• A tension made visible. The problem your customer lives with, shown so plainly it is uncomfortable, then resolved.
• A ritual. The moment of use, filmed so well that people want the moment as much as the product.
• A conviction. The founder saying one thing the category avoids saying.

If the team cannot agree on the sentence, do not book the shoot. Casting, location, wardrobe and edit all depend on it, and a vague idea becomes an expensive edit.

Win the first three seconds

In a feed, the first three seconds decide whether the rest of the film is seen at all. Open on the most interesting frame you have. Cut the warm-up, the logo sting and the slow establishing shot.

Good openings share a few traits. There is movement or a face in the first frame, something in the picture the viewer does not yet understand, and words on screen within the first second for anyone watching with the sound off.

Write three openings for the same film and cut all three. Release one as the main film and run the others in paid placements, which turns the opening from a guess into a decision. Our creative testing framework sets out how to compare them fairly.

Script structure for a launch film

A short film needs a shape the viewer can feel without noticing it. This five-part structure holds for most launch films, at almost any length.

1. Hook. The opening frame and line. One image, one thought.
2. Tension. The problem, desire or question the film exists to answer.
3. Turn. The product or idea enters and changes the situation.
4. Proof. Show it working. A demonstration persuades where a claim only asserts.
5. Close. The line people will remember, the name and where to go next.

Write the script in two columns, picture on the left and sound on the right, so nobody forgets that the film is seen before it is heard. Read it aloud against a timer. Then cut every line that repeats what the picture already shows.

Casting the founder

A founder on camera carries a conviction no actor can borrow. It works when the founder speaks plainly, when the product is personal to them, and when the brand will keep posting founder-led content after launch, so the film becomes the first episode of something longer.

It works less well when the founder freezes on camera, or when the real story belongs to the customer. In those cases the founder can appear briefly, or not at all.

When the founder does lead, protect the performance.

• Interview them. Lines read from a script rarely sound like the person saying them.
• Ask each important question three ways and keep the best answer.
• Shoot the key material early in the day, before energy drops.
• Ask for short, complete sentences that can stand alone in a cut-down.
• Direct for energy a little above normal conversation, because the camera flattens everything.

Shoot for the cut-downs

Plan the video cut-downs before the shoot. Rescuing vertical versions in the edit from footage framed for a wide screen rarely works.

• Build the shot list for both 16:9 and 9:16 from the start, and shoot vertical coverage of the key moments.
• Keep the important action near the centre of the frame, so crops to 4:5 and 1:1 still hold.
• Capture moments that stand alone as six-second clips: a reaction, a reveal, a single line.
• Record clean plates and plenty of product detail for ads and stories.
• Note each platform's safe zones, so captions and buttons never cover a face or the product.

Shot this way, one production can feed a launch film, a set of ads and weeks of daily posts. Our Film line handles launch film production alongside campaigns, daily short form and founder content, with concept, script, shoot and edit all kept in the house.

Sound is half the film

Viewers forgive simple pictures far more readily than bad sound. Treat audio as its own department from the first day of planning.

• Dialogue. Record with two microphones, a lavalier and a boom, and capture room tone at every location.
• Music. License tracks for every platform and for paid use before the edit is locked. A track you cannot run as an ad will cost you the ad.
• Sound design. Small, real sounds of the product in use often do more than a swelling score.
• The mix. Check it on phone speakers and cheap earphones, because that is where much of your audience will hear it.
• Silence. Burn captions into the social versions so the film still works with the sound off.

Versions per channel

Plan every version as a deliverable with its own job, and agree the list before the shoot.

A product launch video rarely lives in one place. Treat the list above as the minimum, and add any channel where your customers already spend their attention.

Why launch films go unshared

When a launch film stalls, the cause is usually visible on the first viewing. These are the patterns to catch before release.

• It opens on the logo. Viewers decide in the opening seconds, and a logo gives them nothing to decide on.
• It explains. A voiceover describes features the picture could have shown.
• It says everything. Three ideas in one short film leave the viewer with none.
• It looks like the category. If the film could belong to any competitor, nobody will send it as yours.
• It ends without a next step. People who liked it have nowhere to go.

How to judge a brand launch video before release

Judge the film the way strangers will meet it: on a phone, in a feed, half paying attention.

1. The sentence test. Show it to a few people outside the company and ask each to describe it in one sentence. Compare their sentences with yours.
2. The thumb test. Watch it in a feed with the sound off. If the first frame does not stop you, it will not stop anyone else.
3. The brand test. Cover the logo. The film should still look like you.
4. The send test. Ask viewers who they would send it to. If nobody comes to mind, keep editing.
5. The technical pass. Check caption spelling, music licences for every channel, safe zones and loudness, and export to each platform's specification.

Plan the weeks after launch

A launch film is a moment, and what you post in the following weeks decides whether the attention compounds. Before release, decide which cut runs where, on which day, and how much paid budget goes behind the opening that reads best.

• Release day. The full film on the website and YouTube, the strongest vertical cut on every short-form channel, and a story sequence that ends in the offer.
• The days that follow. New cut-downs with different openings, material from behind the scenes, and the founder answering the questions people ask in the comments.
• Paid support. Budget behind whichever opening earns attention most cheaply, with the weaker versions switched off.

Then keep testing. For CLASS, a members club, we built the owner's personal account and tested mass variations on trial reels until one format took off, then pushed it. The account reached 75M views and 100K new followers, and 25M of those views came in a single 30-day stretch. Read how the CLASS account was built.

Before you book the shoot

The expensive mistakes in a launch film are made in the first week of planning, when the idea is vague and the versions are an afterthought. Settle the sentence, the opening and the cut-down plan, and the shoot becomes the easy part.

If you have a launch coming and want the film, the cut-downs and the posting plan made by one team, apply to the house. We keep a short list of houses and reply personally if there is a fit.