Brand documentary: what it is, examples and when it makes sense for a company

What a brand documentary is

A brand documentary, or documentary brand film, tells a true story in which the company is present but isn't the only thing being talked about. It works with real people, real places and real events. The aim is for the viewer to get interested in the story and come away with a different idea of who's behind it.

The difference from an ad is very clear: an ad asks you for something, and asks in thirty seconds. A documentary tells you something, and lets you draw the conclusion. The difference from the classic corporate video matters too: in a corporate video the company says what it does. In a documentary you see what it does, and it's far more believable when someone shows it naturally than when a narrator claims it.

It's a specific form of branded content, with rules similar to those of journalism or film: you have to leave room for what really happens, for doubts and for what wasn't planned. That demands something many companies find hard: letting go of control over every sentence. And that's exactly what makes it work.

Why is there so much talk about this now? Because people are tired of advertising messages, and because YouTube, events and social leave room for longer pieces. We also see it in our conversations with companies. But the opposite should be said too: not every brand has a story that can hold up a documentary. If there isn't one, it's better not to force it.

Well-known examples: what you can learn from them

Google always shows a few big examples, and it's worth seeing what they did well without getting obsessed with their budgets.

"Breaking2", by Nike, follows three athletes trying to run a marathon in under two hours, in 2017. What's interesting is the approach: Nike doesn't talk about shoes, but about a challenge anyone understands. The shoes are there, as part of the story, and the challenge sells itself.

"5B", produced with the support of Johnson & Johnson, tells the story of the nurses who cared for AIDS patients in a San Francisco hospital in the eighties. The brand stays almost out of the picture. The association with caring is very powerful because nobody spells it out for you.

Patagonia has been making documentaries about the environment for years, such as "Artifishal", about fishing and rivers. They fit its mission, so they don't feel like advertising.

What do they have in common? A story that would interest you even without the brand. A clear point of view. And a company with a genuine connection to the subject, because otherwise people notice and it doesn't work.

That said, these examples can also mislead. They're feature-length films with huge budgets, and they make you think a brand documentary is only within reach of multinationals. It isn't so. The most useful stories for a medium-sized company last three to five minutes and get shot in two days: people working, a craft told well or an important moment at the company. That can be done with a small crew, and it works just as well or better on LinkedIn, YouTube or at an event.

When it makes sense for a company

It makes sense when one or more of these situations applies.

You have something hard to explain with a sales message. For example, a complex technology, an artisan manufacturing process or a long-term mission. In those cases, seeing the people who do it explains more than any sentence.

You want to attract talent. People looking for work care far more about seeing the day-to-day than reading values on a website. It's a very powerful case of employer branding.

There's a moment that can't be repeated. An opening, a merger, an anniversary, a move or a change of generation at a family business. If it doesn't get filmed, it's lost, and its value grows over the years.

You need the trust of demanding audiences: investors, institutions, big clients. A well-made documentary gives them a solid image of the company before the first meeting.

And when it doesn't make sense. If you have a promotion with an expiry date, a direct ad will work better. If the company isn't going to let anything real be seen, the result will be a long corporate video with emotional music. And if you have nowhere to show it, think about that first: a documentary sitting on a website gets few views. You have to plan the premiere, the events, the cuts for social and who's going to send it to whom.

Here's a good test: try telling the story to a friend who has nothing to do with your sector, in one minute. If they ask you a question, you've got something. If they change the subject, keep looking.

A real case: Qilimanjaro's mini documentary

Here's what this looks like on a project of ours. Qilimanjaro is a Barcelona company that builds quantum computers, and we're its exclusive audiovisual partner. The challenge of communicating something like that is that very few people really understand what it's about, and the company needs to speak to investors and technical talent at the same time.

For that we made, among other pieces, a mini documentary in which its CEO and team explain why quantum computing matters and what Qilimanjaro does. There's no narrator explaining physics. There are people talking about their work, and that gives a credibility you can't get any other way. Alongside it there's a smaller and very useful piece: an interview with Dídac, the head of their lab. It's a very simple format, and it's one of the clearest ways of showing who's behind a company.

These are pieces that can stay alive for years, and work in very different contexts: in a meeting with investors, in a hiring process or at an event. So it's worth thinking of them as part of a plan and not a one-off job. We cover it in how to plan your company's video.

We've used the same approach outside the corporate world. For Carla Collado we filmed the "Coraje" listening party as an intimate documentary piece. The idea is the same: if something true is happening, you don't need to add much to it, just know how to be there and how to tell it afterwards.

How a brand documentary gets made

Even a small brand documentary gets prepared differently from a video with a locked script. These are the parts.

Research. Before shooting anything, you talk to many people at the company. We look for whoever tells things well, who isn't always the boss, and for the specific story inside the company. It's the cheapest part and the one that changes the result most.

Structure, not script. You write a map of what the piece should tell and which moments you need to capture, but not anyone's lines. If someone reads a text, the documentary is over. For interviews, the questions get worked on properly, and then it's done as a conversation. We explain it in how to film an interview on video.

Shooting with a small crew. Two or three people, little equipment and a lot of patience. What matters is that people forget about the camera, and being able to film what's going on as well as the interviews. It's the images of real work, the so-called b-roll, that make it feel true.

The edit. This is where the documentary really gets written, and it usually takes longer than the shoot. All the interviews get listened to, the thread gets found and a lot of good material that doesn't fit gets thrown out.

Music and color at the service of the story, taking great care not to make sentimental what isn't.

And finally, the most delicate agreement: who approves. It's worth agreeing from the start what can be changed. An incorrect figure or a trade secret gets corrected; but if every sentence goes through three departments, what's real gets lost.

If your company has a story like this

It's easy to think your company's story is boring. But the technology, factory or craft you see every day is exactly what everyone else has never seen. Part of our job is to find it.

Albert Murillo, our creative director, got here by directing short films and music videos, and his team works on the idea of treating each piece with the care of film and the pace of the internet. We have experience in very different sectors: technology, fashion, food and music. And we're in Viladecans, a stone's throw from Barcelona, so we can spend a few days at your company without mounting a major operation. We also work with companies elsewhere in Europe when the project calls for it.

If you have an important moment ahead, or you think there's something to tell, look at it with us. There's more on our corporate video page, and you can book a free diagnosis: on a video call you tell us the story and we tell you what we see, what size would make sense and how you'd make use of it afterwards. And if we think there isn't a documentary there, we'll say so, along with which piece would serve you better.

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