Year-in-review video for companies: what a recap is and how it's made

What a recap video is and what it does for a company

A recap video is a video summary of a period: a year, a season, a project. It has caught on thanks to the year-end summaries lots of people make on Instagram or TikTok; inside a company it's also called the end-of-year video or annual review.

It's worth not mixing it up with two close relatives. An event aftermovie sums up a single day: a convention, a trade fair, a party. An annual report explains results with figures and usually lives in a document. The year in review sits in between: it tells twelve months with images, faces and few words, and leaves people wanting to see the next one.

It does several jobs for a company at once. For the team, who see together what they've achieved; it's often shown at the Christmas dinner or the January kick-off meeting. For clients and partners, as a season's greeting with something to say instead of a card. And on LinkedIn and the website it shows people who don't know you yet that the company is moving: a new office, a product launch, a growing team. To someone thinking about working with you, that says more than any «about us» page.

What to show: ideas for a company's end-of-year video

The most common mistake is putting everything in. Forty moments make a slideshow nobody finishes. It works better to choose one thread and three or four moments that hold it up.

The simplest thread is the big milestone of the year: the opening, the launch, the first client abroad. Another is the people: the year told by those who made it, with short lines from several members of the team. Clients work too, with what you've done for them and a line of their own, always with their permission, and so does behind the scenes: the warehouse, the lab, the kitchen, what nobody sees.

A real example. For Qilimanjaro, which builds quantum computers in Barcelona, the recap of their 2025 revolves around the opening of their quantum data centre, the most important moment of their year. It runs 32 seconds. With a clear thread, you don't need more.

Figures can go in, but few and big ones: new clients, countries, how much the team has grown. If results need explaining in detail, that's a different piece, an annual report on video with leadership speaking to camera. And it should end looking ahead, with a line or an image of what's coming next.

How to make a year-in-review video, step by step

First, gather what already exists. Almost every company has more footage than it thinks: phone videos from the team, event photos, social media pieces, trade fair recordings. At Bostak we always ask for it the same way: one shared folder and a deadline to upload everything.

Second, choose the thread with that material in front of you. Sometimes the milestone that seemed like the big moment has poor images, and another, apparently smaller one has a beautiful video. What you can show wins.

Third, film what's missing. It's usually little and fits in a morning: two or three lines from leadership or the team, and fresh shots of the office, the product or people at work, in good light.

Fourth, edit. The music is chosen early, on-screen text stays short and the logo goes at the end.

Fifth, export the versions: horizontal for the website, YouTube and the screen at the dinner, and vertical for Instagram and LinkedIn.

Timing matters. To publish it in the last week of December or the first week of January, you need to start in November: gathering footage takes longer than it seems, and December fills up with year-end closing and holidays. To organise your 2027 videos too, see our guide to planning your company's video.

How long it runs, which music it uses and how it adapts to Instagram and LinkedIn

For social media, between 30 and 60 seconds. To show it to the team or put it on the website, up to two minutes. Any longer and people leave before the end, which is exactly where the message is.

Music is one of the most searched questions («songs for a year-in-review video»), and there's a catch here. On a personal account you can use the song of the moment from Instagram's library. On a company account, not always: business accounts have fewer songs available, and outside the app a commercial track without a licence can leave the video muted or blocked. The safe route is a licensed music library or a track made to measure. We explain it in what music can I use in my video.

For Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn, the video is re-edited in vertical, with the action in the centre and subtitles, because almost everything is watched with the sound off. The first two seconds decide whether someone stays, so that's where the best image of the year goes, not the logo.

If there's data to share, motion graphics make it easy to read in a few seconds: a figure that climbs, a map with the new countries.

With a template, with AI or with a production company, and how we do it at Bostak

Templates from Canva, CapCut or Instagram itself are designed for personal recaps: you drop in twelve photos and out comes a video with transitions. For a small business that wants something quick for social media, they can do the job. Their limit: they all look alike and arrange images without choosing a story.

AI helps with specific parts: transcribing what the team says or generating subtitles. What it can't do is film your office or your people, and a year in review without your real images loses the point.

And price? It depends mainly on how much good footage already exists and how much needs filming. We work it out in the proposal, case by case.

At Bostak Films we make year-in-review videos as part of our corporate communication service for companies in Barcelona and the Baix Llobregat. We review your footage, propose the thread, film what's missing at your office or in our studio in Viladecans, and deliver every version. With the brands we produce content for all year round, such as Santos Studio, almost everything is already filmed when December comes. Qilimanjaro's recap is in their case study. If you want yours for January, book a diagnostic call and we'll tell you what can be made from your year.

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