Back to all

Creating a Concept for Your Explainer Video

Creating a concept is an extremely important component to making your explainer video shine. It’s also one of the most collaborative parts of the process.

Something your corporate video concept can draw viewers in from the moment they click play. It’s also the key to writing an awesome explainer video script and everything that comes after. You may have the best camera, lights, and talent available, but if you don’t start with a winning concept, none of that matters. And since live action and animated video concepts are so important, we take lots of pride and time in creating them.

There is no one way to create a concept, but we wanted to give you a look behind the curtain on how we d it here at Demo Duck.

1. The Creative Brief

We always start by having you fill out a creative brief. A brief is just that – 10 quick questions that help us understand what you do, who your customers are, and what you’re hoping to accomplish with your business video.

With the brief in hand, we come together as a team to spitball potential concept ideas (or eve nuggest thereof). Remember, during the brainstorm, anything goes….the more ideas the better. Though we make sure everything we’re throwing out is somehow connected to the goal of your video and rings true with the brief.

video production agency, video production partner, video agency, video marketing agency

2. Narrow Down Ideas

With a list of rough concepts to choose from, we narrow down the best ones – the ones that are unique and creative, and also in line with your marketing strategy or engagement techniques. Sometimes this involves combining aspects of multiple concepts, or tweaking certain ones so they better create a final explainer video everyone is excited about.

There can be some healthy debating at this stage, which is a good sign since that means people really believe in the ideas they’re standing behind. When it comes you a video for your business, we make sure there is a strong reason behind every decision.

3. Concepts Are Pitched

From there, we polish things up into a pitch deck with a mock script, detailed written description, related visuals, and reference videos that help you understand our video concepts. It’s important to remember that these are still high level approaches to your corporate video. Shooting techniques, color palette, and much more of the nitty gritty aspects of the video are actualized a bit further along in the process.

video production agency, video production partner, video agency, video marketing agency

When the deck’s ready, it’s pitch time, and this is when we get you involved in the decision making process. We love walking our clients through the deck in person, or over a conference call, and hope they get as excited to hear them as we get pitching them.

4. A Winner Emerges

After a night or two of pondering on the amazing ideas we presented, one brilliant video concept is chosen, refined, and fleshed out before we move on to the next phase of production: scripting!

Coming up with a good concept takes time and experience, so be patient and don’t rush it.

At the end of the day, a solid concept can make all the difference in the world. So get in touch to start talking about the early steps of creating a video for your business.

Itching to learn more about video? Here are other great posts:

Why You Can (and Should) Spend More Money on Your Explainer Video

Creating Corporate Videos After Your Explainer’s Done

The Marketer’s 4 Rules to Explaining What Your Company Does

Written by Colin Hogan
Colin is the Managing Director at Demo Duck, a Chicago-based video production company, who has a deep obsession with making videos as often as possible. Follow Demo Duck on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.