Corporate video production trends for 2026

Story first… brand second

Every brand has a powerful story to tell. Some brands are in the fortunate position of being immediately recognisable – and not only that, they immediately evoke an emotional response in audiences. Think Apple, Coca-Cola, and similar global names. Even brands of this size and star power put an emphasis on their story. For Coca-Cola, their story is about moments of human joy and connection… the real thing. They’ve got to a point where their logo elicits an immediate emotional response. Other corporate brands are still climbing that recognition mountain.

In 2025, corporate brands are increasingly using video production in nuanced ways to FIND and SHARE their story. Their logo and business goals are important, but do not elicit immediate positive emotional stories in their target audience.

As part of our full corporate video production services, we help you find your story.

Your people are the heroes

Professor of literature Joseph Campbell knew that every story has a hero. His landmark book The Hero’s Journey exploring story templates is still used by creators and filmmakers today… and even Star Wars was crafted by George with every step of the Hero’s Journey in mind.

So let’s talk about heroes and stories.

What do people connect with on an emotional level? Other people.

And in a film landscape saturated with business competitors, this matters in corporate video production more than ever before.

Your organisation is full of heroes. Every one of them is on their own hero’s journey. Every one of them has a story that reflects your brand and can help audiences connect with you on a deep emotional level.

As an example, we created a video animation for the School-Home Support Charity, highlighting the support that SHS charity gives to children and their families.

We could have made the focus of the narrative the great work that SHS do. Instead, we focused on Molly and Rajid, two children who are missing out on the education they deserve because of challenges outside of the classroom. Molly and Rajid’s names have been changed to preserve their anonymity, but Molly and Rajid face the real and distressing challenges faced by far too many children in the UK.

People connect with people. The creative team behind our corporate video production services is skilled at finding the human connection.

Key trend:

Video thumbnails that make you click.

We all know how video reels work on social channels. We all know what it’s like to search for something, see twenty videos covering the same topic, and click on one we think will be most fitting to our interests and needs.

What makes you click on video X instead of video Y?

In most cases, it’s the thumbnail.

Our corporate video production offers a full service that helps your business stand out from the crowd. That means we think about the little details.

What will make someone click on YOUR video on that social channel? How can we help your video be engaging and seriously clickable at first glance?

We tailor our insights to your unique business goals. Sometimes (in rare circumstances) your brand’s logo will take centre stage. In most cases, you’ll need something high impact that connects on an immediate emotional and visual level. We think about storytelling, faces, key moments, angles, brand recognition, and – ultimately – engagement and clickability.

Carefully considered thumbnails can achieve the following:

• Increased click-through rates (CTR)
• Positive first impression
• Content clarity
• Improved engagegement and watch time

First impressions count. Getting the thumbnail right is one of the key trends of corporate video production in 2026, and not enough people think about it. But we do.

Transfix your audience from the start.

With so much competition out there, you need to grip the audience and never let go – yes, even with a corporate video!

That’s why we excel in providing visual, emotional and narrative hooks that draw the audience in and make them keep watching.

We don’t want them to start watching, decide your video isn’t for them, and drift away. You don’t want that, either.

As part of our full corporate video production service we work closely with you to propose and develop hooks that glue people to the small screen (and we appreciate that sometimes your work needs to translate to the big screen at corporate events, too).

Story. Music. Faces. Visuals. Reveals. Surprises. Heart. ‘Must-watch’ moments.

We have a lot of tricks up our sleeve to treat your video like a cinematic release. Don’t worry, we definitely don’t mean ‘cinematic’ in terms of budget. Our services are actually great value and very cost-effective! But we do think like film production studios in terms of finding hooks to lead people into your story and message from the get-go.

AI and video production in 2026

Yes, of course we’re going to talk about AI in corporate video production! It’s not first on the list. But it’s still important!

Our corporate videos are made by humans, not AI. It’s not in our nature to take shortcuts simply to make life easy for ourselves while giving you an inferior product.

What our creative team DOES do is keep up to date with video production technology and processes. We use AI generation wisely, to YOUR benefit.

We use AI to enhance film-related processes such as maximising audio quality, or achieving different video formats on different platforms (e.g. video orientation for YouTube vs TikTok).

We don’t use AI to replace creativity and storytelling. We use it to streamline our video production processes to provide you with better quality for greater value, so you get even more bang for your buck. Find out more about how we use ethical AI in video production here.

Like the best business video production companies out there, we:

• stay agile
• stay ahead
• think smart.

EGC (Employee generated content)

Our popular smartphone video training workshops for employees help you make the most of a key corporate marketing trend in 2026… social video content created on your company’s behalf by your own employees!

EGC (employee-generated content) helps your company:

• Create more social content to keep your brand in the public eye
• Cover more events, personal/professional stories, and moments – from office charity bake sales through to personal stories of hybrid working or their thoughts on what makes the perfect tea break
• Demonstrate your commitment to investing in your employees’ work satisfaction and professional development

We are video production specialists who can take on the big projects. Your marketing team are specialists with years of experience in comms and social campaigns.

We can’t teach your employees to be expert film producers in one day, but we CAN teach them everything they need to know to build their confidence in front of and behind the camera, gaining a practical understanding of film and post-production as they work to create a final product by the end of the session!

Empowering your employees to brush up their smartphone video skills means they can share fun details of corporate events or joyful aspects of their life with your company on their personal channels. Employee-generated content is a trend that’s here to stay. In addition to our expert video services, we can upskill your employees in a fun and enjoyable way.

Corporate authenticity continues to matter in 2026.

Mediorite is well-known for bringing much-needed authenticity to the table as part of our corporate video services.

Quality, not trickery – Of course our production values are strong! But we have our finger on the pulse, and we know audiences over-saturated with ‘influencer’ gloss are looking for authentic representations of brands. That means your audiences love to see REAL people in REAL situations. They’re keen to see something they can form a REAL connection with. This is especially true in employer brand video production, so Heads of Recruitment and Employer Brand, take not.

Smart not sneaky use of AI – Do we use AI? Absolutely! Please see above! But never at the expense of authentic storytelling, messaging and cinematography. We want your audiences to believe in you, not doubt your brand message and values. We know when less is more.

Purchase with purpose – we’re an award-winning social enterprise helping young creatives make films that change the world. Our work provides built-in work-winning social value, which is great news for Heads of Marketing and Heads of Inclusion. We have a solid reputation for our ESG and CSR video production, too.