Most of the founders have a great gut feeling for what their product needs as the next best step in the journey, but often have a limited understanding of how video marketing plays out as a system.
Dear founder – this is our message to you. You don’t need any video. You need strategy, with the right video, for the right stage you are in, helping you drive the right outcome – whether that’s getting attention from ICP, driving clarity and momentum, building trust or something as simple as getting leads.
Here we will be taking a look at formats we use with our fast moving AI & SaaS clients that are looking to scale their offering with a video system, and see how the strategy part of it plays out.
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Adopt the visual approach of major brands like Apple and Google to give your startup the appearance of an established peer.
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Creative animation can make conservative niches, such as fintech, feel intuitive and engaging, eliminating the need for screen recordings.
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Choose the right type of video based on your goals: increasing awareness, improving product understanding, generating leads, or building trust.
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Mimic the visual approach of major brands like Apple and Google to make your startup appear like an established peer.
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Maximize your budget by creating one strong foundational video and producing 6-10 variations for different platforms and formats.
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Even stunning animation can’t save a confusing script, so prioritize message clarity over production value.
1) Product Launch Ad — Borrow Credibility to Punch Above Your Weight
Example: LangEase — Launch film engineered to echo Google Gemini & Apple
You know how at the start you have an untested MVP, and you don’t quite have the appeal and pull of some of the more hype-y startups?
Because early brands don’t have much in the stock with awareness, they need to borrow it. A weird notion, but let us explain. Here’s one video we’ve done with LangEase, which feels right at home with major productions from Gemini and Apple ads.
It’s DNA is no VO, intentional silent moments, UI that’s going to pop out of the screen, clean typography and subtle, clean product shots.
This is what we call strategic association. Gemini, Apple, Slack, and other giants poured millions to build this mental recognition and resonance with clean and dynamic motion. With this, audiences instantly categorize your product as a peer of those mentioned above, matching by the same quality bar. Amazing for small teams that don’t have huge name recognition, and millions in spend.
Use this video technique to get a cozy room near Apple and Gemini in your lead’s mental hierarchy, and live in their head rent free.
Where it lives:
Your homepage or landing page, posted across LinkedIn and YouTube ads, flexible to be during your conference or PR launch, as well as investor deck which you send out or show in person.
KPI:
With this video format you should look at the general number of impressions, overall hype surrounding the product, as well as CTR to signup & waitlist
Takeaway:
Bells and whistles might be a factor that hurts your brand appeal if you are overusing it – but using proven approaches and styles can boost the overall appeal of your brand.
Quick Stats
- This year, only 5% of companies are cutting their video budgets, while over half are investing more in video. – Wistia
- The generation of leads and the driving of sales are the primary goals of 38% of marketers when it comes to video marketing.
- Businesses can increase their conversion rates by 80% with video content. – Wisernotify
- The Top-3 reasons why businesses don’t use video content are lack of time (30%), and lack of knowledge (18%). – Single Grain
- Integrating video content on a website can increase on-page time by 88%. – Grand Valley State University
2) Dynamic SaaS Demo — Show Them The Workflows
Example: IBanFirst — AI Invoicing, told with high-end animation
Yes, even conservative niches like finance benefit from the good ol’ high end animation – especially if you are looking to bring in a new solution to disrupt the status quo. But how do we make AI invoicing feel like the next big thing? Well, of course not by doing a boring screen recording with a cursor scrambling to click on the proper tabs and choose proper functions.
This needs a reframe.
Our vision consisted of reframing the workflow with elegant 3D depth and 2D motion, macro transitions for the flow, and of course – idealized look & feel of the whole process, making the overall product seem intuitive, zero effort, and God forbid, even a bit fun!
Especially when it comes to niches and fields where risk tolerance is rather low, the premium look & feel signals that the solution is reliable, does well (thus having a budget for high quality production) and separates you from templated slop.
This example is how you can combine introducing a new workflow to the audience, without getting bogged down with boring screen recordings & demos that nobody watches either way. Great for fast moving small teams that want to bring attention to their new features without building a whole library of educational assets. Great motion + Real interactions – makes it practical and interesting to watch.
Where it lives:
Used to release on LinkedIn, to engage new viewers and re-engage churned ones. Can also be used with ads for paid traffic.
KPI:
This should lead to a full demo request with your or your account & sales teams, speed up onboarding.
Takeaway:
There’s a place where practical workflow mixed with high end animation can make your new and disruptive workflow feel more relevant – especially in more conservative categories like Fintech.
3) Lead-Gen Ad Campaign — Sell the Ambition, Not Just the Feature
Example: Base44
Around 37 times – that’s how many times the clients referenced this Base44 in our conversations. And this is just in the last month.
With Apple’s recent push to glasmorphism, which some might call controversial, and others a complete failure – it still left its inevitable mark on the branding, motion graphics and ad world as a whole – for years to come.
The simplicity of this video is what makes it so clean, as well as so complex and appealing. The motion language feels expensive – and well, because it is. This is a great example for a lead gen ad campaign, as it brings the charm, the substance, parts of the actual workflows and shows the dream of the ease of use of Base44.
As a startup founder, this video might be extremely appealing to go for, but it also comes with huge budget demands, and might not provide the best cost efficiency for your campaigns in the short run, especially if your product is still in an early MVP stage and a lot of things might change.
But if the budget and product stage are aligned, this can become a viral lead engine.
Where it lives:
It lives almost everywhere you can imagine: from coffee chats on site with potential investors, showing it on your laptop, to LinkedIn & YouTube paid, for product led growth campaigns.
The calibre of this video makes it a nuclear option for most of the use cases.
KPI:
Qualified lead volume, CPL, first-touch attribution.
Takeaway:
Bring a nuclear blast to a knife fight – or create a video so good you’ll use it everywhere.
4) Testimonial / Customer Story — Put a Strong Message in a Simple Frame
Reference: Slack x Anthropic — “Reimagines work at the speed of AI”
When your message has a gravitational mass on par with Jupiter, you don’t need fireworks and shouts to have it delivered. And if your client is a 170 billion $ company – just give them the center of the stage and let them talk.
Slack’s Anthropic video works so powerfully because the key message is as clear as day: decisions happen is Slack, and their growth is accelerated by using their solution.
The production is not flashy, but solid and high level – this frame & approach lets the credibility do the heavy lifting.
Want to see what Slack is doing with their video strategy in more detail? Here’s our strategy overview of what they are doing from the top to bottom.
Related article: Where it lives:
Pricing page, sales follow-ups, investor updates, retargeting.
KPI:
Win rate lift, sales cycle compression, reply rate on follow-ups.
Takeaway:
If your logo list is stacked or you have clear & measurable wins – keep it simple. In this case, your message is like a painting – the painting (case study or testimonial) is so valuable that you can put it in a simple frame, and let it be seen.
How to Choose Your Format & Strategy (Fast)
What if you need to choose what assets to create? Here are a few fun templates.
- Need to build trust now? Launch film (1) + testimonial (4).
- Need your leads to understand your product? Product Demo & Onboarding Video (2).
- Need to build a strong pipeline of qualified leads? Lead-gen ad (3) + social cutdowns (5-10).
Have a limited budget to begin with? Prioritize one hero asset + 6–10 derivatives (cutdowns, ratios, hooks, GIFs).
Or book a call with us to discuss this, and get a tailored package based on your goals – simple and easy strategy, with a full production process.
Guardrails That Protect ROI
- No motion will salvage a feature dump-y script and approach. Make sure your message is clear, otherwise people will watch great visuals without understanding the underlying message.
- Promise one dream outcome and lead towards next steps with a clear CTA.
- Plan for the future: make sure that your assets can be reused in other formats, like 15-30 second clips, and that your design & animated assets can be built out into more content.
Check if your content lands; scale what works.
Bottom line
Sometimes even the greatest product can be blocked by subpar messaging and delivery. Picking the right format, especially at early stages, means that you might unblock the next step in your brand’s growth.
So if you are looking for a headache free, polished full production process – reach out today for a quick chat.
