Corporate event videos and screen content: what to plan before the lights go down

At a corporate event the screen is the loudest thing in the room. An awards ceremony, an annual conference or a product launch is often remembered by what played on it: the opener that set the tone, the film that made a company look its best, or the slide that froze. Screen content deserves the same planning as the stage and the guest list.

The pieces most events need

• An opener. Thirty to ninety seconds that tells the room what the evening is about. Energy matters more than information.
• Company or nominee films. Short pieces that introduce an organisation, a project or a nominee. At an awards night these play back to back, so each one has to stand out.
• Stage loops and holding screens. Branded motion that plays while guests arrive, between segments and during dinner.
• Stings and lower thirds. Short transitions, category titles and speaker names, all in one style.
• The recap. An edit of the night for social and the website, ideally published within a day or two while people still care.

Making a company film stand out at an awards night

When ten companies each play a film in a row, the ones people remember share a few traits: one clear idea, very few words per scene, a strong brand colour, and a recognisable sense of place. That was the brief behind Jubilee General Insurance’s animation for the BCSR Awards 2025 — 48 seconds of kinetic type in the brand’s red. We break the process down in how a corporate animation gets made.

Know the screen before you design for it

The most common failure is content made for a laptop and played on a venue screen. Before production, get from the venue or AV supplier:

1. The screen resolution and aspect ratio. Many stage screens are wider than 16:9, or split across several panels.
2. The playback system and the file format it wants.
3. Whether audio runs through the house system, and who controls the levels.
4. How far the back row sits from the screen — this decides the minimum text size.

Then test the actual files on the actual screen at the rehearsal, not on the night.

Have a plan B

Carry every file on two separate drives, in the playback format and a fallback MP4. Name files in running order. Keep a silent version of anything with music, in case the audio feed fails. Someone from the content team should sit with the AV operator for the whole show.

Plan for after the event

The audience in the room is often smaller than the audience online. Brief the camera crew for the recap before the event, cut vertical versions for social, and post the company film on your own channels with a proper title and description so it can be found in search. Our guide to short-form video for brands covers the cut-downs.

Events can carry a brand for a long time when they are designed as a whole. Pak Suzuki’s 50 years was installed across more than 170 dealerships, and NOWRALLY for NOWPDP was an event built to change a perception.

Planning an event, an awards night or a launch? That is our PR and events work, with films from our video team. Tell us the date and the screen.