If your business is fairly new and you’ve got a great product or service you want to shout about, one of the most effective forms of marketing is to produce an intro startup video to explain exactly what you’re all about.
Startup videos offer a practical way to tell your story and sell your product in a succinct and enticing manner, convincing customers that you’re worth investing in – with both time and money. The best startup videos create big, long-lasting impact through an enticing storyline and a uniqueness that sets a company apart from others.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your own startup intro video, or you’re just curious to see what worked well in the past, take a look at our 7 favourite videos of all time, by brands you certainly should now know about:
1. Upwork
Freelancing platform Upwork launched as Elance-oDesk in 2015, but saw the most success when it rebranded to Upwork and shared numerous startup intro videos across the online community in 2018. Its videos directly address different well-known and famous names, from the president, to Elon Musk, NASA, and The Rock.
The “Hey World” startup video campaign features clips that are short and succinct at less than 20 seconds long. Through a mixture of animation and voiceover, each video does a great job at explaining, through words and images, exactly what the company stands for and what you can expect as a business using the site.
2. Spotify
Spotify is one of the most well-known media services providers, but the company, founded in Sweden, may not have seen such success in the US without employing the unique, fun animation seen in its promo startup video.
Spotify is proof that simplicity is sometimes best – the video is nothing more than animation combined with catchy music, but it works perfectly in communicating exactly what the brand is about. In fact, the lack of a voiceover is effective in capturing the consumer’s attention by the power of intrigue, encouraging the consumer to stop what they’re doing and take a look at what the video is all about.
3. Instagram Direct
Instagram launched in October 2010, which makes it pretty old in social media years. Even to this day, it continues to roll out new features, which is probably why it’s so successful in staying current. One of its now more popular features, Instagram Direct, offers private messaging between users of the app, in which text, photos and videos can be shared on a one-to-one basis.
Instagram Direct’s intro startup video is so effective because it doesn’t use a single spoken word to explain the new feature. In fact, it isn’t until the video moves to a clip of someone using Instagram to send an image directly to a friend that we learn what the ad is even about. We’re too busy being entertained by the people on the video having a good time – which pushes Instagram’s message about what the feature is all about.
4. Dropbox
Another company that saw success with simple animation for its intro startup video is file hosting service Dropbox. The one-minute video seamlessly flows from one animation to the next, in a way that mimics the website’s theming and cleverly replicates the user experience promised by the company in the video.
With a short but effective explanation, Dropbox perfectly explains exactly why the average businessman or woman doesn’t just want the service, but needs it for more efficient work online. It helps that Dropbox was one of the first file sharing services of its kind, which certainly upped the appeal.
5. Grammarly
Technology company Grammarly was founded in 2008, and offers a free writing tool to help wipe out mistakes from online write-ups. Grammarly’s “Write The Future” 2017 intro video cleverly integrates images of various people working on their projects with on-screen wording that is corrected when clicked on with the “mouse” – exactly how the tool works in real life.
Grammarly is all about the written word, so it’s hardly surprising that its startup video contains no spoken voiceover, only on-screen text. The images move quickly from one to the next, which reflects on the purpose of Grammarly itself: to speed up the pace of writing by suggesting quick and easy changes. It’s hardly surprising that with such effective startup marketing, the Grammarly tool is one of the most popular grammar checkers used today.
6. Zocdoc
Visiting the doctor isn’t exactly one of the most exciting pastimes for any of us. There’s often a long waiting list, time spent on hold on the phone, appointment scheduling (and often rescheduling), and so on. It’s hard to see how an advert about anything to do with the doctor, then, could be appealing in any sense – but online medical care appointment service Zocdoc managed to make theirs so.
Zocdoc thought outside the box when it came to reaching out to its userbase through a startup intro video, simply by making it funny. In a short time span of 44 seconds, the ad treats the consumer to a humorous animation depicting all of the relatable ways booking a doctor’s appointment can go wrong – while letting the consumer know exactly why Zocdoc is the better alternative for booking.
7. Airbnb
Most of us now know Airbnb as one of the leading online marketplaces for arranging or offering lodging, notably homestays, or tourism experiences. Founded in 2008, the concept was a new one at the time, and it was only in 2014 that the company experimented with startup intro videos focusing on a particular theme, to teach its audience exactly what Airbnb is all about.
People love to hear about other people, so Airbnb had the consumer hooked from the first second of their “Breaking Down Walls” startup video, with the on-screen text that reads: “Based on a true story”. The video then goes onto tug at the consumer’s heartstrings in a way that no animated advertorial should have the power to do, creating a lasting impact while communicating Airbnb’s message about belonging anywhere through the story alone.
