Keeping Films On-Brand Across a Product Catalogue

The problem shows up at film number ten

One film is easy to keep on-brand. Ten films made over a year by different people, tools and agencies are not. Logos drift, a slightly different blue appears, the end card changes, and one model is called by its old name. Customers notice the inconsistency even if they cannot name it, and your team wastes time asking which file is current.

Write a one-page video style sheet

Your brand guide probably covers print and web. Add one page just for film:

• Logo: which version, minimum size, where it sits, and for how long at the end
• Colours: primary, secondary and background as hex codes, plus which colour is used for highlights and arrows
• Fonts: heading and body font, with a fallback if the tool does not have yours
• On-screen text: sentence case or title case, maximum words per line
• Opening and end card: the same every time, with one call to action
• Sound: music style, voice gender and accent if any, and whether captions are always on
• Formats: which aspect ratios every film must ship in

Colours and contrast

Brand colours were often chosen for a logo, not for text on moving images. Check that on-screen text meets a readable contrast; W3C's WCAG guidance sets 4.5:1 as the minimum for normal text. If your brand yellow fails on white, decide once which darker shade or background to use, and write it in the style sheet so nobody improvises.

Assign colours a job, not just a place. For example: brand blue for the logo and titles, one accent colour only for arrows and highlights, and neutral grey for everything in the background. When every film uses the accent colour for the same thing, viewers learn to follow it, and a film that uses it for decoration looks wrong at once.

Captions are part of the brand

Decide caption font, size, position and colour once. Captions also make films accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and to anyone watching muted, which W3C's accessibility guidance treats as a core requirement for video with speech.

Do the same for product names and terms. Keep a short word list: the exact model names, the words you use for parts (panel or board, bolt or screw), and terms you never use. Captions and on-screen text are where inconsistent wording is most visible, and a word list also makes translations far more consistent.

If you sell in several languages, decide early whether each language gets its own film or one film with subtitles. Films with little or no spoken text, relying on pictures and step numbers, are much easier to keep consistent across markets.

Name files so anyone can find the right one

A naming pattern saves more time than any tool. Use the same order of parts every time, for example:

• brand_model-number_film-type_language_aspect_version, such as acme_KX200_assembly_en_16x9_v3
• Film type from a short fixed list: launch, explainer, assembly, setup, care
• Language as a two-letter code
• Aspect as 16x9, 9x16 or 1x1
• Version as v1, v2, v3, never "final" or "final-new"

Tie versions to product revisions

Assembly and setup films go out of date when the product changes, not when the brand does. Record which product revision and which manual version each film matches, in a simple sheet with one row per film: model, revision, manual version, film version, date, where it is published. When a part changes, you can see at once which films need a new version, and you can retire the old one from every page and QR code that points to it.

Keep old versions archived rather than deleted. Customers with an older revision of the product still need the film that matches their box, so a model page can list the current film first and earlier revisions below it, each labelled with the revision or production date printed on the product.

Keep a master and export per channel

Most inconsistency creeps in during re-exports: someone crops a widescreen film for a phone and the logo is cut off, or a marketplace version drops the end card. Keep one master per film in the highest quality, and define a fixed list of exports in the style sheet, for example widescreen for web pages, vertical for social and phones, and a marketplace version without web addresses. Each export gets the same file name with a different aspect code, so they stay grouped together.

A light review routine

Before any film is published, one person checks it against the style sheet:

• Logo, colours and fonts match the style sheet
• Product name and model number match the packaging and shop
• Captions are correct and in the house style
• File name follows the pattern and the tracking sheet is updated
• The link or QR code points to the page, not to a file, so you can swap the film later

Using makers that start from your brand

Consistency is easier when each film starts from the same source instead of a new brief. Manual to Video makes assembly films from your PDF manuals in your brand colours and logo, so every model in the range gets the same look, and each is reviewed by a person before delivery. For brand and explainer films, nine.film, our sister product, makes films from your website, which is already the most consistent expression of your brand. Point QR codes at a stable page per model (our free generator at Assembly QR code helps), and the film behind it can be updated without reprinting anything.