The brief says: “We need a company film. Something that shows who we are, what we do, and why people should work here.” This is three briefs in one.
The confusion is understandable — from the outside, these films look similar. They involve people, offices, maybe some b-roll of the product or the city. They are both “about the company.” But they are built for completely different audiences, with completely different objectives, and they fail in completely different ways when they are confused with each other.
What an Imagefilm is
An Imagefilm is a positioning document. Its primary audience is potential clients, partners, investors and press. The question it answers is: why should I trust this company with something that matters to me?
The Imagefilm is not primarily about what the company does — the website handles that. It is about how the company does it. Craft. Precision. Relationships. Values. The intangible things that differentiate a company from its direct competitors who have identical service descriptions on their website.
A good Imagefilm makes a viewer feel that this is a company worth taking seriously. A bad Imagefilm is a three-minute montage of smiling employees, glass offices and someone saying “we put our customers first.”
What an employer branding film is
An employer branding film is a recruitment and retention document. Its primary audience is potential hires and current employees. The question it answers is: why would I want to build my career here instead of somewhere else?
The employer branding film is about the experience of working at the company — not the company’s services. What is the culture? What does a day actually look like? Who are my colleagues? What will I learn? What kind of work will I do?
A good employer branding film is specific and honest. It features real people saying real things about real experiences — not scripted testimonials that could apply to any company in the sector. A bad employer branding film is a three-minute montage of smiling employees, glass offices and someone saying “we invest in our people.”
Why they fail when confused
An Imagefilm that tries to do employer branding ends up being vague. It cannot be specific about culture without losing the client-facing positioning. It ends up saying nothing clearly to anyone.
An employer branding film that tries to function as an Imagefilm loses the authenticity that makes employer branding work. Potential hires don’t want polished corporate positioning — they want to see what it is actually like to work there.
The most common failure is the brief that tries to solve both with one film and a tight budget. The result is a film that is too internal for external audiences and too polished for internal ones.
When one film can serve both
Sometimes a single film can serve both purposes — but only when the company has a strong enough story that the culture IS the differentiation. A craft-led studio, a family-owned manufacturer with a 100-year history, a tech company whose working culture is genuinely the product. In these cases, a well-made Imagefilm that is honest about how the company works can function as employer branding too.
But this is the exception. The default should be two briefs, two films and two clearly defined audiences — even if that means a smaller production for each rather than one large one that satisfies neither.
The first question we ask on any corporate film brief is: who is the primary viewer and what do you want them to do after watching? The answer determines everything that follows.
