10 examples: company culture videos
Intro
Is your startup growing?
Looking to bring in more people?
Whether it’s exploring how one startup likes to have quirky standup meetings standing on one leg, or why an applicant should apply to the latest job openings, company culture videos make a company sound exciting to work for.
From this selection, your company culture video should be between 1:30 - 3:00 minutes long, focussing on the people in your company.
There’s a fine line you need to tread between sounding your own horn (the NGS video almost oversteps this), showing how well people get along (the SyndicateRoom video leans into this), and that you’re still here to work hard (too many feel afraid to combine with this).
Also, there’s an emphasis on emphasis; the word “really” appears among the top three words in half of these videos, joined by “people” and “work”.
#1 NGS
Most common words: Work, NGS, People
Thumbnail: Great
Length: 1:23
✅ Pros: Effectively highlights the strong sense of camaraderie and dedication among the team, emphasising a positive and collaborative work culture.
❌ Cons: The specific goals, achievements and the nature of the work being done are not clearly explained.
#2 Whirks
Most common words: Know, Really, Work
Thumbnail: Good - but would you know what it is from just this?
Length: 3:43
✅ Pros: The interviews here feel genuine. “There are hard days, don’t get me wrong”, just makes the quotes much more believable. When you’re editing your company culture video, think not just about what will make your company sound the best, but also how to make the interviewees believable and relatable.
❌ Cons: There’s some shots where the colour is very washed out. The easy solution is colour grading. These types of cameras shoot with a very flat colour profile to give you more control over the colour tone. While it’s become rather popular in recent music videos to leave it with this ‘style’, when you mix the two together in this video, it just looks ungraded.
#3 Bolt
Most common words: Months, Bolt, Years
Thumbnail: Great
Length: 1:54
✅ Pros: The production value, the script, the changing locations. They all come together to deliver a very specific message and get us excited to join the team. There’s clearly been a lot of work put into what everyone says. It shows that pre-production makes all the difference. That transition at 1:25 is great. But check out that split-transition at 1:29. Wow. That really took planning to have two of Yaroslav on-screen at once.
❌ Cons: While the production value is high, I believe it actually hurts the message a little. The intro feels a little arrogant and the acting doesn’t quite hit the mark - making it feel scripted. As the video continues, however, the message comes across much clearer and builds excitement.
#4 Stanley Black and Decker
Most common words: Really, Company, Feel
Thumbnail: Great - I’ve an idea of what it is!
Length: 1:55
✅ Pros: It’s great to have footage from multiple locations. It’s very easy for culture videos to stay in the same office, interviewing colleagues they know. With a much bigger company you have two options: either focus on a small group of colleagues to really show off their personal connections, or go to all company offices/locations to show that the culture reaches all teams.
❌ Cons: The introduction feels more ‘stock footage’ rather than personal, with each employee standing in a very posed manner. This works great for the thumbnail, but it’s a slightly awkward entry into the video. Consider using out-take laughs and grins instead to show off the true characters of your culture, rather than a customer-facing folded arms.
#5 Chorus
Most common words: Really, People, New
Thumbnail: OK
Length: 2:02
✅ Pros: The video makes good use of a small space, showing off working relationships, good teamwork and recreational time. The shallow depth of field keeps the attention on the foreground, while creating a higher quality feel to the piece.
❌ Cons: There’s a real contrast here between the enthusiastic language and some of the emotions displayed in the employees. Some of those working look a little uninterested, and some look extremely happy. These are choices you can make in the edit, and care should be taken to find a good middle ground with portraying employee happiness and satisfaction.
#6 Starbucks
Most common words: Work, People, Starbucks
Thumbnail: Great
Length: 2:13
✅ Pros: Like the Stanley and Becker video, this starts with poses from each employee. However, it feels much more natural, given that each person is in ‘their own space’. That intro with putting on the apron is a great symbol for becoming part of the team and serving a shared purpose.
❌ Cons: Having ‘their own space’ for each employee also works against the portrayal of culture. “The friendships… [cuts to different employees] - have any of these people met each other? By keeping them separate and not showing genuine interactions in the workplace, there’s no proof to backup what they’re claiming.
#7 Wonolo
Most common words: Really, People, Just
Thumbnail: Bad
Length: 3:13
✅ Pros: There’s a good number of interviewees here that gives us a sense this upbeat mood is replicated among the whole team. The use of outtakes (while poorly placed) gives us a sense that the friendliness continues when the camera is switched off too.
❌ Cons: There’s some choppy audio cuts that could be ironed out with a quick audio dissolve, and a few tilted camera angles (e.g. Jeremy at 0:22). The angles could have been fixed in the edit too, with a subtle zoom and rotation. We also hear the interviewer ask some questions, but that question gets cut off sometimes, and doesn’t need to be there when they answer with the question included.
#8 Grouse Mountain
Most common words: Love, Job, Grouse
Thumbnail: Good - but would you know what it is from just this?
Length: 1:47
✅ Pros: The camerawork and variety of cutaways in this video is incredible. The focus is on the stunning landscape, and the interviews match that message. You can picture yourself working here, just for the views alone.
❌ Cons: Except for the shot at 0:41, we don’t see any of the staff interact with each other. While the interviews all mention how great the other people are, we don’t see that. So there’s little proof of the culture they’re describing. There was also an ‘uh’ I noticed at 0:06 which could’ve been removed as it was during a cutaway.
#9 Tarlton and Son
Most common words: Hard, Work, Think
Thumbnail: Great - I’ve an idea of what it is!
Length: 0:59
✅ Pros: The camera work here is great too, with high quality lenses and an effort to capture colleagues working together. The interviews really compliment the visuals of employees working hard with a smile.
❌ Cons: You can tell that a number of shots have had a digital stabilise effect added to counter some handheld wobble. While this isn’t particularly jarring, it occurs enough for me to wonder how prevalent this problem was, and if a reshoot would’ve been better.
#10 SyndicateRoom
Most common words: Work, Really, People
Thumbnail: Great
Length: 2:49
✅ Pros: [Expect bias - I made this] This video nicely shows how quickly relationships build at this startup, and how close the teams work together.
❌ Cons: On focussing on how friendly everyone is, we skate over what it is each person actually does. That was an unintentional by-product of showing how un-siloed colleagues were.
💡 Extra note: Unlike interviewing startup CEOs or Founders, interviewing team-mates from all across the company does bring its challenges. You’ll find that you’ll get some brilliant personalities you won’t normally find with higher-ups, but also those with little experience of being in front of a camera.
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These examples come from the free PDF guide ‘6 Types of Video Every Startup Should Create’, which you can download on this page:
