Which Video Format and Style Is Best? A Cheat Sheet for Marketing Teams

Look, if you work in marketing, you already know video is the Swiss Army knife of communication. Except your team is staring at 27 different types of knives, half of them look so oddly shaped, and someone in leadership just yelled, “Can we do a TikTok?!” without specifying why.

Today, we’re breaking down the Why, Where, Who, When, How, and “Dear God Who’s Responsible for This?" so your video decisions stop feeling like a hostage negotiation.

What do we mean by Format and Style?

When we say format and style, we’re basically talking about the DNA of your video. It's the stuff that determines whether your audience leans in or quietly scrolls away to watch a raccoon steal pizza.

Format is the container: explainer, testimonial, UGC clip, motion-graphic snack, live-action story, or hybrid Franken-video that somehow works.

Style is the flavor: polished, documentary-real, animated-abstract, punchy social-first, or “made-in-a-lab-to-convert” ad energy.

Together, they dictate tone, pacing, visuals, emotional temperature, and how your message will actually land. Getting these right isn’t artsy-fartsy preference, it’s strategic alignment with your brand voice, your audience’s attention span, and the platform overlords (hi, SEO gods) who decide whether your content gets seen or banished to last page on Google.

The Why, Who, and When of Your Message

(Or: “What are we doing here, people?”)

Before you even whisper the word “video,” answer three questions your CEO will absolutely dodge during the kickoff meeting:

Why are you making this video?

Look at the table below and pick one. Seriously, ONE.

If you try to do all five, you’ll get a Frankenstein monster: inspiring for 9 seconds and then suddenly yelling at you to click a button.

Your Why is the part of your video strategy that keeps the whole thing from spiraling into “too many cooks, not enough clarity.” It’s where your business objective, message type, and timing finally team up.

If you’re aiming for awareness, you’re probably making something educational and evergreen.

In consideration, the tone shifts to instructional or thought leadership because people actually need substance now.

Conversion calls for promotional, campaign-specific content the marketing equivalent of “Please buy this so I can stop staring at the dashboard.”

And for retention or advocacy, you lean on emotional or data-driven messaging tied to product cycles or real-time moments to keep people engaged and talking.

When these layers click together, your Why becomes a clear, usable roadmap instead of a philosophical debate in the Monday meeting.

Who is this actually for?

If your audience is “everyone,” your video will land on no one. And I don't need to go over customer avatars right now.

When will they watch it in their buying journey?

When you think about where your audience is in the funnel, it becomes a lot easier to pick the right type of video.

At the top of the funnel, you’re basically saying, “Hi, we exist,” and trying to make a first impression that doesn’t feel like a cold sales pitch.

In the middle, your message shifts to, “Here’s why you should care,” which is where education, clarity, and value start to matter.

By the bottom of the funnel, the tone becomes more direct: “Please buy this before Q4 reporting” because now the viewer is weighing options and needs proof, urgency, or reassurance.

And in the post-purchase stage, your video is essentially saying, “Let me explain how not to break the product,” helping them succeed so they stick around, stay happy, and ideally, tell someone else about you.

• Top of Funnel → “Hi, we exist.”

• Middle → “Here’s why you should care.”

• Bottom → “Please buy this before Q4 reporting.”

• Post-Purchase → “Let me explain how not to break the product.”

This triad sets everything else in motion. Don’t skip it. Don’t “circle back later.” Don't "put a pin in it."
Just pick the options before moving forward.

The How (Emotionally)

When we talk about how you deliver your message emotionally, we’re basically deciding which flavor of persuasion you want to slap your audience across the brain with.

Are you walking them through a heroic journey or gently reassuring them that the world isn’t on fire (even if, technically, parts of it are)?

Do you need urgency, playfulness, or that very serious “we hired consultants for this” tone?

This is where script types collide with personality: e.g. a narrative, testimonials, Q&A, or metaphor-driven explainers. This is where you choose whether your video speaks to everyone, a buyer persona, or an entire industry.

Emotion is a delivery system, personalization is a targeting system, and the right pairing turns your message from “content” into “oh wow, I actually get this."

The How (Technically)

When we talk about the “technical how,” we’re basically asking: What kind of video can you actually pull off without your marketing team setting their laptops on fire?

This is the nuts-and-bolts layer where creative dreams meet production reality.

Every choice, animation vs. live action, high-end vs. UGC, long-form vs. micro, shapes the cost, complexity, and compliance hoops you'll have to jump through. Choose wisely.

The Where

When it comes to getting your video out into the world, “The Where” is basically the part where you stop lovingly polishing your masterpiece and actually show it to people.

Owned channels

Your website hero, landing pages, emails, and product walkthroughs are your home turf.

Organic channels

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn are where the algorithm pretends to be your friend but secretly judges your thumbnails.

Paid distribution

Meta ads, YouTube pre-roll, LinkedIn Ads (etc.) let you skip the line by throwing money at the internet like a responsible adult.

Earned distribution

Press, events, conferences. The magical land where other people voluntarily talk about your content, proving miracles do happen.

Together, these channels form the ecosystem where your message either flies or quietly dissolves into the digital abyss.

Finally, Who's In Charge?

At the end of the day, someone has to actually own the video. Otherwise, it becomes the marketing equivalent of that gym membership everyone swears they’ll use “next quarter.”

Whether it lives with Brand, Product Marketing, Content, Social, Sales Enablement, Customer Success, or even HR, the trick is making sure the right team is steering the ship and not twelve committees arguing about whether the background music is “too upbeat.”

Video succeeds when there’s clear ownership, a clear brief, and someone empowered to say, “Yes, this is done!”

In other words: pick a captain, set a course, and let the rest of the org enjoy the view (and the KPIs).

And if your team wants help choosing formats, shaping messages, or avoiding a corporate-video identity crisis, this is exactly where strong partners, and our Explainer and Campaign Services, step in.