Glossary
Employer branding video vs recruitment video
An employer branding video builds long-term perception of an organisation as a place to work. A recruitment video supports a specific hiring campaign for a defined role or intake.
The terms are used interchangeably and the distinction is commercial rather than semantic. Employer branding content is an asset with a multi-year life, aimed at people who are not currently looking. Recruitment video is campaign content aimed at people who are, and it usually has a deadline attached to a specific intake.
Both fail in the same way. The category has a well-documented default — glass-fronted offices, confident people in expensive suits, copy about dynamic teams — that every organisation produces and none of which differentiates, because it describes an industry rather than a workplace.
The comparison
| Employer branding video | Recruitment video | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | People not currently looking | Active candidates |
| Objective | Long-term perception | Applications for a specific intake |
| Shelf life | Years | One campaign cycle |
| Where it runs | Careers site, LinkedIn, brand channels | Job boards, paid campaigns, vacancy pages |
| Content | Culture, people, the work itself | Role, team, process, what happens next |
| Measured on | Candidate quality, unprompted mentions | Application volume and conversion |
What decides whether either works
- Casting. The most common failure point. The people put forward are usually the most comfortable on camera rather than the ones whose experience a candidate would recognise.
- Whether it is scripted. Scripting a non-performer produces someone reciting. Interviewing them and cutting around it produces someone credible.
- Whether the culture is actually distinct. Video makes an existing culture visible; it cannot manufacture one.
- Whether photography is shot alongside. Same days, same light, and your careers site reads as one identity rather than three commissions.
- Whether the cutdowns were rethought or resized. A job board and LinkedIn reward different openings.
In practice
For Ploum, a Rotterdam law firm, the most compelling person in the finished film was a reserved associate the firm would not have put forward. Casting for credibility rather than confidence is what lets an organisation say something specific about itself instead of something any competitor could say.
See the approach in full on the employer branding page.
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