Internal video fails for familiar reasons: it tries to say five things, it assumes people will watch with the sound on, or it is cut for a screen nobody uses. The examples below are patterns, not templates. Use them to decide what kind of piece you need before you brief anyone.
None of them depends on a big budget. Most of the work is in the decisions: one message, the right person to say it, and the place where people will actually watch.
Eight examples
For each one: when it fits, a shape that tends to work, and the one check that matters most.
Leadership update
- When it fits
- Results, strategy or a change that people should hear from the top rather than read in an email.
- A shape that works
- Open with the news. Give one reason. Say what changes for the viewer. End with where to ask questions.
- Check
- Could a new starter repeat the message in one sentence after watching it?
Change announcement
- When it fits
- A reorganisation, a new system or a policy that affects how people work.
- A shape that works
- What is changing, when, who is affected, what stays the same, and where the details live.
- Check
- Is the date and the first thing people must do visible on screen, not only spoken?
Employee story
- When it fits
- When you want a value, a team or a kind of work to be seen by the rest of the company.
- A shape that works
- One person, one situation, one result. Let them tell it in their own words; cut everything that sounds rehearsed.
- Check
- Has the person seen and approved the final cut?
Process or tool explainer
- When it fits
- A new tool, a form, an expense rule: anything people will look up again later.
- A shape that works
- The problem in one line, then the steps in order, shown on screen as they are said.
- Check
- Can someone follow it with the sound off, from the captions and the screen alone?
Safety briefing
- When it fits
- Procedures for sites, warehouses, stores or vehicles, often for frontline teams without a desk.
- A shape that works
- The risk, the rule and the action, shown in the real place, in the language of the people on that site.
- Check
- Has someone who does the job checked that every step is right?
Onboarding welcome
- When it fits
- The first days of a new starter, when there is too much to read.
- A shape that works
- A welcome from a real colleague, what the first week looks like, and who to ask. Keep the detail for documents.
- Check
- Will it still be true in six months, or does it name things that change?
Town hall or event recap
- When it fits
- For everyone who could not attend, and for the teams on another shift or time zone.
- A shape that works
- The three decisions or announcements that mattered, with short clips of who said them.
- Check
- Does it go out while people are still talking about the event?
Recognition or thank-you
- When it fits
- After a launch, a hard period or a milestone for one team.
- A shape that works
- Name the team and what they did, specifically. A short message from a leader who means it.
- Check
- Is it specific enough that the team recognises their own work?
Five checks before sending
Whatever the type, these are the checks that decide whether people watch to the end.
- One message. If the piece has two messages, make two pieces. Write the message in one sentence before anything is filmed.
- It works without sound. Captions for every recorded piece, and the key lines on screen. WCAG 2.2 makes captions a requirement for prerecorded video with audio (success criterion 1.2.2).
- Cut for the screen it plays on. A 16:9 piece for the intranet is not a phone video. Plan the vertical or square cut before filming, not as a crop at the end.
- It says what to do next. Where to read more, who to ask, what to do by when. Put it on screen at the end.
- The people in it said yes. Everyone who appears has agreed, in writing, to how and where the video is used. Synthetic voices or faces of real people only with their written consent.
A note on audio-only pieces
Some of these examples work just as well as audio: a leadership update in a podcast app, a safety briefing played in one ear before a shift. Audio-only content needs a transcript for anyone who cannot hear it (WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.2.1).
If your teams speak several languages, decide early which pieces need a full voice version and which only need translated captions. It changes how you write the script.
