The UK Top 50 producers and the Brand Film Industry Report: Why they matter

We have a double header of unmissable reports on brand and corporate film coming up this autumn.

‍The UK Top 50 is launching to continue the work of Televisual's legendary Corporate 50, bringing back an order of merit to a growing field of talented film-makers. The Brand Film Industry Report returns as the only resource to give a detailed snapshot of this once-hidden sector of the UK screen industry.

We need your help as industry professionals to gather the data. To save you time, it's one survey for both reports. Make sure your business has its chance to enter the UK Top 50 by clicking here. But don't wait too long, the survey closes on 7th October.

What is the UK Top 50?

Until 2019, Televisual’s Corporate 50 ranked British producers who excel in crafting corporate film, setting the standard for the sector. So it’s with great satisfaction that we have again partnered with Televisual and EVCOM, this time to provide a league table of the top performers.  

Twinning with the launch of The UK Top 50, the eagerly anticipated Brand Film Industry Report makes its return. The 2020 edition shone a light on the industry after a 15-year gap, and the 2022 edition will go further still.

Understanding the details that go into the makeup of brand video output - such as production houses budget scope, annual project workload, and production team size - go a long way toward informing strategy and roadmapping for enterprises in the year ahead.

It’s nuanced insights such as these, drawn from the survey then collated within the report, that unarguably raised the overall profile of the sector in national screen industry statistics.

Bridging the gap

For context, the lack of data had seen brand film occupy a position of statistical obscurity. That is not to say that it became any less valuable, rather quite the opposite.

For example, in 2005 73% of respondents were actively seeking greater expansion into export markets, though only 25% had secured work for such clients. Fast forward 15 years and 2020’s report highlighted the now essential role of exports in UK brand film, with 82% of companies delivering projects for clients outside Britain.

Before 2020, brand film had been suffering from an ironic case of identity crisis. Mainstream understanding of the commercial opportunity afforded through brand film had slipped down the sides of digital media worksurfaces and become lodged somewhere behind the notoriety of feature film and advertising.

Since the last survey was completed on the cusp of the first COVID-19 lockdown, this year’s report emerges as the sector’s opportunity to explore fresh data. Which begs some significant questions: How much has the industry changed? In what way? After coming into its own during the pandemic, where is brand video positioned for audiences now?

The taking part

The bottom line in surveys is that their success is overwhelmingly dependent on participation. The wider the net and the greater the haul, the more substantial and beneficial the data. We could not have achieved the impact since 2020 without you - the production companies, in-house brand film teams and freelance creators who responded.

In turn, the growing pains experienced by producers throughout the last 15 years are increasingly vindicated with every annual catchment as brand film gains traction in 2022.

Timing this year’s Brand Film Industry Survey’s release to coincide with The U.K Top 50 is by design, since the two work to strengthen the position and rigour of the other in terms of reliability and accuracy. However, rankings and healthy competition aside, perhaps production companies might reflect on the notion that the most valuable reason for participating is strengthening the brand film community itself. One that remained an outlier in gauging business measurement for so long.

In short, collective participation brings great illumination.

Start the survey here.

‍

‍

‍