Brett LindenbergA marketing video is any video a business makes to win or keep customers: a brand film, an explainer, a product demo, a customer story, a social clip, or a paid ad. The marketing video examples people still study each did one job well. Dollar Shave Club explained a cheap subscription with jokes, Volvo Trucks proved a steering feature with a stunt, and Dove turned a research finding into an experiment that viewers felt. Below are eight campaigns with results we could verify, what each one teaches, the main types of marketing videos, and ideas you can use for your own business. The demo below is an interactive campaign video: pick a goal for a small bike shop and the video plays the campaign idea that fits.
What is a marketing video?
A marketing video is a video made to move a viewer one step closer to buying, using, or recommending a product. Businesses publish them on their website, YouTube, social platforms, email, and sales follow-ups, and they pay to show some of them as ads. An advertisement is a marketing video that runs in paid space; most marketing videos never do.
Marketing videos for business fall into two groups. Brand videos make people remember and like the company, so they are judged on reach and recall. Response videos ask the viewer to do something now, such as book a demo, start a trial, or buy, so they are judged on that action. The examples below include both, and the most useful lesson from them is to decide which kind you are making before you write the script.
8 marketing video examples and what each one teaches
1. Dollar Shave Club launch video (2012)
Dollar Shave Club posted its launch video on YouTube on March 6, 2012. Founder Michael Dubin wrote it and delivers it on camera, pitching a razor subscription with deadpan jokes. According to The New York Times, traffic crashed the company's server in the first hour and 12,000 orders arrived in the first 48 hours. The video had 29.0 million YouTube views when we checked on October 1, 2026. Unilever bought the company in 2016, for $1 billion according to Fortune.
The lesson: a founder-led explainer works when the offer is simple enough to say in one sentence and the person on camera can say it with a clear personality. The jokes carried the offer instead of replacing it.
2. Blendtec "Will It Blend?" (2006 to 2020)
In this web series, Blendtec founder Tom Dickson put objects such as an iPhone, an iPad, and a camcorder into a Blendtec blender to show its power. The series started in October 2006, and its July 2007 episode that blended an iPhone had 13.1 million views when we checked on October 1, 2026. Each episode followed the same format: the question, the blend, and the result.
The lesson: a product demo becomes a series when it proves one claim in a way people want to watch again. A fixed format also makes each new episode cheap to plan and shoot.
3. Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (2010)
Wieden+Kennedy made this ad for Old Spice body wash with actor Isaiah Mustafa. It went online on February 4, 2010, speaks straight to women about the men in their lives, and had 63.4 million YouTube views on October 1, 2026. It won the 2010 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. In July 2010 the team followed up with the Response campaign: according to a D&AD case study, it scripted, filmed, and posted 186 personal video replies to fans' comments in just over two and a half days.
The lesson: choose one viewer and talk to them directly, then plan a follow-up you can publish fast while people are still talking about the first video.
4. Dove "Real Beauty Sketches" (2013)
Ogilvy & Mather Brazil made this film for Dove. A forensic artist, Gil Zamora, sketches women from their own descriptions without seeing them, then sketches each woman again from a stranger's description. The sketches hang side by side, and the stranger's version is the more flattering one (Dove's campaign page). Within days of the April 2013 release, the three-minute version had more than 7.5 million views on Dove's YouTube channel, The New York Times reported. Dove executives told the Times that the wider Real Beauty campaign grew out of company research showing that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful.
The lesson: when you have a research finding, show it happening to real people instead of stating it. The product barely appears, which suits a brand video and would not suit a response video.
5. Volvo Trucks "The Epic Split" (2013)
Jean-Claude Van Damme does a split between the mirrors of two reversing trucks, filmed in one take at sunrise. Volvo Trucks says the test demonstrates the precision and directional stability of Volvo Dynamic Steering on the Volvo FM. The video went up on November 13, 2013, and had 128.3 million views on October 1, 2026.
The B2B lesson is in what happened next. Volvo commissioned GfK to survey 2,200 transport companies in eight countries about its six "Live Test" films, and Campaign reported the results in April 2014. The Epic Split was rated the most attention-grabbing, but it scored lowest (2.4 out of 5) on making respondents interested in buying a Volvo. "The Technician," which had fewer than one million views, scored highest (2.9). Among respondents who had seen each film, 24% took action after The Epic Split, such as visiting a Volvo website or contacting a dealer, compared with 39% after The Technician. Views measured attention; the buyer survey measured intent. If your buyers are a small group of companies, survey or track that group directly and read total views as a measure of reach.
6. Nike "Dream Crazy" (2018)
Nike released "Dream Crazy" in September 2018 for the 30th anniversary of "Just Do It," with Colin Kaepernick at the center of the campaign. Some people posted videos of themselves burning Nike products under hashtags such as #BoycottNike, Global News reported. The film, made by Wieden+Kennedy, won the 2019 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.
The lesson: a values-led brand film only works if the stance matches what the brand has said for years and what its core customers believe. Before you publish one, decide who will answer the criticism and how.
7. Coca-Cola "Share a Coke" (2011 and 2025)
Coca-Cola Australia launched Share a Coke in 2011, replacing the logo on bottles with popular first names. When the campaign returned in 2025, Coca-Cola planned a rolling launch in more than 120 countries and added a "Share a Coke Memory Maker," an interactive digital experience for making personalized videos to share, according to Coca-Cola's March 2025 announcement.
The lesson: people share things that have their own name or story in them. In video, you can get the same effect without a new shoot for each person; personalization variables let one recording show each viewer's name or company.
8. Apple "Crush!" (2024): what went wrong
Apple's ad for the iPad Pro showed a hydraulic press flattening a piano, paint, a trumpet, and other creative tools into a thin iPad. Apple meant to show how many creative tools the device could replace. Designers, actors, and artists instead criticized it as a picture of big tech crushing the tools of their work. Two days after the release, Apple's vice president of marketing communications said "We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry," and Apple dropped plans to run it on TV, The New York Times reported.
The lesson: test the metaphor with people from your audience before launch. A product demo that looks clever in a script can read differently on screen.
The examples compared
| Example | Type | Result we could verify | What to copy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dollar Shave Club (2012) | Founder-led explainer | 12,000 orders in 48 hours | State a simple offer with personality |
| Blendtec (2006 to 2020) | Product demo series | 13.1 million views for one episode | A repeatable format that proves one claim |
| Old Spice (2010) | Brand ad plus video replies | Emmy; 186 video replies in about 2.5 days | Talk to one viewer; follow up fast |
| Dove (2013) | Brand film, social experiment | 7.5 million views within days | Show a finding instead of stating it |
| Volvo Trucks (2013) | B2B product demo | 128.3 million views; lowest purchase interest of six films | Measure buyer intent, not only views |
| Nike (2018) | Values-led brand film | Emmy; public boycott calls | Take a stance only if it fits your history |
| Coca-Cola (2011, 2025) | Participation and personalization | Relaunched in 120+ countries | Put the viewer's name in the content |
| Apple (2024) | Product launch ad | Public apology; TV run dropped | Test the metaphor before launch |
Types of marketing videos and when to use each
Pick the type from the job the video has to do and the place the viewer will see it.
| Type | Job | Where it usually runs | What to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand film | Make people remember and like the company | YouTube, paid video, events | Reach, recall, brand search |
| Explainer | Say what the product does and for whom | Home page, landing pages | Watch percentage, clicks to the next step |
| Product demo | Prove that a feature works | Product pages, sales follow-up | Demo requests, trials |
| Customer story | Show a result for someone like the viewer | Case study pages, sales emails | Influenced deals, replies |
| How-to or tutorial | Help someone do a task, often with your product | YouTube, help center, onboarding | Completion, support tickets avoided |
| Social short | Reach new people in the feed | YouTube Shorts, Reels, TikTok, LinkedIn | Views, follows, profile visits |
| Video ad | Buy attention for a message or offer | Paid social, YouTube, connected TV | Cost per result |
| Webinar or event recording | Teach in depth and collect interested contacts | On-demand pages, email | Registrations, chapters watched |
| Personalized sales video | Speak to one account or person | Email, LinkedIn messages | Replies, meetings booked |
| Interactive video | Let viewers choose, answer, or buy inside the video | Landing pages, product pages, email | Choices, answers, leads, clicks by viewer |
For more on two of these types, see our explainer video examples and video ad examples. For examples grouped by tactic, such as real-time and personalized videos, see video marketing examples by tactic. For training teams, corporate training video examples covers ten types.
How long should a marketing video be?
As long as the job needs, and shorter when the viewer did not ask for it. Our own platform data gives a rough guide. Across 8.07 million views of 18,315 Mindstamp videos (2018 to October 2026), videos of one minute or less averaged 59.4% watched, videos of two to five minutes averaged 39.2%, and videos of 10 to 20 minutes averaged 53.8%. These are mostly training, marketing, and sales videos made by our customers, and the longer ones are often watched by people who chose to, such as learners or prospects who asked for a demo. Treat the figures as a pattern, not a rule for all video.
In practice, keep a cold-audience video for social or ads to about a minute, and put the offer in the first seconds. Let a demo or webinar run longer, and add chapters so viewers can skip to the part they need. Platform limits also shape length: YouTube treats square or vertical videos of up to three minutes as Shorts, according to YouTube Help. Our free video script timer estimates the length of a script before you record it.
Video marketing ideas for your business
These ideas work for small teams and do not need a large production budget. Each one names the next step the viewer should take.
- A 60-second explainer for your home page that answers "what is it, who is it for, what does it cost to start" and ends with one button.
- A founder or team introduction for the About page, recorded on a phone, that says why the company exists.
- A product demo split by need, so a viewer picks the problem they have and sees only that part. Our buyer-stage product tour shows the pattern.
- A customer story that follows the order problem, change, result, with the customer's own numbers if they agree to share them.
- A product quiz that asks three or four questions and recommends a product, like this skincare product quiz.
- A shoppable product video where viewers tap parts of the product for details, like the packable jacket hotspot demo.
- A how-to series that answers the questions your support team hears most often, one question per video.
- A personalized follow-up video for sales that greets the prospect by name and covers what they asked about.
- Your best webinar, cut into chapters with a sign-up form, so it keeps collecting contacts after the live date.
- A short behind-the-scenes clip for social channels that shows how you make or ship the product.
To turn an idea into a script, try our explainer video script generator or the guide on how to write a video script.
What makes a video campaign successful?
Four habits show up again and again in the campaigns above:
- One claim per video. Blendtec proved power, Volvo proved steering, and Dollar Shave Club made a single point about price.
- The audience is chosen before the script. Old Spice decided to address women, and every line speaks to them.
- A format that can repeat or continue. Blendtec ran for years, and Old Spice turned one ad into 186 replies.
- A measure that fits the goal. Volvo's buyer survey showed that the most attention-grabbing film did the least to interest truck buyers.
Decide your measure before you publish. For a brand video, that might be reach and brand search. For a response video, count the action: trials, demo requests, purchases, or replies. Our guide to video engagement metrics explains watch percentage, interactions, and the other numbers worth tracking, and video marketing strategy covers how to plan a full program.
Interactive marketing video examples
The famous examples above are linear: every viewer sees the same video, and the brand sees totals such as views and watch time. An interactive video lets the viewer choose a path, answer a question, or click a product inside the player, and records each action against the viewer. Two published Mindstamp customer stories show how teams use this:
- HP Indonesia ran a virtual launch for its OMEN 16 and Victus 16 gaming laptops as a choose-your-own-story video, with multiple-choice quizzes and QR codes that opened personalized video journeys.
- Tyson Zahner, who runs Attract Steady Clients, used branching paths, buttons, and questions to route each viewer to the offer that matched their stated needs, which let Zahner sort leads by what they asked for.
In Mindstamp, you add these interactions to a video you already have. Buttons and hotspots link to a product page, a booking calendar, or checkout. Questions pause the video and record each answer. Branching sends each viewer to the section or video that matches their choice, and lead capture asks for contact details at the start, at a set time, or after a click. The reporting shows each viewer's answers, clicks, and path. See interactive video for marketing for more use cases, or our article on interactive video marketing strategy and ideas.
Common questions
What are the best marketing videos of all time?
No single list is official, but award winners are a fair place to start. The Television Academy's Emmy for Outstanding Commercial went to Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" in 2010 and Nike's "Dream Crazy" in 2019. The other campaigns in this article are strong candidates too, for the reasons covered in each section.
What is an example of a campaign video?
Old Spice's 2010 campaign is a clear example: one main ad in February set the character and tone, and in July the team continued the campaign on social media with 186 short reply videos made in about two and a half days. A campaign video belongs to a set of videos and other assets built around one idea, rather than standing alone.
What are the main types of marketing videos?
Brand films, explainers, product demos, customer stories, how-to videos, social shorts, video ads, webinar recordings, personalized sales videos, and interactive videos. The table above lists the job and the measure for each.
How do I make a marketing video for my business?
Pick one viewer and one action you want from them, write a script that states the offer early, record with the equipment you have, add captions, and publish where that viewer already spends time. Then check the action, not only the views. Our guides on video production for businesses and video marketing for small business cover each step, and a content creation workflow helps when you make videos regularly.
Start with one idea from the list above, write down the single action you want viewers to take, and decide how you will count it before you record.
