How to Add a Logo to a Video (5 Best Practices)
While you can accomplish a great video with stunning visuals, interesting content, and the right soundtrack, a misplaced or poor-quality logo can overshadow all your hard work. We’ve put together 5 tips on how to effectively use your company logo in videos, from placement to sizing and more.
Note: To remove the Animoto branding from your videos, you'll need to be on the Basic plan, Professional plan, or Professional Plus plan.
1. Nail your intro and outro
With saturated markets in social media and shorter-than-ever attention spans, first impressions are everything. The first three seconds of a social video is precious time, so make your impact quickly. Use visually stimulating imagery that resonates with your target audience, and think of a powerful, hilarious, or thought-provoking statement to capture attention.
Once you have that attention, subtly tell the audience who you are with your logo. Keep it simple and place it in the top or bottom corner of the video. Remember: the intro is not about showing off your logo in a big and flashy way – it’s about immediately engaging your audience.
When it comes to videos for purposes other than social media, such as product demonstrations or a supplement to a live presentation, you want to tell people who you are from the get-go. Brand your video by showing your logo up front, centered at a medium size. You can also create a custom logo animation. If you’re using Animoto, you’ll find a variety of animation options to choose from.
Include your logo at the end of the video with a similar effect as the intro for consistency. And don’t forget to include a call to action at the end of your video or in your outro, such as asking the audience to learn more by visiting your website. Think of your business objectives and how the video will contribute to achieving them.
2. Be precise about placement
Ever heard of the old adage “location, location, location”? Yes, it was meant for the real estate market, but applies to logo placement in videos too! Placement is key – you want your logo to be subtle, yet noticeable. Avoid putting it where it may distract from your content.
Traditionally, logo bugs have been placed in the lower right corner of videos. However, things are a little different when it comes to creating videos for social media. We suggest placing your logo in either of the upper corners. With the “sound-off” nature of video viewing on social media, subtitles are commonly used, often extending into the lower corners. Keep in mind that this may differ depending on the platform you’re creating your video for.
Have your logo remain in the left or right upper corner as a static image throughout the video to remind viewers of your brand’s identity, as it won’t be obstructed by subtitles.
3. Choose the right size
When it comes to the size of your logo, err on the side of small. You don’t want your logo to be too large, or it could compete with the content or block the visibility of your shots. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be so small that it goes unnoticed, or is illegible, unclear, or hard to read.
We recommend a high-resolution logo file size of at least 800 x 800 pixels for video use in all quality formats.
Remember: viewers are watching your video for its content. They want to take away key concepts and (hopefully) take action, so let your content be the star of the show, rather than your logo.
4. Consider tints and shades
Using a logo that has a lot of different colors in videos can be tricky, as it can be challenging to make it visible in all shots. It’s best to stick with one color, or a black or white version of your logo. Try testing different versions throughout your video to ensure visibility in all shots, whether they’re dark or light.
If you decide to use a colored logo, scale it down to a small size and change the opacity of it (common practice is anywhere from 65% to 90% opacity). You can use tools like Adobe Illustrator or Sketch to adjust the opacity of logo files; experiment to see what works best for your video.
What to do:
What not to do:
5. Use the right file format
You can use three types of logo file formats in video: PNGs, JPGs, and GIFs.
For videos, you’ll need a logo file with a transparent background because it’ll be placed on top of imagery.
We recommend a PNG (Portable Network Graphic) file because:
- Image quality isn’t lost when compressed and decompressed
- They can display millions of colors
- They support transparent backgrounds
Another file format you can use is GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). GIF files are best used for sharp-edged line art (such as logos) with a limited number of colors.
We recommend GIF files because image quality is not lost when compressed and decompressed.
With these 5 best practices, you’ll be all set to make a positive and lasting impression on your audience.
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