HERE’S HOW TO CRACK BRAND VIDEO IN 2026

(As  seen in NZ Marketing Magazine 2026)

FORGET AI V ANALOGUE – HERE’S HOW TO CRACK BRAND VIDEO IN 2026

Video is everywhere. Every marketeer understands its power to connect and engage with customers. AI tools are helping teams generate and iterate content ideas and supporting produciton flows in edit. Yet most brand video is becoming increasingly forgettable.

We’re watching two distinct creative responses emerge. Some brands are leaning hard into AI surrealism – visuals that feel unhinged, chaotic, deliberately improbable. It’s an intentional play on extravagant, abandoned chaos – though it’s also where AI slop can overstep, blurring digital surrealism into something that lacks rigour and meaning.

Others are going the opposite direction, embracing an obviously “human-made”, analogue aesthetic with old-school graphics, nostalgic overlays, textured imperfection and deliberate mis-framing. This approach deliberately rejects studio polish and returns to video that evidences a sense of its making – rough edges and all.

While these trends emerge from consumer and entertainment video they signal shifting audience expectations that business brands should pay attention to. There’s a growing disenchantment with digital overload and audiences are questioning their dependence and unplugging. Analogue is becoming a refuge for many concious consumers and both audiences and creators are tiring of algorithmic sameness.

Regardless of aesthetic or style choices the critical driver of successful video at any scale is carefully considered and developed narrative. Yep, story. The brands that will stand out in 2026? They’ll resist the urge to chase engagement metrics at all costs and start building stories that matter.

1. Ditch the Content Treadmill. Build Editorial Strategy

Three unrelated, random stories whacked on socials to feed the weekly content target is an outdated chore list. Ditch the “three reels a week” mentality and focus on quality not quantity. Develop an editorial mindset – an intentional approach to brand storytelling that prioritises planning and coherance over volume.

Revisit the fundamentals. What do you want to say? Who are you saying it to? What’s the best way to connect with them? Take time to reconnect with your brandstory and develop a creative strategy. Think about your content as a campaign not a feed. That might look like a high production value brand video paired with gritty BTS reels from the shoot day. Or a polished event video supplemented by vertical hand-held clips profiling key contributors in a fun, irreverent way. Think of these as beats throughout a narrative arc – not isolated content drops designed to feed the machine.

2. Invest in Human Craft, Not just “Content”

In a social media landscape awash with synthetic content stand out by investing in original, premium video. Production value and storytelling craft matter at any scale – expertly planned, scripted, shot and edited work that champions story.

Premium video is crafted, intentional. It doesn’t just inform – it creates genuine emotional connection. The human imprint of taste, experience, imperfection and cultural nuance is irreplaceable and increasingly valued. This is what skilled writers, directors and editors bring when they work with a clear directive and the space to create.

Invest time in the creative brief. It’s a thinking space, it exists for alignment, it’s a memorandum of creative understanding. Through script, production planning, shoot and edit it’s then brought to life by trusted creative experts who understand story at their core.

3. Choose Your Aesthetic with Purpose

The visual language you choose matters but it should serve your brand story not the other way around.

Vertical video still lives natively on many platforms but we’re also seeing a deliberate swing back to widescreen aspect ratios for full, immersive viewing experiences. TikTok born and raised, Dreamcore continues to trend alongside a nostalgic nineties vibe and artisanal touches like illustrated animation with hand-crafted texture. Lotto’s 2025 “PowerBall Imagine” story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwRWH_N5K7o) and Australian 2025 Open “Hits Different” (https://youtu.be/L6n1tZ9l45M?si=rBnXiZs6GAMcj2Bn) are both great examples.

Chiming with audiences valuing authenticity IRL (in real life) video is storytelling video that celebrates in-person experiences and documents connection, culture and community. Similarly, BTS (behind the scenes) reveals the people, process and stratetgic decisions behind the production process – building transparancy and trust.

Another notable trend is the application of expert storycraft (particularly editing and sound design) applied to simple footage to make the ordinary feel extraordinary and relatable. While we’re on tennis – the Barclay’s spot for Wimbledon ((https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3588025238168363) is a perfect example of understated footage elevated by sound design and editorial decisions around rhythm, pacing and emotional build.

Whether you lean into the deliberate chaos of AI surrealism or embrace analogue and the textured imperfection of human-made aesthetics these are style decisions in service of something bigger. The brands that stand out in 2026 won’t be the ones with the most epic, realistic and outlandish AI spectacle or most on-trend visuals – they’ll be the ones who read the room, refreshed strategy and embraced story to craft targeted brand story that reaches, connects and earns the interests of audiences.

https://nzmarketingmag.co.nz/how-to-make-winning-brand-videos/