How much does a corporate video cost in the UK? A 2026 guide.

The most common first question from anyone commissioning a corporate video for the first time is also the hardest one to answer without a conversation: how much does this cost?

The honest answer is that corporate video in the UK in 2026 ranges from around £1,500 for a lone videographer-and-a-camera drive-by to over £100,000 for a brand-level campaign film with full crew, talent, locations and post. That's a 60x range for things that all get called "corporate video."

This guide breaks down what actually drives the cost, what you get at each tier, and how to think about your own budget without overspending or — just as expensive — underspending on a film that doesn't do its job.

The three things that drive cost

Ignore hourly rates. Ignore day rates. At a project level, corporate video pricing is driven by three variables, and almost nothing else:

1. Shoot days. The biggest single cost driver. A one-day shoot with a two-person team is a fundamentally different production to a three-day shoot with a six-person crew. Every additional day brings kit, crew, travel, catering and pre-production overhead.

2. Crew size and kit complexity. A DP-with-camera at one end. A full crew — director, DP, focus puller, sound recordist, gaffer, spark, producer — at the other. Kit scales similarly, from a single mirrorless rig up to cinema cameras with full lighting, grip, drone and multi-camera set-ups.

3. Post-production scope. Often underestimated. A single two-minute film cut from one day of footage with a clean grade is one thing. A main film plus six social cut-downs, all captioned in three languages, with motion graphics and a branded end-card, is another. Number of deliverables drives post cost as much as, sometimes more than, shoot complexity.

Everything else — the talent fees, the location permissions, the catering, the travel — is important but secondary. If your quote feels surprising, one of those three drivers is usually where the number is coming from.

What you get at each tier

£1,500 – £3,000: Videographer

A one-person operator turns up with a camera and a microphone. Useful for internal comms, social content, event roll-in, situations where production polish is not the point.

Not useful for anything that sits in front of a buyer, a candidate, or a client. If the film is going on your website homepage or in a sales deck, this tier will show.

£3,500 – £7,000: Entry-tier production

One shoot day with a small senior team — usually two or three people including a director/DP, a second shooter or sound recordist, and a producer coordinating the day. Cinema-grade kit, full lighting, post-production to finish.

Delivers one main piece (typically 90 seconds to 2 minutes) plus a short social cut. Ideal for a single testimonial, a short case study, a product film, or an internal announcement that needs to look right without being a brand-level piece.

£7,000 – £15,000: Standard corporate production

Where the majority of useful corporate video is made. One to two shoot days, a bigger crew, multiple locations if needed, and more deliverables — usually a main film plus three to six social cuts, all from the same production.

This is the tier most marketing directors should budget for a meaningful piece. It's enough to cover scripting, treatment, proper pre-production, a director leading the shoot, and full post. The difference between this tier and the entry tier is not just polish; it's the difference between a film that happens to exist and a film that does its job.

£15,000 – £40,000: Flagship / brand film

Multi-day productions with full crew, director-led creative, location work, talent where the brief calls for it, and substantial post-production. This is the tier for a flagship brand film, a campaign, a major development launch, or a capability film that will carry a company's image for two to three years.

Most organisations only make films at this tier once every two to three years. When they do, the mistake is usually trying to make it cheaper — spending £10,000 on something that should have been £20,000 produces a middle-tier result, not a flagship result.

£40,000+: Campaign-level

Multi-film campaigns, multi-location productions, international shoots, talent, higher-end director involvement. The right tier for a major brand reposition, a multi-part content series, or a campaign designed to run across paid media for six to twelve months.

What most people get wrong

Budgeting for the shoot, not the deliverable. The deliverable is what does the work. A £15,000 shoot that produces only a two-minute film is less efficient than a £15,000 shoot that produces a two-minute film plus five social cuts, two thirty-second ads, and a library of stills. Scope the deliverables before you scope the shoot.

Underspending on pre-production. The difference between a good corporate film and a great one is usually made before anyone turns a camera on. Treatment, scripting, casting, location scouting, call sheet detail — this is where mediocre productions cut corners, and where good productions earn their margin for the client.

Overspending on kit, underspending on people. Cinema cameras are commodities now. Anyone can hire an FX6 for £400 a day. What you're paying for at the standard tier and above is the judgement of the person operating it, the direction on set, the edit that makes the story work. The spec sheet matters less than the team.

Treating video as a production cost, not a marketing asset. A £10,000 film that sits on the careers page for three years at £3,300 per year is cheap. A £10,000 film that's made badly and has to be re-shot in eighteen months is expensive. The lifetime of the asset should be part of the budget conversation.

How to brief a video production company

The best briefs we receive answer five questions in a paragraph each. Not in a thirty-page document. Just:

• What is the film for? What does it need to do, and for whom?
• Where will it live? LinkedIn, YouTube, your homepage, a sales deck, an event screen, a broadcast spot?
• What's the budget range? An honest range, not a target to undercut.
• What's the timeline? When does it need to be live, and against what milestone?
• What does success look like? Applications up, leads in, investors convinced, morale shifted?

A good production company will ask you these questions if you haven't answered them yourself. If they don't, that's a signal.

A final note on price and value

Corporate video pricing is one of the areas of the marketing industry where the price-to-quality curve is most visible and most misleading. A £3,500 film can be excellent. A £30,000 film can be a disappointment. The difference is almost always the craft and judgement of the team, not the line items on the quote.

The best test of a production company is not the showreel; it's the conversation you have before you commission. If it feels like a genuine dialogue about what you're trying to achieve, you're probably in the right place. If it feels like a pitch, you're probably not.

Frame Productions makes corporate video for UK clients across property, corporate, hospitality and industrial sectors. Projects start from £3,500 for a single-day production. Most client engagements range £8–20k. Get in touch with your brief and we'll put a proper number on it.