Producing a Corporate Video: Process, Budget & Vendors

Last checked: October 2026 (vendor pages and prices read 25 Oct 2026; Clutch counts read 24 Oct 2026).

This is the buyer’s guide to commissioning a corporate video: brief, budget, vendor, approvals. It is written for marketing leads and founders at US and UK companies who have to hire the work, not make it. It differs from our B2B video agency cost guide (what agencies charge), from how video production benefits your business (why to make video at all) and from our ranking of corporate video production companies (who to hire). We are a video editing agency, so we compete with some vendors below; the disclosure is in the next section.

How we picked the sources and vendors (and our disclosure)

This guide is published by Increditors, a video editing agency, and includes our own services. Increditors ranks first and Video Editing Company, a division of Increditors, ranks second in the vendor shortlist, so those two picks are not independent. The other four are ordered by how closely they fit a corporate buyer, not by rating.

Method: on 25 Oct 2026 we read the pages linked below: Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2026 (266 respondents, fieldwork late 2025), Levitate Media’s 2026 pricing guide (dated 19 March 2026), Epipheo’s pricing page, Lemonlight’s product-video page, Vidico’s videographer pricing guide (21 September 2026), Shootsta’s pricing page and videoeditingcompany.com’s pricing page. Every price is copied as published and dated. We did not buy from any vendor, so we judge what they publish, not the finished work. Vendors were chosen on four criteria:

• Published prices: a dated US dollar figure or “quote only”, never an estimate of ours.
• Corporate fit: sells to companies, not consumers or weddings.
• A different model each: editing team, packaged producer, animation studio, subscription.
• Verifiable proof: a Clutch profile or named clients on the vendor’s own pages.

Decide what you are commissioning

Start with the market. In Wyzowl’s 2026 survey, 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 82% of marketers say it has given a good return on investment. How the work gets made matters more for your budget: 59% of video marketers make their videos in house, 32% use a mix of in-house and external help, and 10% use an external vendor only, so 42% use an external creator in some capacity (Wyzowl, 25 Oct 2026). Hiring out is normal, and it is usually partial.

The choice that sets your budget is the route. Epipheo’s own comparison of three routes gives a useful benchmark, with the caveat that Epipheo is an agency and sells the third column:

Those are an explainer-video vendor’s figures, so read them as the shape of the market, not a quote. Two routes sit between the rows: packaged producers (Lemonlight, below) and subscriptions or retainers (Shootsta and Video Editing Company, below). If you already film your own footage, an editing-led corporate video service is a fourth route and usually the cheapest.

The commissioning process, stage by stage

Epipheo publishes the clearest phase plan we found: for a standard 60-second explainer, discovery in week 1, script in weeks 2 to 3, storyboard in weeks 3 to 4, animation and voiceover in weeks 4 to 7, delivery in week 8. Its note that nothing animates until the storyboard is signed is the rule to copy for any vendor. Lemonlight says a typical production takes “a few weeks to a few months”. Here is the buyer-side version of those stages:

1. Brief (days 1 to 3). Audience, one goal, where it will play (website, sales deck, all-hands, paid), length, deadline, named approvers.
2. Budget band (days 3 to 5). Choose the tier from the price table below and decide what is fixed: date, scope or money.
3. Shortlist and quotes (weeks 1 to 2). Send the same brief to three vendors of different models. Ask for a written scope with revision rounds counted.
4. Script and storyboard (weeks 2 to 4). The cheapest place to change your mind. Approve in writing and lock it. Our guide to the shot list shows what a locked plan looks like for live action.
5. Shoot or animate (weeks 4 to 7). Keep the approver list to the people who attended the script review.
6. Review and delivery (weeks 7 to 8). A rough cut, then a fine cut, then final exports for every channel. Use our post-production checklist to check the handover.

What a corporate video costs: sourced figures

Every figure below is a vendor’s published number, read on 25 Oct 2026. “From” prices are floors, and nobody here publishes a price for your brief. Our own arithmetic is labelled as such. For the full map of agency pricing see our B2B video agency pricing index.

Read the Levitate rows as a ladder. Levitate defines basic as a minimal crew or remote record at a single location with a standard edit, standard as a professional crew on a full day rate with complete post-production, and premium as a multi-day shoot with a large crew and specialised equipment. Ask every vendor to define its tiers, because the same word means different jobs at different shops.

Which route fits which brief

What moves the price, and what approvals add

Epipheo lists the levers it prices on, and they apply to any vendor: runtime, style (3D, character animation and live action each roughly double the budget at the same runtime, per its page), who writes the script, revision rounds, voiceover and complexity. Three of them are in your hands.

Here is what that does to a real budget, as our arithmetic. Take Levitate’s standard testimonial band of $5,000 to $12,000. If you add two revision rounds beyond the two included, and each costs 8% to 12% as Epipheo describes for its own invoices, that is 16% to 24% more: about $800 to $1,200 on a $5,000 job and about $1,920 to $2,880 on a $12,000 job. Treat Epipheo’s percentage as a reference point, not a rate every vendor shares.

A vendor shortlist on identical fields

Every entry uses the same fields in the same order. We rank Increditors first and Video Editing Company second (see the disclosure), then four vendors that each represent a different model. Prices were read on 25 Oct 2026 and Clutch counts on 24 Oct 2026. Our wider best video production services ranking covers more vendors; this shortlist is the commissioning view.

1. Increditors: editing-led corporate video for B2B teams

• Best for: Marketing leads and founders who need finished corporate video built from footage they already have or record remotely, plus 2D animation, without hiring editors.
• Pricing: Custom quote after a scoping call; we do not publish prices in this guide.
• Turnaround: 1 to 2 days for short-form and YouTube edits; 14 days for a 2D animation (our site, read 25 Oct 2026).
• Capacity model: Per-project packages, or a monthly dedicated-team plan for ongoing volume.
• Rating: Clutch 5.0 from 12 reviews (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: US entity, with artists in Los Angeles, Spain, Italy and India (our About page).
• Named clients: Emerj/The Trajectory, TuMeke, Riley Coleman, Trade with Pat, VYVE Wellness, Dr. Jonathan Tam, GoDaddy (pilot), eSafetyFirst, Rhythm Monster. 1,700+ videos for 340+ clients; see the TuMeke case study.

2. Video Editing Company: premium retainer team for B2B and SaaS

• Best for: B2B and SaaS marketing teams that want a standing editing team for demos, interviews, ads and social clips.
• Pricing: $5,000 (Growth), $9,500 (Core) and $16,000 (Scale) a month, month to month. Read on videoeditingcompany.com, 25 Oct 2026.
• Turnaround: 3 to 7 days per asset (its pricing page).
• Capacity model: Monthly retainer with a dedicated 3 to 5 person team; 10 to 48 assets a month.
• Rating: Clutch profile with no rated reviews (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: A division of Increditors (its About page); remote team.
• Named clients: Emerj/The Trajectory, TuMeke, Blue Zones Health, VYVE Wellness (its site).

3. Lemonlight: packaged per-video production with crews in 80+ cities

• Best for: Companies that want a fixed-scope, fixed-price video with strategy and production under one roof, from a curated edit to a lifestyle shoot.
• Pricing: Curated from $1,500; doc-style and animated from $2,500; studio from $5,000; lifestyle from $10,000. Read on lemonlight.com, 25 Oct 2026.
• Turnaround: 3 to 12 weeks depending on type (its page).
• Capacity model: Predetermined per-video packages, with a producer assigned to each project.
• Rating: Clutch 4.9 from 49 reviews (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: Los Angeles, with a crew network covering 80+ cities (its homepage).
• Named clients: Says it is trusted by over 4,500 brands; Disney, Amazon, Walmart, Google, Lego and Netflix are named on its site. See our Lemonlight review.

4. Vidico: animation and brand video for tech companies

• Best for: Software and tech marketing teams that want animation, brand and case-study video from one studio, project by project or on a subscription.
• Pricing: Explainers from $5,000 for simple 2D to $20,000+ for 3D or live action; subscription plans from $5,000 a month with unused budget rolling over. Read on vidico.com (FAQ), 25 Oct 2026.
• Turnaround: Not published; quoted after scoping.
• Capacity model: Monthly subscription with rollover budget, or per project.
• Rating: Clutch 4.9 from 58 reviews (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: Melbourne, Australia, with offices in Sydney, New York, Dubai and Singapore (its FAQ).
• Named clients: Spotify, Square, IBM, Digital Ocean and Airtable (its FAQ). See our Vidico pricing guide.

5. Epipheo: high-end explainer and brand film studio

• Best for: Large-company flagship films where discovery, script and storyboard are part of the purchase.
• Pricing: $5K to $150K+ per project: Essential Starter $5K to $25K, Premium Signature $25K to $75K, Flagship from $75K, live action $40K to $250K. Read on epipheo.com/pricing, 25 Oct 2026.
• Turnaround: 6 to 12 weeks for an agency project; a 60-second explainer runs about 8 weeks (its phase plan).
• Capacity model: Project-based studio with a producer, a team and a contract.
• Rating: Clutch 4.9 from 28 reviews (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: Cincinnati, Ohio (its site).
• Named clients: Google, Microsoft, Cisco and other Fortune 500 teams (its site).

6. Shootsta: corporate video subscription with 48-hour edits

• Best for: Communications, HR, learning and marketing teams that produce a steady stream of internal and brand video.
• Pricing: From US$1,000 per month plus taxes, varying with volume and creative support; annual subscriptions. Read on shootsta.com/pricing, 25 Oct 2026.
• Turnaround: A first edit within 48 hours of submitted footage (its page).
• Capacity model: Subscription with prepaid credits; DIY, guided or fully supported workflows.
• Rating: Clutch profile with no reviews yet (read 24 Oct 2026).
• Based in: Sydney, Australia (head office per its site).
• Named clients: Dual North America, HarperCollins, Clinique, Reece Group, Grab and Charter Hall (case studies on its site).

Our own two entries are editing-led. If your video needs a crew on location across several days, hire a production company such as Lemonlight or a studio such as Epipheo for the shoot, and bring in an editing team afterward for the cutdowns, captions and channel versions. For a worked B2B case, see our B2B video case study guide and our case studies.

Brief and questions to send every vendor

Send the same one-page brief to all three vendors on your shortlist. It should contain:

• Goal and audience: the one thing the viewer should do after watching.
• Where it plays: website, sales call, event, paid social. This sets aspect ratios and cutdowns.
• Length and count: one hero video, or a hero plus 5 cutdowns.
• Budget band: a range from the table above, not a single number.
• Deadline and approvers: the date it must be live, and the two or three names who sign off.
• Existing assets: brand guidelines, footage, music licences, a script if you have one.

Then ask each vendor the same six questions and compare the answers in writing:

1. What exactly is in each tier, and how many revision rounds are included?
2. What does an extra round cost, in dollars and in days?
3. Who writes the script, and what does it cost if we supply one?
4. What is in the price besides production: voiceover, music licence, captions, cutdowns, source files?
5. Who is my day-to-day contact, and who actually does the work?
6. Can you give me two references for a project like this one?

Mistakes that blow budgets and schedules

• Comparing quotes with different scopes. A $12,000 quote with two revision rounds and a $9,000 quote with one are not the same offer.
• Adding approvers after the script lock. Every extra reviewer is a revision round in waiting.
• Buying the price tier, not the definition. “Basic” at one vendor is a remote record; at another it is a one-day crew.
• Skipping the cutdowns. Plan the social and sales versions in the first brief.

FAQ

How much does it cost to produce a corporate video?

Levitate Media’s 2026 ranges are $4,500 to $12,000 for a basic brand film or single-day project, $12,000 to $25,000 for a standard production and $25,000 to $60,000+ for a premium one. Packaged producers start lower, such as Lemonlight from $1,500, and flagship studios start higher, such as Epipheo from $5K. All figures were read on 25 Oct 2026.

How long does a corporate video take to produce?

Vendors publish 3 to 12 weeks for most productions: Lemonlight lists 3 to 12 weeks by video type and Epipheo 6 to 12 weeks for an agency project, with a standard 60-second explainer running about 8 weeks. Editing-led teams are faster because the footage exists: Shootsta says a first edit within 48 hours and Video Editing Company 3 to 7 days per asset.

Should I use an agency, a freelancer or an in-house team?

Wyzowl’s 2026 survey found 59% of video marketers make video in house, 32% use a mix and 10% use an external vendor only. Epipheo’s own comparison puts a freelancer at $2K to $15K per project and an agency at $15K to $150K+, with accountability resting on one person against a team and a contract.

How many revision rounds should be in the quote?

Two is the common standard; Epipheo says two rounds are standard and each additional round adds roughly 8 to 12% to the invoice and about a week. Whatever the vendor, get the included count and the price of an extra round in writing before you sign.

What should I put in a corporate video brief?

One goal and one audience, where the video will play, length and number of cutdowns, a budget range, the deadline, the two or three named approvers and any existing footage, brand guidelines or script. Send the same brief to three vendors so the quotes are comparable.

Where does Increditors fit?

Increditors is editing-led: dedicated editors and a project manager who cut footage you own or record remotely, plus 2D animation, with a Clutch 5.0 from 12 reviews and 1,700+ videos delivered. For a multi-day live-action shoot we would point you to a production company and then take over the editing and cutdowns.

Changelog: 8 Nov 2026 — first published, using vendor pages and prices read on 25 Oct 2026.