The role of video in employer branding and recruitment marketing

I heard a really interesting observation recently from Maria Katris, the CEO of Built In. She pointed out that candidates are “shopping” for jobs the same way we shop for hotels, clothes, or pretty much anything else these days. That is, with copious amounts of research. 

It made so much sense to me, because when it comes to big purchases, the ones that matter, I don’t just grab the first thing I see. I do my homework. I read reviews. Watch videos. Ask around. That’s exactly what job seekers are doing now when they’re thinking about where to apply. And when you look at it through that lens, the function of the employer branding team starts to look a lot more like the role of the marketing team. That means that video isn’t just nice to have, it’s really one of the most helpful, flexible tools in the kit.

Behind the Tech

At Jump Point, we’ve worked with Built In to produce employer brand videos for over a hundred of the country’s biggest tech companies. And we’ve seen this firsthand: candidates are vetting your company from a bunch of different angles. Maybe they start on your careers page. Then catch a culture post on LinkedIn. Maybe they Google you and find a video of your team talking about what they do. All of that is helping them imagine themselves at your company before they ever click apply. 

Video is great for this because it’s visual, it’s immersive, and you can hit a bunch of different angles with it. You can show off the team. You can let someone talk about their journey in their own words. You can give a quick look at the space people are walking into. And when you stitch a few of those together over time, you start to build something really resonant and three dimensional. 

So variety isn’t just a nice-to-have in employer branding—it’s a strategic advantage. Every candidate is coming into their job search from a different place. Some are casually browsing, others are deep in research mode. Some care most about culture, others want to know what kind of people they’ll work with, or how the team’s structured, or what the office is like. When you offer a range of video content, you give yourself more chances to meet them where they are—and more ways to catch their attention.

That’s why the suite of five video styles we’re rolling out for Built In—Behind the Tech, Where We Work, Team Spotlight, United We Tech, and Social Snaps—is so exciting. They each do something a little different, but together they paint a rich, multi-dimensional picture of what it’s like to work at a company.

United We Tech

Behind the Tech is designed to feel like an intro to the company, and we talk to people across the organization. It’s shot in a loose, handheld style, with employees speaking casually from their desks, break rooms, or wherever they actually work.  The goal is to make the viewer feel like they’ve just stopped by for a quick chat. You get insight into what people are like, how they approach the work, and what drives them while also getting a look at the space you might actually work.

Where We Work is all about the space, and the feeling of the place. It shows the bigger context—the architecture, the layout, the vibe of the office, and even the city. That kind of video is especially helpful for people weighing hybrid or in-person roles, or someone considering relocating. It’s so important to feel good about the space you’re going to be working before you commit to spending so much of your life there and this style is designed to give you that. 

Team Spotlight is about a specific group in the company, engineering, sales, design, etc., but it’s really about the people. At the heart of it is a two-person interview—coworkers, collaborators, or a mentor and mentee—talking together about their work. That dynamic gives the conversation a natural rhythm, and it lets real chemistry come through. For candidates, it’s a chance to get a sense of what it’s actually like to be part of the team and to understand where they might fit in.

United We Tech brings a talk-show vibe to employer branding. It’s a more relaxed, personality-driven format, with two employees chatting remotely with a host. It’s especially effective for companies with distributed teams or strong remote cultures, where people might not get to “see” the team dynamic otherwise. It gives candidates a window into how people connect, collaborate, and think—even when they’re not in the same room.

Social Snaps are all about flexibility and volume. Each shoot delivers a dozen short videos—quick clips that are perfect for social feeds. That kind of scale means you can cover a lot of ground: answer FAQs, highlight perks, showcase specific roles, or just share quick thoughts from across the team. They’re light, authentic, and easy to mix into your content calendar throughout the year. For companies looking to stay visible without having to constantly spin up new production, Social Snaps are a really efficient way to keep the employer brand active and engaging.

Each one of these concepts brings something different to the table. But what really makes them powerful is how they work together. As a candidate, you might see a casual Social Snap in your feed, click through to a Behind the Tech video that makes the company feel more real, and then watch a Team Spotlight to understand what the day-to-day is actually like. That layered experience builds trust. It gives you context. And ultimately, it makes it easier to picture yourself joining that team.

So yeah, candidates are out there shopping. They’re doing their homework. And they’re paying attention to how you show up. If your employer brand is designed to give candidates a multi-dimensional view of your workplace, that makes a huge, huge difference. At Jump Point, that’s what we aim to deliver — videos that not only look great, but that are designed to help people find the perfect workplace for them.

Great creative beats big budgets

There’s a persistent myth that high production value equals high cost. That to make something feel cinematic, you need a big crew, top-tier gear, and a budget that hurts to look at. But the truth is, production value isn’t about money. It’s about clarity. When you know what you’re trying to say and what you want the audience to feel, you can make focused, creative decisions that elevate the work without increasing the budget.

In my experience, projects that look and feel expensive are often just well-designed. They’re built around a strong concept, executed with intention, and shot in ways that make the most of time, space, and resources. 

The foundation of that, and of any good video, is the creative concept. At Jump Point, we put a lot of emphasis on creative development. We work with clients to build a brief, we research their audience, their voice, and their visual presence, and then we pitch bespoke concepts that are designed to match their goals, timeline, and budget. That last part is key. Because we come from production, and actually have to create the stuff we pitch, we don’t just come up with cool ideas—we come up with feasible ones. We’re thinking from the very beginning about what the concept will require on set, how it will move through post, and where the money should go to get the most visual and emotional impact. It’s not just about finding an idea that fits the brief. It’s about finding one that fits the reality of the project, too.

A good example is the video we made for Built In called Ideas Need People. The creative goal was to make something emotional and cinematic that summed up Built In’s mission, but we didn’t have a huge budget or timeline. So we designed the concept around strategies that made efficient use of the budget, and which made the most of any free resources available to us. We used Built In’s office and neighborhood as our locations. We worked with their employees instead of actors. And we embraced the idea of small moments that feel big when they’re framed and lit right.

Another example of this approach is in the piece’s rainy tone. That wasn’t a happy accident. We planned for it. Overcast weather saved our client thousands of dollars because it allowed us to shoot with minimal lighting in the office (while also making the city shots so much more dramatic). So we stayed flexible with scheduling and went out to shoot the moment the conditions lined up. 

In the interiors, we used reflections wherever we could, (even mounting a prism in front of the lens for many shots) and framed scenes through glass to add depth. We used long lenses to throw the background out of focus and give each shot a soft, cinematic feel. None of these techniques are expensive, but they did two things for us at once: they made it possible to create the video at low cost, and supported the dramatic tone we were trying to cultivate.

And that’s really the key for us on any project: matching the approach to the concept and constraints. A lot of our favorite moments in videos come from that mindset: building an idea that fits the goals, shaping the visuals to match the tone, and using constraints as a creative tool instead of a limitation. 

So you don’t need a crane shot to make your video feel big (although it doesn’t hurt). What you really need is a concept that knows what it’s trying to do, and a team that knows how to do it. When those two things are in place, everything else gets simpler—and the final piece feels thoughtful, intentional, and surprisingly elevated.