20 Best Promotional Video Examples for Businesses (2026 Guide)

Promotional videos can do very different jobs. Some introduce a product, others support a launch, build awareness around a brand, promote an event, or simply give people a reason to remember a company.

After more than 14 years producing marketing and explainer videos at Yum Yum Videos, I have found that the format matters less than the idea behind it. A 16 second product promo can work just as well as a longer animated piece when the video knows exactly what it needs to communicate.

The promotional video examples in this list show how different companies approach that problem. Amazon Appstore focuses on product value, Rare Beauty builds around its brand mission, Amazon Go explains an unfamiliar service by showing how it works, and Dropbox Paper gets its message across in just 16 seconds.

I selected 25 promo video examples that use different formats, industries, and production approaches, with a short explanation of what is worth studying in each one.

What Is a Promotional Video?

A promotional video is a video made to draw attention to a product, service, event, campaign, company, or brand message.

The format is broad. Our guide to types of video content for business covers the wider set of formats companies use. A product promo video may introduce a new feature. For more product-specific references, see our product video examples. A brand promotion video may focus on values or lifestyle. A company promotional video may explain a service, celebrate a milestone, or build awareness around a launch.

That is why “promo video” describes the purpose more than the visual style. The final piece can be live action, animated, a product demo, a screencast, mixed media, or something built almost entirely around text.

Promotion videos can also sit at different points in the customer journey. Some are designed for reach and awareness. Others help people understand what a product does. Others are built around a specific action such as registering, buying, downloading, or visiting a landing page.

Promotional Video Examples at a Glance

1. Amazon Appstore
2. M&S Food
3. Rare Beauty
4. Nike
5. Apple
6. Open Cinema
7. Penguin Random House
8. Gillette
9. Emirates
10. Samsung
11. AdZerk / Kevel
12. Xbox
13. Red Bull
14. Amazon Go
15. Heinz
16. Chevy
17. Philips
18. The North Face x Gucci
19. Monday
20. Spacetti
21. Microsoft
22. Starbucks
23. Dropbox Paper
24. Okta
25. Workday

25 Best Promotional Video Examples for 2026

1. Amazon Appstore: Focus the Video Promo on the Main Value Proposition

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A complex product creates an immediate script problem: how much should the video explain?

The Amazon Appstore promo keeps the answer tight. It focuses on the main reasons a viewer would care and uses the animation to support those points instead of trying to cover every capability.

For a product promotion video, this is a useful model. Identify the benefit that matters most to the target audience, then build the rest of the script around that decision.

This approach also works well for apps, SaaS products, and services that need a short explanation before the audience can understand the value.

If you are looking for a production partner, our animated explainer video company creates marketing videos for products, services, and complex business ideas.

2. M&S Food: Make the Product the Visual Story

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Food is one of the easiest categories to over-explain.

M&S does the opposite. Color, texture, close-up shots, transitions, and movement do most of the selling. Captions add just enough product information without interrupting the visual rhythm.

The promotional video is doing two jobs at once: showcasing the food and pointing viewers toward M&S content around cooking and recipes.

For food, fashion, beauty, travel, and other visual categories, a promo does not always need a complicated narrative. Sometimes the product itself is the story.

3. Rare Beauty: Use a Brand Promotion Video to Explain the Mission

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Rare Beauty makes the company mission the center of the video.

Selena Gomez talks about the idea behind the brand and the relationship she wants people to have with beauty and self-image. Behind-the-scenes footage makes the message feel tied to the people building the company.

This is a brand promotion video, not a feature demo. The audience is learning what the brand stands for before being asked to care about a particular product.

That approach makes sense when the mission is genuinely connected to the category and the customer.

4. Nike: Build the Promo Around a Cause the Brand Already Owns

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Nike uses archival footage, current athletes, and younger girls to connect the campaign with women in sport.

The message works because it sits inside a subject the company has been part of for decades. The cause is not added after the fact; it is part of the brand’s existing relationship with athletes.

For a company promo video built around a social issue, that connection matters. The audience can tell when the subject belongs naturally to the brand and when it feels borrowed.

5. Apple: Let Typography Carry the Product Launch

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Apple turns moving text into a major part of the launch itself.

Instead of placing a narrator over a long list of specifications, the video uses kinetic typography, music, pacing, and short visual moments to move quickly through the information.

The technique works because the text is not decorative. It controls what the viewer reads, when they read it, and how long each point stays on screen.

This is one of the best promotional videos to study when a launch has several features but the final piece still needs to feel fast.

6. Open Cinema: Use Text as Part of the Animation

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Open Cinema is one of our own projects and a good example of an animated ad built around typography.

We used kinetic text as part of the visual language rather than treating copy as a layer added after the animation. Important words enter the scenes, change scale, and interact with other elements.

That is useful when a video promo contains terminology or key claims the audience needs to register quickly.

It also gives the editor another way to create rhythm without adding more voiceover.

7. Penguin Random House: Make a Promo Video People Would Watch Anyway

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Penguin Random House builds the piece around an April Fools concept: a book club that behaves more like a nightlife venue.

The joke is specific enough for readers to recognize immediately. Drink names, book references, and details inside the scenes reward the audience for paying attention.

The result still promotes books and authors, but the entertainment comes first.

This is a good promo video idea for a brand with a community that understands its own references and inside jokes.

8. Gillette: Use the Promo to Explain What Changed

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Gillette goes directly to the new product.

In about half a minute, the video shows the razor, highlights the changes, and explains why those changes matter. There is very little setup because the audience already understands the product category.

A product promo video works especially well this way when the product is an improved version of something familiar. The viewer does not need a category lesson. They need to know what is new.

9. Emirates: Tell the Story Through an Unexpected Character

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Emirates follows a migrating goose.

That choice gives the airline a way to show destinations, comfort, travel, and movement without making another sequence of airport shots and cabin footage.

The animated character also creates a more playful tone than a standard airline commercial.

For promotional video ideas, the useful lesson is not “use an animal.” It is to find a point of view that makes a familiar product category feel less predictable.

10. Samsung: Build the Promotion Video Around One Product Trait

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Samsung makes the flip format the central idea.

The commercial does not attempt to prove that the phone is better in every possible way. It takes one distinctive product characteristic and builds the concept around the fact that people cannot stop thinking about it.

That gives the product feature a narrative role.

For a product promotion video, one memorable difference can be more useful than a checklist of ten advantages.

11. AdZerk / Kevel: Compare the Alternative Directly

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AdZerk, now Kevel, takes on much larger competitors directly.

The promotion explains the weakness the company sees in existing options, then positions its product as the alternative.

This approach only works when the comparison is specific. The audience needs to understand where the difference actually comes from.

For B2B and SaaS promo videos, competitive framing can be effective when the customer already knows the incumbent products. When the product needs more explanation, an explainer video can give the message more room.

12. Xbox: Promote the World Around the Product

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Xbox could have made the console the hero of every shot. Instead, the promo spends much of its time inside the worlds the product gives players access to.

That shifts the message from hardware to experience.

The product matters because of what it unlocks.

This is useful for brands selling entertainment, platforms, memberships, and ecosystems. The promotional video can focus on the experience around the product rather than the object itself.

13. Red Bull: Use Video Promotion to Own a Lifestyle

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Red Bull has spent years associating the brand with extreme sports, risk, and adrenaline.

The video shows athletes in the environments Red Bull already occupies as a brand.

The drink needs very little explanation here. Extreme sports and adrenaline are already part of the association Red Bull has built over time.

A brand promotion video works this way when the company already owns a recognizable lifestyle category.

14. Amazon Go: Show the Service Step by Step

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Amazon Go had a problem many new services face: the concept sounded more complicated than the actual customer experience.

The video promotion shows the process in three visible steps: enter the store, choose products, leave.

Once the sequence is on screen, the technology is easier to understand. The same approach works for new services, fintech products, SaaS, apps, and unfamiliar business models.

15. Heinz: Put the Product Inside a Recognizable Situation

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The Heinz promo works because the product appears in a simple, relatable joke.

Ed Sheeran brings instant recognition, but the commercial would still need a situation that makes sense for the ketchup. Celebrity alone is not the concept.

For small businesses, the same principle can work without a famous person. A customer, founder, specialist, or local personality can be useful if the person has a believable connection to the product.

16. Chevy: Let the Emotion Arrive Before the Brand

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Chevy builds the piece around a woman and her dog, then reveals the brand later.

The car appears inside memories rather than as a set of features.

This structure gives the viewer time to understand the emotional idea before the sales message appears.

For emotional promotional videos, the brand does not have to dominate every scene. It needs to belong naturally inside the story.

17. Philips: Make the Brand Promise Specific

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Philips uses the promo to talk about a future for lighting and energy systems.

The voiceover states where Philips wants the company and the lighting category to go next.

A brand promise works best when the video makes that promise concrete enough to understand.

Vague claims about innovation rarely help in company promotional videos. A clearer future state gives the audience something they can actually picture.

18. The North Face x Gucci: Keep the Promo Simple

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The collaboration already gives the audience a reason to pay attention.

The video does not need a complicated plot. It shows the products, people using them, the visual identity of both brands, and the environment around the collection.

For product categories where design is a major part of the value, this sample promotional video is a good reference.

When the product is visually strong, simplicity can be the concept.

19. Monday: Show How the Product Works

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Monday uses a screencast-style approach to demonstrate the software.

That makes sense because the interface is part of what people are buying. The viewer needs to see how tasks, information, and workflows move through the product.

For software, a promo video often works better when the audience can see the product in action instead of hearing abstract claims about productivity.

If the interface needs more room, a dedicated product demo video can go deeper than a short promo.

20. Spacetti: Address the User’s Questions Directly

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Spacetti structures the app promo around questions.

That lets the video move from a user problem into a specific feature without needing a long setup.

The approach is useful for apps with several everyday use cases. Each question can introduce a different capability while the overall piece still feels connected.

For an app promo video, audience questions are often a better organizing device than the product menu.

21. Microsoft: Show the Work Behind the Product

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Microsoft takes viewers into the manufacturing process.

The production story adds context to the final product. Materials, engineering, testing, and assembly become part of the reason the audience should care about the laptop.

Behind-the-scenes footage can work as a company promotional video when the process itself says something meaningful about quality, craft, technology, or people.

22. Starbucks: Turn a Milestone Into a Promotion Video

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Starbucks uses its 50th anniversary to look backward and forward at the same time.

The piece acknowledges employees, partners, customers, and the long process behind a cup of coffee.

Milestones are useful because they give the company a real reason to communicate. An anniversary, launch, expansion, award, acquisition, or major customer milestone can all become promo video ideas when there is an actual story behind the date.

23. Dropbox Paper: A 16-Second Promo Video Sample

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Dropbox Paper shows how little a promotional video sample may need.

The piece is only 16 seconds long. Graphics, music, and a few visual cues introduce the collaboration tool without a traditional voiceover.

That length works because the communication goal is narrow.

A short promo video is often strongest when it answers one question instead of compressing an entire product presentation into a few seconds.

24. Okta: Use a Limited Visual System

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Okta keeps the production simple.

Minimal graphics, a limited palette, and short text statements carry the message without requiring a highly elaborate visual world.

That makes this a useful reference for promotional videos for small business and teams working with tighter production constraints.

A smaller budget still requires a clear concept. Limiting the number of visual ingredients can actually make the piece more coherent.

25. Workday: Mix Techniques With a Clear Hierarchy

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Workday combines live action, animation, kinetic text, and stock footage.

That amount of visual variety can become messy very quickly. The useful part of this example is the hierarchy: each technique appears when it has a job.

Mixed media works when the audience still knows where to look and what information matters.

For a company promo video, adding more techniques should create clarity or energy. It should not become the concept by itself.

Promo Video Ideas by Goal

Promotional video ideas change with the campaign goal. Product, brand, company, event, and social promos each need a different starting point.

Product Launch

Show the product, one defining benefit, and the reason it is different.

Amazon Appstore, Samsung, Gillette, and Dropbox Paper are good references.

Product Demonstration

Use the interface or process as part of the promo.

Monday, Amazon Go, and Spacetti show three different ways to do it.

For longer demonstrations, product video production gives the product more room than a short campaign asset.

Brand Promotion Video

Build around the brand’s mission, lifestyle, or point of view.

Rare Beauty, Nike, Red Bull, and Starbucks fit this category.

Company Promotional Video

Use a company promo video for a milestone, new initiative, manufacturing story, company positioning, or major announcement.

Microsoft and Starbucks are useful references.

Promotional Videos for Small Business

Small businesses do not need to copy the production scale of Nike or Apple.

A focused customer story, founder video, local campaign, product demo, short social promo, before-and-after example, or 15-second product video can all work.

Okta is useful here because its visual system stays simple. The message still has structure even without a huge production footprint.

Event Promo Video

An event video needs to answer practical questions quickly: what is happening, who is it for, when is it happening, and why should someone attend?

Previous event footage, speaker clips, audience reactions, venue shots, and a direct registration CTA can carry most of the piece.

Social Promo Video

A social promo should make sense before the viewer has much context.

The first visual has to establish the subject quickly. Captions matter because sound may be off, and the core message should survive shorter edits for different placements.

What Makes the Best Promotional Videos Work?

Keep the Message Narrow

Samsung builds around one product trait. Gillette explains what changed. Dropbox Paper introduces one tool in 16 seconds. The script gets easier to remember when one idea has priority.

Show the Product in the Right Context

Monday shows the interface, Amazon Go shows the customer journey, and Heinz puts the product inside a familiar situation. Open Cinema uses kinetic text because the words themselves matter. The visual approach changes with the communication problem.

Give the Message the Time It Needs

A 16-second promo can work for one narrow idea. A product explanation may need 60 or 90 seconds. Runtime should follow the amount of information the viewer actually needs.

See our explainer video length guide for runtime and script word count.

How to Make a Promotional Video

Define the Goal Before Writing

Decide what the promotion video needs to accomplish.

A product launch, brand campaign, event promo, app introduction, and company milestone all need different scripts.

Choose One Audience

A promo becomes vague when it tries to speak to everybody.

The message should reflect what one specific audience already knows and what they need to learn.

Write the Script Around the Main Value Proposition

The opening should establish the subject quickly.

For a product promo video, that may be the problem, differentiator, or feature. For a brand video, it may be the mission or situation. Our video storytelling examples show how different narrative structures handle that job.

See our explainer video script guide for short marketing script structure.

Plan the Visuals Before Production

A storyboard helps identify where the visuals are explaining something and where the voiceover is doing unnecessary work. Budget and runtime also affect those choices; our video cost guide explains the main production variables.

That step is especially useful for animation, product demos, and mixed media.

Create Versions for Different Placements

The same campaign may need horizontal, square, and vertical versions.

Plan those crops and layouts before final animation or editing. Adapting the composition is easier when the team knows the required formats early.

End With a Specific CTA

The CTA should match the purpose of the promo.

Common CTAs include buy now, register, download, watch the demo, or contact sales. Choose the one that logically follows the message.

What We Have Learned From Promotional Video Production

Deciding what to leave out is usually the hardest script decision.

Product teams often arrive with features to include. Marketing has positioning to protect. Sales has objections it wants answered. If all of that survives into the final script, the promo starts to feel like a compressed presentation.

We make those cuts before animation, during script and storyboard. Some information stays in the promo; the rest moves to the landing page, demo, sales deck, or another video.

Open Cinema is a good example from our own work. The words themselves mattered, so text became part of the visual system. Another product may need character animation, motion graphics, live action, or the actual UI. The communication problem determines the format.

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FAQ About Promotional Videos

What is a promotional video?

Promotional videos are used for product launches, brand awareness, product education, events, social media campaigns, advertising, and direct response. The format can be live action, animation, product footage, screencast, or mixed media.

What are some good promotional video examples and marketing video examples?

Good promotional video examples and marketing video examples include Amazon Appstore, Apple, Samsung, Amazon Go, Monday, Dropbox Paper, Nike, Rare Beauty, Starbucks, and Workday. Each uses a different approach depending on the product, audience, and campaign goal.

What is a promo video?

A promo video is usually a short marketing piece built around one product, brand, event, service, or campaign objective. Many promos run 15 to 90 seconds, although the message and placement determine the final runtime.

What are the best promo videos?

The best promo videos are focused enough that the viewer understands the message quickly. Strong examples include Samsung’s product-focused campaign, Dropbox Paper’s 16-second promo, Amazon Go’s service walkthrough, and Rare Beauty’s mission-driven brand video.

What are some promotional video ideas for small business?

Promotional videos for small business can include founder stories, customer testimonials, product demonstrations, event promos, before-and-after videos, short social ads, company milestone videos, and educational content related to the product.

How long should a promotional video be?

A social or product promo can work in 15 to 30 seconds. Product explanations and company promotional videos often need 60 to 90 seconds, and detailed demos can run longer. Match the runtime to the amount of information the viewer needs.

What is the difference between a promotional video and a product video?

A promotional video is a broader category. It can promote a product, service, event, brand, or company message. A product video focuses specifically on a product, its benefits, features, use cases, or customer experience.

Choosing the Right Promo Video Format

Write the CTA first. Does the viewer need to buy, register, download, watch a demo, visit a store, or contact sales?

From there, decide how much explanation the viewer needs. A launch may need the product and one differentiator. Brand awareness may need a story. An unfamiliar service may need a process walkthrough. Social placements need an idea that still works in a shorter edit.

The best promotional videos on this list use different production styles because they solve different communication problems.