In marketing practice, many businesses confuse brand manifesto films and promotional films. Both use images and sounds to convey messages, but their “soul” and purpose are completely different. This confusion can easily cause a heavily invested video to not create the desired effect: the manifesto becomes a product advertisement, while the advertisement is more like a speech. Below is an in-depth analysis to help businesses clearly understand the boundaries and avoid falling into the “gray area”.
Definition and Core Differentiation
Brand Manifesto Film
- Purpose: Expresses the brand’s vision, core values, and reason for existence.
- Focus: Emotions, ideals, brand story.
- Time to impact: Long-term (can still be used after 5–10 years if the value remains the same).
- Desired outcome: Builds brand empathy, trust, and love.
Promotional Film
- Purpose: Introduce a specific product, service, promotion or event.
- Focus: Features, benefits, offers, proof of quality.
- Duration of impact: Short-term (serving a campaign or phase).
- Intended outcome: Create demand and drive immediate purchase action.
Comparison example:
- Manifesto film: “We believe that every meal is an opportunity to connect people with nature and with each other.”
- Promotional film: “This summer, try our organic salad menu with a 20% discount for members.”
2. Why is it easy to get confused?
- Visual language is too similar: Many businesses use the same “gorgeous” visual style but lack a clear direction for the message, making the manifesto and promo look like a generic advertising video.
- “One video does it all” mindset: The desire to save budget causes businesses to squeeze both the manifesto and product promotion into one video, leading to conflicting or diluted messages.
- Unclear brief for creative team: When the brief only says “make a video to introduce the brand”, the creative team will have to guess, easily leading to confusion between inspiration and sales.
How to Avoid Confusion
A. Separate Your Goals from the Start
- Manifesto film → serves long-term brand building.
- Promotional film → serves a specific campaign.
B. Identify “soul keywords”
With manifesto: keywords are often values, ideals (“belief”, “connection”, “innovation for the community”).
With promo: keywords are often actions and specific benefits (“buy now”, “discount”, “try”).
C. 5-Second Question Test
Ask: “If you remove the call to action, does this video still convey any meaning?”
- If yes → most likely manifesto.
- If no → it’s a promotional film.
4. Checklist of 5 quick distinguishing points
| Criteria | Manifesto Film | Promotional Film |
| Objectives Inspire | Engage Long-Term Sell Products | Drive Immediate Purchases |
| Main message | Values, ideals, vision | Benefits, features, offers |
| Usage time | Long term (many years) | Short term (by campaign) |
| Call-to-action | Indirect or not | Direct, clear |
| Measure effectiveness | Brand recognition and preference | Sales, traffic |
5. Expert Advice
Don’t combine two objectives into one video if budget and time allow. Separating them will help the message be clearer and more effective.
Manifesto films need to have a brand “fingerprint”, meaning that even without a logo, viewers will still recognize it through tone, images or story.
Promotional films should be optimized for conversion, meaning that the product, value and call to action are clear.
If the brand is new, do a manifesto first to establish its identity, then do a promo to exploit the product benefits.
Conclusion
The difference between a manifesto film and a promotional film is not just about the content, but about the “soul” and the purpose. A successful manifesto film can inspire for years, creating lasting brand love. An effective promotional film can drive immediate sales. But without a clear distinction, both will become a “pretty but meaningless” video, achieving neither goal fully..
