How to plan a commercial video

The decisions to make before the brief goes to a studio, whether the film is shot, generated with AI or both.

Short answer: plan a commercial video backwards from where it will run. Define one objective and one audience, list every placement and the formats each one needs, decide what must be filmed or exact, set a budget range and a delivery date, and name who approves. Then write the brief. A studio can turn that plan into a treatment and a fixed estimate quickly.

Many production problems are planning problems that surface late: a missing vertical cut, a claim nobody cleared, a product that had to be exact. The steps below are designed to catch them early.

Step 1: Define the objective and the audience

Start with one sentence: what should the viewer understand, feel or do after watching? Awareness, consideration and conversion lead to different films. A brand film can take its time; a performance ad has seconds to earn attention.

Describe the audience in practical terms: who they are, where they will see the film and what they already know about the product. This is the line every later decision gets checked against.

Step 2: Plan backwards from the media plan

Where will the commercial run? TV, connected TV, YouTube, social feeds, cinema, a trade-fair screen or a sales presentation each come with their own aspect ratios, durations and technical specifications.

List them now, not after the edit. Formats are cheapest when they are planned from the start, because shots can be composed for every aspect ratio at once. A vertical version reframed from a horizontal master after the fact rarely looks as good as one designed for the feed.

Step 3: Write the deliverables list

Turn the media plan into a concrete list:

• the hero cut and its duration;

• cutdowns for shorter placements;

• verticals and square versions;

• hook variants for creative testing;

• language versions, subtitles and market-specific end cards;

• broadcast or platform masters to specification.

This list shapes the budget more than almost anything else, so share it with the studio at the start.

Step 4: Choose the production method per shot

Not every shot needs the same method. For each part of the film, ask:

• Must it be real? A recognisable person, a genuine performance or a live event usually needs a camera.

• Must it be exact? Packaging, labels and products that cannot be approximated may need 3D built from your product data.

• Would it be impractical to film? Impossible locations, stylised worlds and scale are often a good fit for generative AI.

Many commercials end up as a mix: live action for the performance, AI, 3D and VFX for the world around it. You do not have to make this decision alone. A good studio proposes the method shot by shot in the treatment and explains why.

Step 5: Set the budget range and the date

A budget range is not a negotiating weakness; it lets the studio propose the right method instead of guessing. Pair it with a realistic delivery date that includes time for your own reviews.

For orientation, AI25 publishes starting prices: an AI creative test from €2,500, a commercial or brand film from €6,500 and hybrid production from €8,000, excluding VAT. The cost guide explains what moves those numbers, and the pricing page lists every tier.

Step 6: Plan approvals and claims

Decide who signs off the treatment, the shots and the final cut, and agree to consolidate feedback into one set of comments per round. Revision rounds are defined in the estimate, and scattered feedback is a common way to use them up.

If the film contains product claims, prices, legal lines or regulated wording, schedule that review early. Your own legal or compliance team owns those checks; the studio needs the approved wording before the edit locks, not after.

Step 7: Gather the assets

Collect everything the studio will need: brand guidelines, logos, fonts, product photography, CAD or 3D files, existing footage, music already licensed, and any reference films you like (and what exactly you like about them). Missing assets are a frequent cause of delay.

Step 8: Write the brief

With the plan in place, the brief almost writes itself; our guide to a video production brief for an AI commercial covers what to put in it.

What happens after the plan

Once the brief is in, the production follows a clear sequence: treatment, fixed estimate, production and delivery. At AI25 you receive a first treatment on the schedule agreed for your brief, and the estimate sets the scope, deliverables, revision rounds and timeline in writing before production begins. Typical timelines on our pricing page run 2-4 weeks for an AI creative test, 4-6 weeks for a commercial or brand film and 4-6 weeks for hybrid production. Our AI video production workflow guide walks through each production stage. Explore our commercial video production services.

A one-page planning checklist

Plan your next commercial with AI25

Send us your plan or a rough brief. You receive a first treatment on the schedule agreed for your brief, then a fixed estimate agreed in writing. Send a brief or see pricing.