One Launch, Every Format

A launch film is one file. A launch is hundreds. Every market team, dealer, social channel and screen needs its own version, and they need it on the same morning.

For the BYD Seal 5 launch with Al-Futtaim, we produced the launch film, product clips and a full set of stills in 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16. In total that was 31 launch stills and 12 product clips in 3 formats, each still both clean and with graphics, and everything was handed over on a private site built for the team.

Decide the formats first

Reframing later is where quality goes to die. If the car is composed for 16:9, you can't cut a good 9:16 from it, because the car doesn't fit. So all the formats need to be planned before the shot or the render, with safe areas for each.

The platforms set the limits, and it's worth reading their own pages rather than a summary:

• Instagram reels can be between 1.91:1 and 9:16, with a minimum of 30 FPS and 720 pixels. Photos go up to a width of 1080 pixels and between 1.91:1 and 3:4.
• LinkedIn Page video takes 1:2.4 to 2.4:1, between 3 seconds and 10 minutes, and it doesn't accept MOV. That last one catches out plenty of people who deliver ProRes straight from an edit.

Specs change, so check them again at the start of each project.

Clean and with graphics

We delivered each still twice for a reason. Graphics-on versions are ready to post. Clean versions let a local team add their own language, price or dealer name without having to rebuild anything or, worse, crop around someone else's type. On a launch with many markets, that saves more work than anything else you can do.

Name things like someone else will find them

A hundred files with sensible names need no explanation. Put the subject, the format and the version in every file name, and keep to that pattern. Somebody in a hurry, who's never met you, will be searching that folder.

Hand over as a place, not as a link

A shared drive is where launches go to get lost. We built a private site for the team, so that people could look through what existed and get the right version without having to ask. For a launch with many people involved, that's a small build that pays for itself.

Keep it consistent from stage to feed

The same launch may also have a stage show, a UI on the floor and an LED wall. They should feel like one idea. For a look at the event side, see our work on the BYD Seal 7 and Super Hybrid Tech Day, and our live events page.