OK so my company have just produced an animation all about the history of technology, and where it's heading etc. It featured Stephen Fry and was intentionally quite educational, with our brand only being mentioned briefly in the last 10 seconds or so. Various viewers mentioned that we should've featured our brand more heavily because if people don't get to the end of the video, they'll have no idea it was by us. But the flipside is people potentially feeling tricked at the end when they discover it is in fact a piece of advertising. Where does everyone stand on this? Is there a correct balance to strike? New to the marketing biz, so would appreciate any feedback! If you're interested, this was the video I'm talking about:
It's important to know what the brand is. The idea is to make your brand (your company) recognizable. You want to build your reputation as well as expand beyond where you presently are. Do you feel that you're animation has accomplished this? If so then all is fine and well, but the fact that you created this thread tells me that you aren't. Try again and this time, brand the daylights out of it.
You could do similar to what is done on TV (sometimes anyway) and have a "watermark" so that the brand is always visible, but not too obtrusive (e.g. your logo and domain name). Do it in a way that fits with the style of the video, but not too much (it needs to stand out, but not overly loud or it will look like it was branded by a service on Fiverr, much like the so-called NSA presentations).