6 promotional video examples worth studying

A promotional video is a short film built to move a specific audience toward one action: buy the console, book the trip, watch the game, download the app. The three I would study first from this list are Nintendo’s Switch 2 first-look trailer (2025), which promotes a product by refusing to talk about it, Visit Oslo’s “Is it even a city?” (2024), which promotes a destination by insulting it, and the NBA’s “Unforgettable Awaits” Finals push (2025), which promotes an event by filming the people who watch it instead of the people who play in it.

I run Moonb, a creative studio, and promo briefs cross my desk more than any other kind. The pattern I see in the ones that fail is always the same: the video describes the thing instead of dramatizing the reason anyone should act. So this list is picked for the opposite. Every entry below is real, recent (2023 to 2025), embedded from the brand’s own YouTube channel, and traced to a named, dated source. Each one covers a different promo job: a product launch, a destination campaign, an event, a seasonal push, an app, and a service. When I find a promo this instructive in the wild, I save a copy with a video downloader into a reference folder for internal review, and I would suggest the same habit; half of good briefing is showing rather than describing.

1. Nintendo, Switch 2 first-look trailer (2025)

Nintendo’s first look at the Switch 2 has no presenter, no testimonials and almost no words. The trailer opens on the original console’s Joy-Con controllers floating on a plain background, morphs them into the new console’s hardware, and then simply rotates, clicks and docks the machine while the camera stares. The only story beat is a short glimpse of Mario Kart running on the docked screen. Nintendo’s own announcement, a news release dated January 16, 2025, is just as restrained: the company “offered a first look at Nintendo Switch 2 in a video introducing the hardware,” with full details deferred to an April 2 Nintendo Direct.

Here is the trailer on Nintendo of America’s channel.

The takeaway is discipline about what one video has to do. This promo’s only job was to confirm the product exists and looks credible; persuasion was scheduled for later videos. When a launch matters, splitting the promotion into a sequence, tease, reveal, deep dive, beats cramming every message into one film. If your product is genuinely new, letting the camera linger on it is a stronger claim than any line of copy.

2. Visit Oslo, “Is it even a city?” (2024)

Oslo’s tourism board promoted the city with a film in which a local man talks it down for two minutes. Shot as a flat, point-and-shoot walking interview, “Halfdan” shrugs that he “wouldn’t come here, to be honest” and bemoans his hometown’s lack of glitz and glamour, while the calm, green, uncrowded city rolls by behind him and quietly makes the opposite case. Muse by Clio covered the film on June 30, 2024, calling it “the most deliciously deadpan bit of reverse psychology we’ve seen in a long time” and noting the role is played by actor Bendik Aunan, with local studio NewsLab behind the campaign.

Watch it on Visit Oslo’s channel; the delivery is the whole trick.

What makes it work as a promo is the gap between what is said and what is shown. Every destination video promises “vibrant culture and stunning nature,” so those words have stopped carrying information. By putting the complaints in the voiceover and the proof in the pictures, Oslo let viewers convince themselves. The transferable rule: if every competitor makes the same claim, deadpan understatement is a way to make the same evidence feel new.

3. NBA, “Unforgettable Awaits” (2025)

To promote the 2025 Finals, the NBA pointed the camera mostly at fans. In the hero film, Kevin Costner wrings all the drama he can out of tossing a paper cup into a trashcan with a junior sky hook, Mindy Kaling does Steph Curry’s “night, night” celebration after winning at ping-pong, and everyday people emulate their hoops heroes, all intercut with archive flashes of Kobe, Shaq and LeBron and set to Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.” Muse by Clio reported on May 18, 2025 that the campaign came from agency Translation with director Paul Geusebroek, quoting NBA CMO Tammy Henault: “This campaign captures the excitement and anticipation of what’s ahead, while celebrating the stars who have risen to the occasion in the past.”

Here is the film, published as “Unforgettable Awaits” on the NBA’s official Africa channel; the campaign title comes from the league’s own upload.

The lesson for any event promo, including conferences and product launches, is that the product of an event is the memory of having been there. Ticket-style promos that list dates, lineups and logos sell logistics. This one sells the feeling of witnessing something, then lets the date card do the logistics in the last two seconds. If you are promoting an event, film your audience’s version of the sky hook: the moment they will re-enact afterwards.

4. Disney, “The Boy & The Octopus” (2024)

Disney’s 2024 holiday promo is a four-minute short film in which a boy comes back from a snorkel with a small octopus on his head and quietly shows it his world: snow, Christmas lights, a Buzz Lightyear figure, a lightsaber, a Mickey beanie with eyeholes cut out so the octopus can wear it too. It ends with the octopus disguising itself as a tree ornament to hitch a ride with Santa. Muse by Clio covered it on November 12, 2024: directed by Taika Waititi, set to “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid, with the octopus built in post by Untold Studios.

The full short is on Disney’s channel.

Notice where the brand sits: in the props and the song rather than in a claim. The toys, the beanie and the soundtrack are all Disney products, yet nothing is presented as one; they are simply the furniture of the story. That is the mature version of a seasonal promo. The season buys you attention and emotion once a year, and the brand earns its place inside the story instead of interrupting it. A retailer or a software company can do the scaled-down version: one small story where your product is what the characters use, not what the narrator praises.

5. Tinder, “New Last Name” (2024)

Tinder’s “It Starts With a Swipe” platform entered its third chapter in January 2024 with a set of short films built on tiny, true dating rituals. The best one, “New Last Name,” dramatizes the moment you edit a contact from “Miguel Tinder” to his actual surname because the relationship became real. Muse by Clio covered the launch on January 3, 2024: four videos from Mischief @ No Fixed Address, directed by Los Perez, rolled out across the U.S., Mexico, Germany, Brazil and Thailand ahead of Dating Sunday in early January.

Here is the spot from Tinder’s channel.

App promos usually fail by demoing the interface, because an interface is a means, not a motive. This one finds a behavior that only the app’s successful users would recognize and builds the entire film around it, which flatters existing users and shows prospects the outcome they actually want. If you are promoting an app, interview ten loyal users and listen for the small ritual they all mention; that ritual is a better script than your feature list. The demo has its place further down the funnel, and I have broken down that format separately in these app explainer video examples.

6. Just Eat, “Did Somebody Say” with Christina Aguilera and Latto (2023)

Just Eat promotes its delivery service with one repeatable asset: a jingle, re-produced periodically with a new star. The 2023 edition pairs Christina Aguilera with rapper Latto in a 60-second hip-hop-meets-opera production, gondolas and marble staircases included. Muse by Clio covered it on October 16, 2023: made by McCann London with music-video director Dave Meyers, following earlier “Did Somebody Say” outings with Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, efforts the company credits with helping boost its business in European markets.

The full film is on Just Eat’s channel.

The instructive part is the architecture rather than the celebrity budget. “Did Somebody Say” is a platform: the hook, the phrase and the structure stay fixed while the talent and the arrangement rotate, so every new film compounds recognition instead of starting over. Most companies rebuild their promo concept from zero every year and wonder why nothing sticks. Even without a star, you can own a phrase, a sound or a visual device and re-cast it each campaign.

The six side by side

Brand	Video	Year	Promo format	Why it works
Nintendo	Switch 2 first-look trailer	2025	Product launch	One job only: confirm the product is real, save persuasion for the sequel videos
Visit Oslo	”Is it even a city?“	2024	Destination campaign	Deadpan complaints over gorgeous footage; viewers talk themselves into the trip
NBA	”Unforgettable Awaits”	2025	Event	Sells the memory of witnessing, filmed through fans re-enacting iconic moments
Disney	”The Boy & The Octopus”	2024	Seasonal	Brand lives in props and music inside a story, never in a spoken claim
Tinder	”New Last Name”	2024	App	Built on a tiny real user ritual instead of an interface demo
Just Eat	”Did Somebody Say” (Aguilera and Latto)	2023	Service	A fixed, repeatable jingle platform that compounds recognition year after year

If you want this kind of work made for you rather than by you, I keep a separate, honest rundown of promotional video production companies, and a companion piece on the promotional video production process that walks through briefs, timelines and budgets. For the evaluation itself, this guide on how to choose a video production company covers the questions I would ask any provider.

Choosing the format for your own promo

Start with the single action the video must cause, before any talk of style. Register, buy, book, show up: pick one. Then fix the placement, because a landing page, a paid social feed, an email and an event screen make different demands. Audience familiarity comes third. People who already know your brand can take a feature-first film like Nintendo’s; a brand nobody knows has to earn attention first, the way Oslo did.

On the craft choice, live action wins when the product, place or people are the proof, and animation wins for software, abstract ideas and anything you cannot film; I keep a set of explainer video examples for that second route. Whatever the master length, plan the 15 and 30 second cuts and a silent captioned version before production starts, since most feed viewing happens muted and short. Placements change their requirements often, so I check a maintained spec sheet like this guide to social media video specs during pre-production, then confirm against each platform before export.

Measuring whether it worked

Tie every metric to the one action the promo was built to cause; views alone flatter everyone and inform no one. For paid placements, watch the hook (how many viewers survive the first three seconds), view-through rate, click-through rate and cost per result. For landing pages and email, watch play rate, completion and the page’s conversion rate against a no-video control. If the video supports sales, connect viewers to pipeline where your analytics allow it.

Set the baseline from your own previous videos rather than an industry average, then test one variable at a time: what the first three seconds lead with, the CTA wording, an early CTA against a late one, and the muted captioned edit against the sound-on cut. Budget questions belong in the same conversation, and this breakdown of what a commercial costs to make is a sane starting point for that.