A brand story should be as long as the place it's told in allows: about 100 words spoken in 30 seconds, 300 to 500 words on a web page, 60 to 90 seconds as a short film for your homepage, and four to ten minutes as a full documentary-style film. The right length depends on the format and the audience, and it shouldn't be padded to fill it.
Length is the question owners ask me most after "what should it say?" Below I'll go through the length of a brand story in each place it appears: spoken, written, on film and on social. I'm not covering what goes in it, which is in what a brand story should include, or the order, which is in how a brand story should be structured.
Is there one right length for a brand story?
No, and anyone who gives you a single number is guessing. A brand story isn't one piece of content. It's a story you tell in several sizes, depending on where you are and how much of the audience's time you've got.
The sensible way to think about it is as a set. You want a version you can say in a sentence or two, a version you can say in half a minute, a written version, a short film and a longer film. They all tell the same story. Each one is simply cut to fit the room.
That's also why a business that has only ever written one "About us" page often struggles when someone asks for something shorter or longer. The story hasn't been built in layers, so there's nothing to take from.
How long is a spoken brand story?
The short spoken version is your answer when someone at a networking event asks what you do and why. Aim for 30 seconds, which is roughly 75 to 100 words at a normal speaking pace. It needs the origin, the problem and the point for the customer, and nothing else.
The longer spoken version, a minute to two minutes, is for a pitch, a podcast or a meeting. That's room for a belief and one piece of proof as well. Past two minutes, a spoken story needs to be properly interesting, because the listener can't skim.
Practise them out loud, not on paper. Words that look fine on a page often trip up when spoken. If you stumble on a phrase, nobody else will believe it either, so change it.
How long should a written brand story be?
For a web page, somewhere between 300 and 500 words is a good working range. That's enough for an origin, a problem, a belief and a line of proof, with a couple of subheadings so people can skim. It reads in about two minutes.
Go longer if you've got a genuinely strong story and good photographs to carry it. A founder's page that runs to 800 words is fine if every paragraph moves the story on. Go shorter if the page is one of several that a visitor sees, such as a product page that includes a short "why we make this" panel.
Whatever the length, the same test applies: cover the bottom half of the page and see whether you'd miss it. If you wouldn't, cut it. The first paragraph and the last paragraph do most of the work, so make those sharp before you worry about anything in between.
If you're about to write one, how to write a brand story goes through the process from the first notes to the final draft.
Shorter videos hold more of their audience, which is why a brand story needs short cuts as well as a full film.
Source: Wistia, 2026 State of Video Report (over 13 million videos)
How long should a brand story video be?
This depends on the job the film is doing. I split it into three.
- The homepage film: 60 to 90 seconds. A visitor lands, gets a feel for who you are, and decides whether to keep looking. It carries the strongest moments of the story and nothing else.
- The main film: four to ten minutes. This is the full documentary-style version. It has room for people to speak at their own pace, for the work to be seen properly, and for the middle of the story to breathe.
- The short cuts: 15 to 60 seconds. Vertical clips for social, each built around one moment or one line.
We cover the main film in detail in how long a brand film should be, and what the format actually is in what a brand story video is. A good example of range is La Fromagerie, where four people tell thirty three years of a business and the film needs the extra room.
A story should be the length of what it has to say, and no longer.
Do people really watch long videos?
They do, if the video is worth it, but short videos get far higher engagement on average. Wistia analysed more than 13 million videos on its platform for its 2026 State of Video report and found that videos under a minute average a 52 per cent engagement rate. Customer testimonial videos came in at 46 per cent and product videos at 50 per cent. Past 30 minutes, it reports engagement dropping off by 11 per cent.
Those numbers are for engagement, meaning how much of the video gets watched, and shorter films finish more often almost by definition. A one minute film that 52 per cent of people engage with isn't automatically better than a six minute film that fewer people finish but that the right people watch to the end and then call you about.
That's the trade-off. Short is for reach, and it's the sensible choice at the top of the funnel. Long is for conviction, and it works on people who already have a reason to be there: someone who's been sent your website, someone comparing three suppliers, someone you've just met who wants to know who they're dealing with. Make both.
What's the right length on social media?
Shorter than you think, and told in pieces. On social platforms, you're competing with everything else in someone's feed, and the first two seconds decide if you're watched. Most brand story clips I'd cut for social land between 15 and 45 seconds.
The mistake is trying to squeeze the whole story into a single clip. It's much better to take one beat, such as the shed where it began or the moment the first order arrived, and give that its own short piece. A run of six of those across a few weeks tells the story more effectively than one rushed minute.
For more on how story works on those platforms, see what storytelling in social media marketing is.
Can you build all the lengths from one master version?
Yes, and it's the most practical way to do it. Write or film the longest version first, then cut downwards. Going the other way, from a tagline up to a full story, tends to produce padding.
Start with the full story at its natural length. From that, pull the two or three moments that carry the most weight. Those become the homepage film and the 300 word page. From those, pull one line and one image each, and you've got your social posts and your spoken version. Everything is connected, so nothing contradicts anything else.
The reverse problem is common. A business writes a punchy 100 word blurb, then tries to turn it into a two minute film and finds there's nothing underneath. The blurb was a summary of a story that was never told in full. If that sounds familiar, go back to the people and ask them for the long version first. The short ones will be better for it.
Does the audience change how long a story should be?
It changes how much they'll tolerate and what they're looking for. A prospective customer wants reassurance and will watch a few minutes if the film is helping them decide. A potential employee is often more patient, because they're looking for what working there is like. A journalist or partner wants the facts fast, so they need the short written version with the proof up top.
This is why it pays to know who the story is for before choosing a length. A film for a trade audience that already understands your product can start in the middle of things. A film for a general audience has to set the scene first, and that takes a little longer.
How do you decide how long yours should be?
Work backwards from three questions.
Who is watching or reading, and how much do they already care? Someone who's never heard of you will give you thirty seconds. Someone who's on your site comparing quotes will give you five minutes if you've earned it.
Where will they meet it? A homepage, a pitch deck, a trade show screen, a social feed and an email all have different tolerances. Match the piece to the place.
How much story have you actually got? This is the honest one. If you only have an origin and one good proof point, you've got ninety seconds of material, and stretching it to five minutes will leave it thin. Sometimes the right answer is to go and find more story, by talking to more of your people, before deciding on length.
When I'm planning a film I'd rather shoot generously and cut hard. Material that doesn't make the main film often becomes the short cuts, which is how one day of filming turns into months of content. The one brand film into a year of content post covers how that works in practice.
What happens when a brand story runs too long?
You lose the audience at the point where it stops adding anything new. Usually that's the same place in every overlong story: after the origin and the main proof, the piece begins repeating itself. A second testimonial that says what the first one did. A third paragraph about values. A closing montage that lasts a minute.
The fix is nearly always cutting, and cutting is easier with a colleague or a film maker who isn't attached to any of it. Founders find it hard to lose a line they remember saying. I get it. But people remember the whole piece by how it felt, not by which sentences were in it.
And what happens when it runs too short? Less often, it feels like a slogan. The audience gets a claim without a reason to believe it. If you've got a 30 second piece that doesn't carry any proof or any person, it may be a good tagline and not yet a story.
Get the lengths right and you end up with a story you can use everywhere, in whatever size the moment needs. The complete guide to brand storytelling covers the rest of the subject. To see how we cut the same story into long and short versions, look at our brand films, or get in touch if you'd like to talk about yours.
