These two get used interchangeably in briefs, and the confusion produces a predictable result: a film that lists everything the company does and moves nobody.
They are different jobs.
Corporate video informs
A corporate video explains something specific to someone who already has a reason to watch. Company capability for a tender. A process for new staff. A facility tour for prospective partners.
Success is comprehension. The viewer is motivated - they are watching because they need the information - so clarity and completeness matter more than emotional pull.
Brand film persuades
A brand film works on a viewer with no particular reason to care. Its job is to make someone feel something about the organisation and remember it afterwards.
Success is not comprehension. Someone can forget every fact in a brand film and it can still have worked, because what it left behind was an impression rather than information.
Why the confusion is expensive
A brand film brief answered with a corporate video gives you something factually complete that nobody finishes watching.
A corporate video brief answered with a brand film gives you something beautiful that fails to answer the question the viewer had.
Both are technically competent. Both fail, because the wrong question was being answered.
How to tell which one you need
One question usually settles it: is your viewer already motivated to watch?
If yes - a tender panel, an employee, a partner who requested it - you need a corporate video. Be clear, be complete, respect their time.
If no - someone scrolling, a visitor passing a screen, an audience at an event who came for something else - you need a brand film. Earn the attention before delivering any information.
The length question resolves itself
Once the type is settled, length stops being a debate.
A corporate video runs as long as the information requires - if that is four minutes for a motivated viewer, four minutes is correct. A brand film runs as long as it holds, which is usually far shorter than the list of things the company would like to include.
The instinct to cram everything in is the instinct to fight. Everything you add to a brand film dilutes what it leaves behind.
Internal communications is a third category
Worth noting separately: internal films have a captive audience and a sceptical one. Staff can tell when a video is presenting a version of the organisation they do not recognise.
That audience rewards directness far more than polish, which is the opposite of what most internal video briefs assume.
We produce both across our services - the useful conversation is which one your objective actually calls for.