Video Content Strategy for 2027: A Planning Guide for Marketing Leaders

Every year-end planning cycle produces the same document in thousands of companies: a list of campaigns, a list of channels and a budget. Then the new year starts, priorities shift, a launch moves, the team runs out of capacity in March and the plan quietly becomes a wish list. The problem is rarely the ideas. It’s that the plan never connected strategy to what the team could actually produce.

A strong video content strategy for 2027 does both. It decides what video should achieve for the business, which audiences and formats matter, where content will live — and then sizes the production capacity, budget and operating model needed to deliver it week after week. This guide walks through that process step by step, with the questions we ask when we help brands plan their content programs, and the shifts worth building into next year’s plan.

1. Review 2026 honestly — performance and production

Start with what happened, not what was planned. Which formats and channels drove results? Which content was produced and never used? On the production side, how many assets did the team actually deliver, how long did they take and where did work get stuck? Most teams discover that a small share of formats drove most of the results and that a surprising amount of effort went into content nobody saw. Those two findings are the foundation of a better plan.

2. Tie video to a few business goals

Video can build awareness, drive acquisition, support sales, retain customers, recruit talent and align employees — but not all at once with the same budget. Choose two or three goals for the year and decide which one each content stream serves. That makes later trade-offs much easier: when capacity is tight, you know what to protect.

3. Define audiences and what they need from you

For each priority audience, describe what they’re trying to do, where they watch and what would make your content worth their time. A streaming viewer deciding what to watch tonight, a marketing director evaluating partners and a candidate researching your culture need very different videos.

4. Choose content pillars and repeatable formats

Pillars are the themes your brand will own; formats are the repeatable structures that bring them to life. A useful way to organize them is by role: a few big tentpole pieces that create moments, recurring series that build habit, and always-on content that keeps channels active and answers everyday questions. Repeatable formats are what make a strategy executable — they can be briefed once and produced many times. Our guides to branded content and vertical video production cover how to design them.

5. Map formats to channels — and plan the versions

Decide where each format will live and what versions it needs: horizontal for connected TV and YouTube, vertical for short-form platforms, square or portrait for feeds, cutdowns for paid media, languages for each market. This is where the true volume of the plan appears. A single campaign can easily require dozens of deliverables once every channel and market is counted — see creative versioning.

6. Size capacity and budget before you commit

Translate the plan into numbers: assets per month by type, the skills required and the peaks around launches. Compare that with what your team can produce today. If there’s a gap, decide now how to close it — cut, batch, hire, add a partner or embed a dedicated team — rather than discovering it in March. Our guides on planning a video production budget and the real cost of an in-house video team help with the math.

7. Set the operating model and the measurement rhythm

Agree on how requests come in, how work is prioritized and approved, and which metrics each format will be judged on. Then schedule regular reviews — monthly for performance, quarterly for the plan itself — so the strategy adapts as the year unfolds. See content operations for how to set this up.

These aren’t predictions with numbers attached — they’re the patterns we see across the brands and platforms we work with, and the ones most likely to change how your plan should be built.

Vertical is the default, not the extra

For many audiences, the first contact with a brand happens on a phone, in a vertical feed. Plans that treat vertical as a resize of the ‘real’ video consistently underperform. Build vertical formats from the brief and the shoot.

The TV screen is back

Connected TV, streaming apps and free ad-supported channels have made the living-room screen a marketing channel again — with very different creative needs from mobile. If your audience watches on TV, plan horizontal, premium-feeling versions. See OTT marketing and FAST channel promos.

Video podcasts and recurring shows

Long-form conversations filmed on camera have become one of the most efficient ways to build trust and feed short-form channels at the same time. If you’re planning a series for 2027, read video podcast production.

AI changes workflows, not standards

AI tools are removing hours from transcription, captions, rough cuts and versioning. Plan for that efficiency — but also for the human review that keeps quality and brand safety intact. Our view is in AI in video production.

Being the answer, not just a result

Buyers increasingly ask AI assistants for recommendations before they search. Clear, expert content that explains how your category works — and how you work — is what gets cited. Budget for content that answers real buyer questions, not only campaign assets.

Global from day one

Even brands focused on one market often have audiences elsewhere. Planning localization at the brief — textless masters, editable graphics, market-specific formats — keeps expansion cheap. See our video localization agency guide.

Turning the plan into output

The final test of any strategy is whether the team can deliver it every week. That’s where most plans break, and it’s where our work starts: embedded Pegasus Pods have helped brands like Roku, Tastemade and Kickstarter turn ambitious content plans into reliable output — from Roku’s 15+ asset types across multiple channels to thousands of hours for Tastemade. If your 2027 plan needs more capacity than your team has, read how to scale content production before you finalize the budget.

Share your 2027 content plan and we’ll help you size the capacity to deliver it — with a dedicated Pegasus Pod built around your workflow.