What is a sizzle reel?

What is a sizzle reel? Simply put, a sizzle reel is a short, flashy video used to promote a product, service, event, initiative, or brand.

Sometimes referred to as demo, promo, pitch or highlight reels, sizzle reels are generally 60-90 seconds in length, but some are as long as 5 minutes.

It’s helpful to think of sizzle reels as promotional collages of the video marketing world. Sizzle reels use music, animation, and design to seamlessly combine any number of media such as video, data, blog posts, reviews, social media, tv content, magazine articles, radio interviews, and ads into one cohesive promotional reel. Essentially, sizzle reels distill massive amounts of information into short, exciting videos.

Some product focused reels, such as the 2019 Tesla sizzle reel, are focused on demonstrating features, while others can delve way deeper with heavy communication of facts and figures.

Because of their ability to showcase an entire presentation of results in just a few short minutes, sizzle reels are often used by marketing and PR departments to highlight the accomplishments of marketing efforts, as seen in this Devrie Global sizzle reel.