How to add a logo watermark on your video

There are 2 convenient ways to brand your videos with a logo watermark.  Method 1 is adding a watermark during publishing. Method 2 embeds a watermark in post production before rendering the final video. Both have advantages and disadvantages which are explained here:

• Method 1: Adding a logo watermark during publishing
• Method 2: adding a logo in post production

Method 1: Adding a logo watermark during publishing

On many video services you can set a logo as a watermark on top of your video.  Often, you can set a hyperlink on this watermark to your own website or any page you want, which is great because it can create a viral effect.  It also saves you a lot of time because the other method is to embed a logo in post production in the video itself.
Therefore, method 1 appears to be the most cost effective way to set your watermark on any videos you publish.  The next advantage is that if you change your logo, all videos will immediately show the latest version. Here is an example of an imposed watermark over a video:
http://enterprise.wp21century.com/s3media-stream/video-custom-watermark/
When going full screen, the watermark remains the same size.

Depending on the content management you use (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.) there are plugins available to make it easy for you. JW Player and FlowPlayer have a plugin that allows setting up a watermark per video which also work on mobile devices.

Disadvantage:
The problem is that computer savvy folks can leech your video (showing off with your video while you pay for the bandwidth) and even add their own logo on top of your video in the same way as you do, leaving yours out of the picture altogether.  They only have to find the link to the video in the page source and add it in their own player on their site.  OK, this is illegal and you could sue the perpetrator, but it’s a hassle. Therefore,  adding credits in the video itself is a good way spoil the fun for most leechers, but it involves post production.

Method 2: adding a logo in post production

After you created your video, you open it in any video editor that can add layers on top of the original video, and you add a logo watermark either on the top left or right.  Why not at the bottom? Because many video channels tend to place their logo or buttons in the bottom area.  I made a mistake with a couple of videos in the beginning and discovered that my own logo was partly masked by the YouTube logo, which gave a messy look, as you can imagine.  Anyway, when you have done that, you render the video and upload it to your site.

The advantage is that your logo is integrated in the video, it cannot be removed from the footage.  A leecher can try to place a bigger logo over yours, but that will look odd.  After all, a logo shouldn’t attract too much attention.

Disadvantages:

• It involves a bit more work obviously, although you can make this easier by using a template that you create  in your video editor project. And adding credits is something you are advised to do in most cases anyway, so the time difference is not that big compared with method 1.
  However, when you change your logo, you have to redo all videos and upload them again. This can hurt in the long run.
• You cannot add a link to your logo.  That is true, but you can use a little trick which works on every video channel, including your own site. Read on below:

Using one of the plugins described above (JW Player, FlowPlayer), you can create an empty watermark and save it as a png 24bit, with transparency. Then you link to that watermark in the same position as your hardcoded watermark and add the link. The watermark with the link option will impose invisibly over the watermark in the video itself.

There are quite a few video editors that can embed logos, even after post production.  However, you should only do that on videos with very little compression because the video editor will re-render the video and add more compression. Here is a short list of video editors that can embed watermarks:

• Adobe AfterEffects (Adobe)
• Adobe Premiere (Adobe)
• PowerDirector (Cyberlink)
• FinalCut Pro/Express (Apple)

There are many more, even video editors specifically for the sole task of adding a watermark, but you have to be careful with the latter because their compression methods are generally quite limited.
With Camtasia, you can add a watermark, but it is actually not embedded in the footage but layered on top of the video as a separate image, which is the same as using method 1.