Quick answer: Current trends in software explainer videos include a focus on grabbing attention with bold, colorful styles and punchy scripts. Marketers increasingly want to come across as innovative and they’re taking inspiration from big tech and AI brands with future-focussed messaging and dark-colored styles.
What are the latest trends in explainer videos for software companies? What styles are current and what goals are important to the modern SaaS marketer? We’ve been digging through our briefing documents, projects communications and sales notes to bring you the answers. Below are our top trends for software explainer videos, as of mid 2026, along with some example videos.
Table of Contents
Trend #1: Being quicker to grab attention
Trend #2: Bold, colorful styles
Trend #4: Techy, dark-themed styling
Trend #5: Doubling down on simplicity
Trend #6: Appearing innovative
Trend #1: Being quicker to grab attention
Every marketer knows it’s important to grab attention but we’ve noticed much more emphasis on this than ever before. Clients are now making a point of asking to grab attention in the first few seconds of their video. This is in contrast to the past where clients would often ask to spend more time establishing context for the viewer – nowadays that’s a luxury that’s not always available.
Trend #2: Bold, colorful styles
Software companies are becoming adventurous and using bold, fun and colorful styles. This ties in with the previous point about grabbing attention.
Trend #3: Building excitement
It’s becoming very common for marketers to list ‘building excitement’ as the major goal of their video. It’s harder than ever to stand out online – there’s a sea of boring content out there – and video is seen as a tool that can build an emotional connection. Ways to build excitement include a combination of tight messaging (built around themes that resonate with the audience) combined with impactful visuals and well-executed sound design.
Trend #4: Techy, dark-themed styling
Using dark-themed styling is a popular look for software demo videos lately. You see this look in a lot of brand refreshes and new tech startups. The trend was likely influenced by big tech, e.g. Apple’s release of dark mode.
Trend #5: Doubling down on simplicity
Video marketers are becoming razor-focused on keeping things simple and clear. This is different to the past – back in 2020 our experience was that clients would often try to cram in as many features as they could into their video. These days they’re much more focused on reducing complexity and coming up with a tighter, simpler messaging. Fantastic!
Trend #6: Appearing innovative
A lot of companies are putting a lot of effort towards coming across as innovative. This is likely due to the rise of AI which has made people feel like they need to look future-focused. It’s particularly true of software companies – they want to be seen as being part of a rapidly changing future and not the past.
Trend #7: Videos that work with or without sound
It’s becoming a common request to make typography-heavy videos that work with or without the sound turned on. The idea is that the video can work in more environments – from open plan offices – where considerate workers without headsets tend to watch video on silent – to noisier environments like conferences.
FAQ’s
Companies are much more focused on grabbing attention and building excitement than before. They’re using bold, colorful styles and punchy scripts. The focus is no longer just on features but how it is delivered and if viewers understand in seconds.
Yes. It’s about putting all the attention on getting the core benefits across in the simplest way possible.
By creating a typography-heavy video you can achieve the best of both worlds, as it can allow people to follow and understand your product/service with and without sound.
It’s currently popular to use bold, colorful styles. Dark-themed looks are also in fashion. It’s also trendy to use typography-focused videos with big, bold text.
By being true to themselves and highlighting the actual innovation in their products. By creating top-tier design and marketing content they can help convince their audience.
Yes, a dark themed styling is appropriate for software and is popular with start-ups and big tech.
Final Summary
We’ve presented some top trends for software explainer videos, based on real data from our interactions with marketers (sales call transcripts, briefing documents, etc). The results show marketers are making extra effort to grab attention. It’s also important for them to appear innovative in the age of AI with messaging and visual styles to match.
Drop us a note if there’s something you’ve noticed that we haven’t mentioned. We’re excited to see what trends emerge in the coming year!
