10 Ways to Produce More Creative Personalized Videos
Reading: 4 mins
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Video Personalization is a relatively recent tool in the world of advertising but the results so far have been impressive, suggesting it is a powerful new way to deliver messages directly to customers.
But if you are thinking of creating a video personalization campaign, possibly for the first time, what are some of the key creative factors you need to think about to make it as effective as possible?
I spoke with three creative industry professionals with experience of making personalized videos to ask them to share their thoughts and give some helpful insights.
Radek Psurny – Co-founder and creative director at Motionlab
1. Know your target audience and brand.
Making an effective personalized video requires an understanding of marketing and creativity and when it works best, these two elements are combined rather than kept separate. This is a chance to send a direct message to each customer so be very sure what that message is and who you are sending it to.
"When I was writing the script for the Marketing Festival video, I knew that for the audience, it was more about being visible among the marketing community. So the aim was to capture the vibe of the event." - Radek Psurny
2. Maximise the direct benefits for people
Think about how video personalisation can help people in a way that other adverts can't and make the most of that. For example, you can do the math for customers over how much they've spent or how much they can save on a product and offer an instant solution that fits their needs. It saves them time and effort and they'll be grateful for that.
“When the first television commercials came out, at first creatives used the language of printed media as that was all they knew. They created a new language as they began to understand it’s huge potential. It’s the same for video personalization. We need to create a new language.”
3. The video is just one part of the campaign
The video itself is the most important part of the campaign but it's not the only part and thought needs to be put into the other elements as well. It starts with an email or a thumbnail with their name on it. Afterwards there's a CTA or follow-up. A well thought out campaign grabs your attention, builds up the context and expectation and then delivers a clear personal message.
4. Create a special feeling for the viewer
One of the most important advantages of video personalization is its ability to break through the white noise of other commercials and create a special personal experience with the customer. It's a chance for the brand to show they care about their customers.
Premysl Koudela - Founder and producer at Triple Double Films
5. Storytelling is key
The idea and script itself are still the most important part of the commercial. Without a good story, you won't have a good video.
6. A new way of thinking.
Video Personalization is a new way of telling stories so the scripts should really try to explore this potential.
In general, clients are very open minded and positive about video personalization. Agencies are a little more cautious, maybe because it's new. Agencies seem to constantly be one step away from creative burnout in their search to find new ways of telling stories and here is an opportunity to be more liberated. Attitudes are definitely changing but I wish they would embrace it more quickly as I think it's very exciting.
“I think the best way to create a good personalized campaign is to just make it differently. Yeah, it’s a cliche I know but these days for, for me, it’s all about thinking out of the box.”
7. Point of view.
I think POV is one of the areas that has a lot of potential in the future and can be explored much more. Could you make a personalized video from the POV of a pet dog or a future version of the customer?
Currently POV can be limiting especially with something like hands because we are all very familiar with our own hands and know exactly what they look like. So if we see the customer's hands and it is the wrong gender, age, skin tone etc, it can instantly destroy the personalized feeling of the video. If and when we get to the stage where deep-fake technology can be used in the personalization process (which I think is maybe 2 years away), that could be a real game-changer and open up so many new doors.
David Vojtovic - Managing director and producer at Brainwar production
8. Less is more
Subtlety and authenticity are the two keywords for me. The best personalized videos create a personal experience where the viewer is drawn into the film with an emotional connection. Ideally the viewer should not even be aware that it is personalized.
The Notino video created by Brainwar
9. Be in it
For the Notino video we wanted to create a video that was authentic and immersive so we used a dynamic camera style, similar to that used in TV show The Office. It gave it a fly-on-the-wall feel which is perfect for video personalization. It hadn't been done to this extent before, which bought up a few technological challenges but the final result was very effective.
10 Data sensitivity
Some people are still nervous about their data being used and shown to them in a video, so you need to be extra-careful to make them feel comfortable about it. Treat them like people rather than statistics.
Some services like banking or insurance are better suited to using extra data in the personalized video as the data can directly help the viewer but in other sectors like e-commerce, the personalization elements should be used more thoughtfully. For the Notino video we actually cut down the original number of personalized elements to four. It goes back to the idea of subtlety.
You can find out more about video personalization at the Motionlab website and on our blog. And of course, if you want to have a chat about it, we are always more than happy to set up a call.
Danny Holman, Motionlab