Up Close and Personal #2
Reading: 4 minsThe second in a series of profiles of the Motionlab team
Roman Miklus - Business Development Manager
Tell me a little about your personal history and background.
RM: It's been long a journey because I'm starting my 23rd professional season this year. I studied exploitation of resources at university, then in 1999 started working for all these IT giants like Microsoft and LogicaCMG which was very interesting. After this experience, I took up some opportunities in the marketing and sales area as a director in top management of some big corporations.
But then I quit and started freelancing as an interim manager and building up start-ups. So I had this mix of experience with corporations with their huge processes and management structures, combined with rapidly building something new and innovative from scratch.
And then 18 months ago I suddenly saw Motionlab and it really touched my heart and now I am here.
Well the pandemic started in March 2020 and the start-up I was focused on was affected badly and we closed it. So I was sitting on my terrace during the summer of 2020 and dreaming about what would be a nice challenge next. I didn't want to do anything for a big corporation or start something from scratch. I wanted something special and very innovative and at the scale-up stage rather than start-up. And then three days later I saw Motionlab was looking for a business development manager. I looked at the product and I knew this is what I was had dreamed about. Really. So that's the journey that took me here to Motionlab.
What is it about Personalized Video that you find most interesting?
RM: Okay this is great a question because I had something like three different reactions when I first saw a personalized video. The first was 'What?!' and then 'How?!' and finally 'Wow!'. I was really taken into the story with this 90 second video and I stayed with it. But my brain was still trying to figure out how they did it because it looked so realistic, like they had made a video for me. I hadn't seen something like this before.
This is the most interesting thing for me because it kept my attention for one and a half minutes, but it felt like it took almost nothing from my time and time is the most precious resource. I didn't feel like something was stolen from me and instead I actually got something back which was very impressive. Then I began thinking about how they had made this video for me and I was hooked.
Later on, when I started to work with the Motionlab team, it was the numbers behind it that amazed me. I saw the case studies for big players like Mall.cz or Notino and they were impressive numbers. Like how it generates a 7x higher conversion rate or 16x more leads. That's 16,000% higher performance! I thought it's amazing but maybe it's not so super-surprising because while watching the video, it got my attention and made me feel special. So people are willing to act in response to such a video.
This last point is interesting for the companies who use it for communication with their customers. My role is to sell the platform and develop business with our technological partners and this is something that really helps because we live in a time when numbers count. Those are real numbers. It's not only about whether it's nice or fashionable but it must be very practical and profitable.
What is your Motionlab pitch?
RM: We are distracted during the day by many different things like media and social networks, a lot of... stuff and we lose connection with ourselves and still the most important thing for us is us, ourselves, and we are still trying to find ourselves somewhere in the world. So if I see a video advert that has my first name, surname, my favourite products, what I should get or upgrade or it could even be customer care like 'thank you that you are with us', then I am going to take notice. It's still an online experience and not tangible in that sense, but from a personal perspective, that touches me as a customer and gets my attention. This is the pitch.
I think each company wants to have a closer connection to their customers and in the last two years the offline relationships between customers and companies have been really disrupted so creating this new kind of connection helps incredibly.
So do you think Covid has helped the pitch in a way?
RM: Yes absolutely, because many companies had a lot of their offline street promotions disrupted so they couldn't spend time with their customers and be more personal. It's now harder to connect with customers and this definitely helped us, but we started before Covid and it worked well before as well. This personal connection is important because a customer is not an anonymous number but a real person with real needs and this technology is the newest and highest level of personalization from my point of view.
When you pitch the idea, what range of responses do you get? Do people 'get it' instantly or are they cautious about it?
RM: Yes, it depends because often our brains tend to think about things in terms of what we already know. So sometimes I'm explaining a personalised video campaign and it's like showing the first swipeable iPhone to an old Nokia owner. They don't understand it fully or its potential. Some visionaries see it and say 'wow it's amazing' and love it from the first moment while others say 'oh it's just a gadget' or 'where is the added value?'
But what has rapidly changed in the last 12 months is that the bigger companies are starting to understand it and implement it into their marketing strategies because they realize it can be really beneficial. I think that's because they have seen the success of the campaigns from high-profile companies like CEZ, innogy and HBO. And these campaigns are very nicely done and very functional and they've won awards for creativity or performance. These things get noticed. It's the same as if you met somebody with the first smartphone and you see what he is able to do with it, then you will not stay resistant forever - in the end you will use a smartphone too.
From your meetings, do you get a good idea of the state of the Czech market at the moment and companies' current wants and needs?
RM: It's healthy because a lot of things have moved to online and companies, even traditional ones, are investing a lot into digitalization and into personalized communication with customers. Some of them are just starting with basic personalization like emails while others have been using it for a while.
Video personalization is a combination of creativity, technology and the right thinking about data. Companies need the right combination and a clear vision of what you can achieve with personalised video. So I work with agencies and our partners to explain these ideas and educate them. Everything needs education because if something is new you need to touch it, to understand it and to reshape your thinking around it.
Are some companies still nervous about using personal data?
RM: Sometimes... but they under-estimate their customers. They are saying 'oh it's very sensitive, they will be angry about what we are doing with their data, they will complain about it'... no, in the end that they are always surprised that the customers love it because they are the focus of attention and the company cares about them. And very often it's fun or it's educational and there is added value in that. That's what is appreciated most by the customers – that this company understands me and they really communicate with me on a personal level. I think the HBO campaign was a breakthrough campaign for these reasons. And this video went viral because it was so much fun and people shared it across social media. About 100,000 videos were created but I think the impact reached a million people.
How has the last 2 years been for you in the Covid era? What have you learnt about life?
RM: I've learnt… a lot. (laughs)
It's very complex because I have three children with one at university and there were some challenges at the elementary school too. That was from the personal side and from the professional side it was also challenging because we had mostly online meetings. But each coin has two sides - we managed to have more meetings and connect with more companies and also with high-end business that were willing to spend the time because they were interested and wanted to know more. But in online meetings it's not so personal, it's always somehow slightly artificial. I like offline personal meetings to connect and to build relationships because it is about trust. I believe that we will come a little bit back to offline again, but I think it will never come back totally to the way it was before because it's already changed the way a lot of people work in terms of flexibility and commuting. And we'll have to live with that and that's okay.
I've learnt about the importance of mental health. Basic common sense stuff like keeping your immune system healthy, eating healthy, exercise and being in touch with family and friends. The most important thing is to take care about myself - that's my first responsibility but I can help others to stay positive, mentally positive. My relationships are really deeper now. The media is saying that relationships were broken and that's partly true - as I said in business we've moved online, but meeting people in real life now is not so superficial - it's deeper and more personal.
I feel more grounded now. Before this pandemic it felt like we were living life on a fast-moving train. Everything was taken for granted and we didn't have time to see real values in our lives. Now it's different because then the train hit the wall and everything changed, so we had to rebuild our relationships and how we think about life and our priorities.
It's like when somebody loses a job or some relationship breaks down, the first reaction is that this is destructive, that it's painful and bad. But if you look at the bigger picture, beyond that, maybe there's something better or more rewarding. I think it's too soon to say what happens next, but I have hope that something new and positive comes out of it.
Danny Holman, Motionlab