Recently introduced to the U.S. market, personalized video solutions are making waves in online marketing. Instead of a static video, the marketer can present personalized video content or even allow users to self-select content to fit their needs.
"The idea is that we can take any sort of linear video—it's tagged and it's segmented—and then, basically, those clips are reassembled based on user interaction or any other type of profile information from an ad server network, behavioral targeting, Web-publishing data or cookie," describes Naj Kidwai, CEO of Real Time Content, a New York-based provider of personalized online video ad technology.
XMPie, a New York-based provider of cross-media dynamic publishing, also offers a personalized video platform as part of its creative solution, which uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator software to personalize videos. These videos then can fit into e-mail or personalized landing page campaigns.
The four thoughts below, from experts at each company, will help illustrate the benefits of this new direct marketing tactic.
1. See Big Benefits and Results
Kidwai lists the benefits of personalized video as increased click-through rates, engagement, brand recall and sales conversions and adds that the technology allows marketer to deliver thousands, if not millions, of variants based on one ad. In a recent campaign for Nationwide Building Society, a U.K.-based financial services company, a personalized video on the homepage empowered the audience to pick out insurance elements of personal interest. "If I'm interested in insurance for my MP3 player, gardening equipment and valuables, those are the elements that I can click on in the interactive ad, and then, basically I would get a different voiceover and those key messages," Kidwai explains. The campaign resulted in 48 percent higher brand recall, a 300-percent increase in sales conversions and a jump from selling about 400 to 500 policies per week to around 1,200 per week, he shares.
2. Make an Impression on Your Prospects
"As we're showing our XMPie prospects these campaigns, most of them sort of look at it and say, 'I can't believe you can do that.' Their eyes open a little bit wide—it's a real differentiator," comments Phil Rose, product marketing manager for XMPie. Upon introducing this technology to a U.S. market, Kidwai says that he realized no one had figured out how to get U.S. consumers to engage with ads before. He gives the example of Toyota's now ubiquitous 'Saved by Zero' advertisement as an example of the disengagement seen in mass marketing. There's even a Facebook group called "Stop Playing Toyota's 'Saved By Zero' Commercial," in opposition to the tiresome spot. Personalized video combats that consumer point of view, instead empowering prospects to select the content they wish to receive. "When we did the feedback analysis, it was like, 'God, somebody's actually listening to me, and I am actually allowed to create the elements that I am interested in," describes Kidwai.
