How to create a video for video automation

1. They allow us to include 1-to-1 relevant information directed to specific audiences, which improves engagement significantly, increases the view rate and hence, the conversion rates or achieving the video goals as well (understanding a message correctly, learning about a product, buying the product or service, etc.)

2. These videos are created 100% automatically. Using a database or form as input, Wideo’s API automatically takes a video template to create videos with variable information in a few seconds.

This is how we can create huge amounts of videos (we are talking about hundreds or even thousands) personalized for different segmented audiences or even videos with singular content for each person.

Personalized videos can contain 3 kinds of variables: texts, images, and/or colors.

It’s important to use the name, or any other personalized data, in an integrated way with the video and not simply overprint it above the animations or images.
As we can see in the example above, the viewer will see his/her name written on a street sign inside the video, increasing the generated impact.

If we use a video footage background and want to recreate this effect, we can do it as long as the cámara is not moving.
So consider using a tripod to record if you use your own material.
Otherwise, we can overprint the text or use another style with good animations.

Primary color
This is the main company branding color. Generally is the one that covers more surface on its logo. We should use it strategically in the video for backgrounds or shapes used as text container backgrounds to ensure a better presence.

Secondary color
Some brands have another color with less visual presence in the branding or are used for secondary elements.

In those cases with no secondary color, we can use a derived color from the primary, darker, or lighter (for example, blue primary color, white blue secondary color)

We can use the secondary color in the video for backgrounds that need to be lighter or softer to make text readable or other secondary elements in the composition.

Black and white
Any color palette can include these two colors as a complement. We can use white for scene backgrounds or details and black for texts to assure their readability.

Contrasts
When creating a video that will be automatically personalized for several clients, It’s essential to consider that we don’t know precisely which colors will be applied to those videos. 

If we create just 10-20 videos, we could do an initial manual check to include all the possible cases. But that would be impossible if we consider hundreds or thousands of videos for different clients.

That’s why we need to design these videos testing edge contrast cases to avoid the possibility that a text has a similar color to the background, which would make it unreadable.

Thinking and creating a video for automation is not the same as doing it for a video with static information.

We must consider this in the same script and storytelling creation process to integrate the elements visually and conceptually.

Before beginning, we need to know which information we count that we can use for personalizing videos. For example: name, residence city, profile picture, etc.)

Let’s think about a simple and short experiment. Let’s say we create an A-B test, showing two different people the same video, but one of them (who is called John) is in front of a video that shows this text in the second 2 “Hi John,” which one of them would you think will be more engaged with the rest of the video?

On any video, one of the main goals is to generate the viewer a good impact during the first 5 seconds, as people continuously receive tons of other videos, messages, and information that will compete with ours. Besides, our time and attention gap is lower every day.

The time limit we have to get the viewers’ attention could be measured as the time between one piece of content and the other while they swipe the phone screen with their fingers.

That’s why the sooner the personalized and relevant information appears in the video, the bigger the impact we will generate. 

Even though what we said is critical to including personalized and relevant information in this kind of videos, we must choose strategically which data we will use and not abuse them.

On the one hand, including a lot of data could give, as a result, a nonsense message or a video without a concrete story. The main goal is not to demonstrate that we have many users’ information but to send them relevant information in an easy-to-understand, entertaining and exciting way.

On the other hand, we must care about what kind of information we include. Sensitive data such as bank accounts, phones, addresses, etc., can generate the opposite effect we seek, such as insecurity, persecution, and mistrust in the brand.

It’s better to use less information well integrated into the story fluently than to include lots of data that doesn’t make sense in the main message.

Now that we covered the main aspects to take on account when thinking about a personalized and automated video, let’s see which are the basic steps to follow for its creation:

As in any other marketing action, we must define the success case for the piece we create. Which main goal are we looking to achieve with the personalized video? It could be, for instance, to direct the audience to a landing page, increase a product or service sales, get more followers in a social network, etc.

The video could reach its audience through different channels, such as a simple link; social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.; it can be embedded in a landing page as an explainer or welcome video, showcased in a live presentation, etc.

Each channel has its language, behavior, technical limitations, and specifications.

For example, if we are going to distribute the video in a Facebook or Instagram feed, it’s convenient to create it in a square format (1:1) to optimize its visualization on mobile devices.

Also, every channel has a particular development and set-up complexity.

Once we’ve analyzed the information we have access to from an input database, we can define which variables we will use in the video (name, logo, branding colors, city, products for specific cohorts, etc.)

When using texts, we must include those which are variable between brackets to make them easily findable for automation implementation, which will do the setup work.

For example: {UserName}

Now is the moment to think about the video story based on the goal and variables we are going to use.
There is no need to write something extremely complex; it could be a simple structure.

To create the script, you can use a simple Google Doc divided into two columns, one to write the texts or voiceover (if needed) for each scene or screen, and on the other column we can write what is going to happen visually for each scene.

Example: