Marketers can get creative with video personalisation, says Renece Brewster, even with small amounts of data.

Some marketing trends come and go but the rise of video consumption is not one of them.

Content marketing was the story of 2016, one Facebook executive went as far as saying that the platform would be all video within five years. With so much video being created, it means companies need to raise the bar when it comes to creating their own content. Having beautifully produced videos that utilise star power or comedy is no longer enough.

The more video marketing that’s out there, the more essential it is for a company’s content to be personally relevant to each viewer. If the rise of video was one of the top trends of 2016, programmatic ad buying was the other.

Many marketers are already well versed on investing their dollars programmatically but if the video they’re delivering isn’t also personalised, they’re missing an opportunity to make it as impactful as it could be. This is because personalised video is about much more than just mail merge in a video, but rather telling a highly relevant story that brings the customer to the fore and personally connects with them.

The extent to which data can be utilised provides opportunity marketers could only dream of previously. Across campaigns, we find that personalised videos are viewed 3.5 times more than generic video and it creates an average 65% increase in email open rates.

But if the potential for personalised, data-driven video is enormous, why are so many companies still not jumping on board? We speak with marketers from businesses of all sizes and across a range of industries and the constant feedback we hear is ‘our data isn’t good enough’.

What surprises most people I speak with is that you don’t need big-data to start personalising – a little information can go a long way.

So how much data do you need? Firstly, it’s important to remember that the art is in the subtlety. A successful live video isn’t brash, but one that the viewer may not even realise is different to the next persons. You can get creative with as little as a name, address and date of birth. Some examples include:

• Date of birth. Hawthorn Football Club wanted to target past members who hadn’t re-singed their annual membership. Using their date of birth, we were able to create a personalised video called ‘What are you lifetime Hawks stats?’. It aimed to engage fans and generate excitement (and ideally sign ups) for the upcoming seasons by incorporating the number of times the Hawks had competed in the Grand Final during their lifetime.
• Street address. Ray White Real Estate has been creating market updates for many years though using a personalised video marketing platform they are able to send clients these reports in video format with specific information on their suburb and street.

Once you send your first campaign you’ll start a cycle that allows future campaigns to be much richer just by monitoring customer engagement with the video as well as their online behaviour afterwards.

My tip to all marketers? Make 2017 the year you get personal with clients and customers.

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Renece Brewster is founder and CEO of Data Creative

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