Should your video marketing strategy include generative AI?

Video marketing materials that used to require whole teams of writers, editors, and videographers can now be achieved in a fraction of the time with the help of generative AI. In some instances, it can help to make the video creation process smoother, more flexible, and far more efficient – but are there any downsides to using generative AI in your video marketing materials, and how can you best make use of it? Here are some important points to consider.

Streamlined content creation

Perhaps the most significant benefit of generative AI use is how quickly and often effortlessly it can be used to create video content. From generating ideas to writing scripts, recording voiceovers, or trimming videos, AI tools can now be used to speed up these traditionally more time-consuming tasks. It’s not necessarily about replacing the human aspect of these tasks, but more about supporting creative teams to boost their productivity and impact.

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Generative AI tools can be particularly useful in adapting video content to suit different platforms, which is essential in today’s fast-moving social media landscape. For example, a single long-form video could be easily repurposed into multiple short-form pieces for channels like TikTok, Instagram reels, and Youtube shorts, helping creative teams stay ahead of the curve.

Personalised videos at scale

Some level of personalisation is essential to your marketing strategy if you want customers to connect with your video content. However, producing personalised videos at scale can be tricky as a manual task. With the help of generative AI, marketers can create high numbers of tailored videos automatically, potentially even addressing customers by name, referencing their interests, or simply adjusting the main marketing message based on their online behaviour.

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This personalised video approach can help to create stronger emotional connections with customers, in turn boosting engagement, conversion rates, and viewer retention.

Unlocking creative possibilities

Generative AI is perhaps most well known for its ability to generate visuals like animations, backgrounds, and even realistic scenes that would be otherwise difficult to film in real life. Whether creative teams want to craft a futuristic scene, animate complex concepts or produce custom, tailor-made footage, these tools can help them to achieve more than what has traditionally been possible.

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When should you avoid generative AI?

It’s clear that generative AI may have a place in video marketing, but are there any instances in which it’s best avoided? Brands may want to consider:

• Authentic, emotional storytelling – when trying to build trust with consumers, real people with real, lived experiences often land better than AI-generated faces and voices.
• Sensitive or nuanced topics – it’s important to avoid a generic approach when the subject matter needs a level of empathy.
• Highly technical or legal content – accuracy is essential, and in these instances, human oversight is important.
• Brand-specific creative work – for brands that rely heavily on unique artistic styles or messaging, AI tools can easily dilute this. A human influence can help to build trust with brands, and helps to ensure any legal or compliance risks can be resolved deftly.

As with most AI tools, video content creation can be improved with the streamlining of tasks and ability to unlock new creative ideas. However, helpful AI use requires human input, to ensure best practices are followed and professional standards maintained. For creative teams, learning more about generative AI is essential for making the most of these tools and boosting video production processes.

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