Sing with Lips

As part of the launch campaign in November 2009 for the ‘Lips Number One Hits’ game on the XBox 360 , we produced a karaoke video service for the product web-site using video from video production company The Rumpus Room, and created by media publisher Global.

The ‘Mix your own Music Video’ service allows you to create a music video featuring Lily Allen’s 2009 Number One hit, ‘The Fear’ using karaoke performances by members of the public. These were recorded over two months at roadshows around the UK by The Rumpus Room. Real Time Content took the video and split it into individual lines of the song, then allow you to choose the gender of the singers and the quality of their singing. People who have taken part in the recordings get a special code that allows them to feature themselves in the video.

You can try out the ‘Mix your own Music Video‘ service here. ( http://www.singwithlips.co.uk/mix/ )

You can remix the video to get a different version, but you are extremely unlikely to see the same video twice – when the recordings are complete then there will be about 10 to the power 144 different possibilities, which is approximately:

…a billion billion (…12 more billions…) billion billion versions of the video,

and it is a BIG number: more than the number of atoms in the Universe!

Each of these videos is individually created by Real Time Content’s software in less than 2 seconds, of course.

Tags: Content, Karaoke, Lily Allen, Music Video, Online, Production, Technology, Video, Website, XBox 360
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Selling with Video

The car salesperson beams a bright and confident grin directly at you as you nervously back away from the gleaming roadster. A battery-powered point-of-sale video player is eagerly pushed close, maybe too close, into your face. An overblown picture springs to life on its attention-grabbing laser-backlit ‘advertising display product of the year’ screen. “Hi there!” chirps the chirpy stereo soundtrack as the animated presentation begins its pitch: “Are you ready for a life-changing experience?”…

Don’t worry. This is not the future of car selling! But there is a serious point to be made here – a normal salesperson listens and watches you during the conversation, and your reaction affects what they say next, or how they say it. Making a sale by just playing a video to people is not the way to do it – but online, many video ads are just fixed replays.

A recent article in ClickZ by Razorfish’s Jeremy Lockhorn takes a broad look at personalized video ads and this type of social positioning and contextualizing that has to be done to make a connection to the viewer and be successful. Using video like the garish salesperson at the start of this post is almost guaranteed to fail in both social and contextual aspects. But when an ad puts the right fragments of content together in a way that resonates with the viewer, then you are tapping into the way that selling is done by humans – you tailor the pitch to the potential purchaser. Jeremy uses the automotive industry as an example, and this is an area where huge changes have happened. Not that long ago, car adverts assumed a number of now either politically-incorrect, or sales-limiting facts: car buyers were male; chrome was good; and speed and performance were more important than fuel economy…

The technology for presenting the right bits of video to the right person is here now, but there may still be lessons to be learned from that salesperson – so that we can make video ads that are truly responsive to viewers in subtle, meaningful ways. This doesn’t mean that the salesperson needs to monitor a buyer’s heart-rate, blood pressure or body heat… It just means knowing the gender, the preferences, the interests, and more importantly, reacting to the person’s behavior so that the pitch is tailored. After all, today’s buyer might well be female, might prefer pink fake fur, and be very interested in fuel economy and green credentials.

Tags: Advertising, Content, Context, Personalization, Video
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Introducing Real Time Content blog

We’re excited to introduce the launch of Real Time Content’s new blog at http://blog.realtimecontent.com.

Our hope is that this blog will serve as a forum for discussing Real Time Content news and, more importantly, industry perspectives related to the on the online advertising industry. We realize that there is a lot of discussion in this area, and we’re ready to join the conversation! The blog will help us communicate our innovative work in delivering personalized online video capabilities, to agencies and the brands they represent.

We’re excited to hear what you have to say as well, so please comment and give us feedback on this blog!

In the meantime, feel free to contact the Real Time Content team at info [at] realtimecontent [dot] com.

Tags: Content, Personalization, Real Time Content, Technology
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