What personalised video actually means?

Most organisations already know a fair bit about the people they communicate with.

A super fund knows a member’s balance and contribution history. A university knows which course someone enquired about. A membership organisation knows when someone joined. An insurer knows where a customer is in a claim.

And yet, when it comes time to communicate, we often dispatch one message to everyone.

It’s simple and practical, but is it the best we can do? Is it the most effective way to reach people?

At Creativa, we developed Benvoo to use the data organisations already hold to change what each person sees and hears in a video. Not just their name, but potentially the information, imagery, voiceover, options and next step as well.

What is personalised video?

In a normal video, everybody who presses play sees the same thing.

A personalised video, on the other hand, has parts that can change depending on who is watching. That might be a customer’s name, account balance, product, location or membership history. It might also be the footage they see, the voiceover they hear, the information being explained or the call to action at the end.

Putting “Hi, Tim” on screen is technically personalisation, but it’s not really the interesting bit.

The real value is when Tim sees the information that matters to Tim.

If two people receive the same annual member campaign, one might see their balance, contributions and a relevant next step. The other gets the same overall campaign but with different figures and messaging because their circumstances differ.

The organisation still has one communication strategy. The audience gets something much closer to an individual experience.

The real problem is usually relevance

Most organisations aren’t struggling because they don’t have enough information to give people.

Usually, they have too much.

Customers are already dealing with emails, PDFs, portals, forms, statements, notifications and updates. Somewhere in all of that is the part they actually need, and often we’re asking them to do the work of finding it.

Personalised video changes that relationship.

Instead of saying, “Here’s everything — work out what applies to you,” you can say, “Here’s the part that applies to you.”

The communication feels simpler because the irrelevant material has been stripped away. And when people understand what something means for them, they are in a much better position to act on it.

One video. Endless variations

So does someone sit there making 50,000 individual videos?

Of course not.

At Creativa, we develop the core creative once. We work out the strategy, script, design, what stays consistent, what can change, which data is available and what different viewers need to understand or do next.

Benvoo then uses that logic to create the relevant version for each person.

One campaign might produce a few hundred versions. It might produce tens of thousands. It might produce considerably more. The underlying creative isn’t rebuilt every time.

That’s what makes the whole thing scalable. If the data supports it, we can change much more than a name on a title card. We can change the story itself.

What does that actually look like?

Example: Financial services

Financial services is the classic example. 

A member statement may contain balances, contributions, insurance, fees and projections. The information is all there, but presenting accurate figures and helping someone understand them are two different things.

• A personalised video can turn the same data into a guided explanation, showing the member what has changed, what it means and what their next step might be.
• In one personalised financial communication campaign produced by Creativa, 85% of viewers watched the video to the end, with the client reporting up to an 18% lift in funds following the campaign.

Example: Insurance

Insurance is a different problem.

If someone is making a claim, there’s a decent chance they are already stressed, confused or both. Giving them a document covering every possible pathway might be perfectly accurate, but it doesn’t necessarily make the process easier.

• A personalised and interactive video can show the customer the information relevant to their claim, explain what needs to happen next and guide them towards the right action.
• In one claims program, interactive personalised video achieved 95% engagement and a 90% increase over the previous PDF process.

Example: Sports and Membership

Then there’s sport and membership, where personalisation can be less about explaining information and more about recognising history.

Someone who joined a club in the 1980s has a different relationship with that organisation from somebody who signed up last season. They remember different players, different seasons and different moments.

• There’s no reason both people need to see exactly the same renewal video.
• In one sports campaign produced by Creativa, personalised video was delivered to more than 50,000 members, with the accompanying email campaign achieving an open rate above 71%.
• Different industries. Different problems. Same basic principle: use what you already know to make the communication more relevant.

It’s not just a Marketing Tool

The word “personalisation” tends to make people think of advertising.

You bought this, so here’s another thing you might like. You’re this age, so here’s an offer. We know your first name, so now it’s in the subject line.

That’s one use of personalisation, but some of the better opportunities lie within customer journeys that already exist.

Take Education.

Two prospective students might be looking at the same institution, but one wants to understand fees, another needs entry requirements, another is interested in support services, and another is already ready to enrol. Sending them all to the same pile of webpages technically gives everybody the information they need. It just doesn’t give it to them particularly elegantly.

A personalised video can create a more direct route through that information based on what the student has already told you.

The same applies to government and public-sector communication. Rates, entitlements, eligibility, reporting pathways, local services and payment information can all vary depending on the individual. The core message can remain consistent and approved, while the surrounding information becomes more relevant.

Personalisation doesn’t have to make communication more promotional.

Sometimes it just makes it more useful.

And sometimes “cheap” communication isn’t actually cheap

A PDF is cheap to send. Attach it to an email and off it goes.

But if the recipient doesn’t understand it, the cost tends to turn up somewhere else. They call the contact centre, submit the wrong information, abandon the form or miss a deadline. Someone from your team then has to step in and help.

That doesn’t mean every PDF needs to become a video. Nobody needs that.

But it is worth looking at the places where confusion is creating work.

If a claims process generates repeat calls, if an application consistently loses people at the same stage, or if members receive plenty of information but still don’t understand what they’re supposed to do, then clearer communication has an operational value as well as a creative one.

That’s often where personalised video starts to make commercial sense.

Personalised Video Can Respond to the Viewer Too

The personalisation doesn’t have to stop with the data you already know.

A viewer can make choices during the experience. They might select the situation that applies to them, choose the service they’re interested in or indicate what they need help with. Their answer can then change what happens next.

At that point, the experience starts to sit somewhere between a video and a digital journey.

Rather than explaining every possible pathway to everybody, the communication can respond as the viewer moves through it.

What About Measurement?

Benvoo can track things like opens, plays, watch time, drop-off, interactions and clicks. Those metrics are useful because they show whether people are engaging with the communication and where they might be losing interest.

But the more useful question is usually what happened afterwards.

Did the member renew? Did the student apply? Did the customer complete the claim? Did someone make the payment, access the service or move to the next step without needing to call for help?

That’s where personalised video becomes more than an interesting piece of creative.

The result might be increased revenue in one campaign and reduced support demand in another. It could be higher participation, better completion rates or improved retention.

The right metric depends on the problem you’re trying to solve.

Start With the Problem, Not Benvoo

You don’t need to come to Creativa saying, “We need personalised video.”

Tell us what isn’t working.

Maybe customers keep calling because a process is confusing. Maybe members aren’t taking an important next step. Maybe prospective students are dropping out between enquiry and application. Maybe your CRM contains useful information about your audience, but none of it is reflected in the communications they actually receive.

From there, we can look at the audience, the available data and the customer journey. We can work out what information matters, what changes from person to person, what action should become easier and how we’d measure whether the communication worked.

Sometimes Benvoo will be the obvious answer. Sometimes it’ll be one part of something broader.

Either way, the technology needs a job to do.

The Takeaway

Personalised video is often talked about as a technology. We think it’s more useful to think of it as a better way of communicating.

Instead of saying, “Here’s everything we need to tell everybody,” it gives organisations the ability to say, “Here’s what you need to know.”

The data is often already there. The communication is often already happening. The opportunity is to make it more relevant, clearer and easier to act on.

That’s Benvoo by Creativa. One on one with everyone.

✨ Want to Get Up Close and Personalised?

You don’t need to have a personalised video project mapped out already.

Bring us a customer journey that isn’t working as well as it should. Tell us where people are getting confused, disengaging or failing to take the next step, and show us what information you already have available.

We can work out whether personalised video could make that experience better.
Book a personalised Benvoo demo

👉 Get in touch with Creativa and let’s get up close and personalised.

Email: hello@creativa.com.au

Call: (03) 9999 1333