Smart Videos are personalized videos produced by Materna newmedia for business-to-consumer communications. They address each customer by name and integrate personal data like billing information, aiming to build emotional connections. The videos are more interactive than traditional media and can be sent via email, text, apps or QR codes. Materna is working to expand interactivity and bring videos into the internet of things era with more connected devices.

1. Hey, they’re really talking to me!
External corporate
communications with Smart Videos
There are so many more ways to convey marketing information to customers than just by using
static words and pictures nowadays. Getting this information across is becoming much more of a
mobile and dynamic experience. And videos especially have become a normal part of our daily lives:
click on a weather app here, check out a press conference there, or even upload your own film on
YouTube. However, Materna newmedia creates slightly different videos. These videos are really
unique. Thilo Korte asks Adrian Tanasescu, product manager for Smart Videos all about them.
Thilo Korte: Of course, everyone knows what videos are. What’s so special about Smart Videos?
Adrian Tanasescu: We produce them for companies who then deploy them to communicate with their
end customers or consumers, i.e. for B2C. To be precise: Smart Videos are personalised videos. We
communicate individually with every single customer. For example, we can address them by their first
name.
Thilo Korte: So being personalised means these videos are not comparable with TV commercials or
your everyday YouTube videos?
Adrian Tanasescu: That’s right. What’s special about them is that by adding the personalised greeting
to the video we can inject a highly emotional element to customer relationships. And nobody gets the
same video as anybody else. It’s really unique. The customer thinks “Hey, they’re really talking to me.”“
Thilo Korte: Which personalised data can be integrated apart from the name?
Adrian Tanasescu: That depends on what sort of Use Case it is based on. For example, a particularly
large amount of data is integrated in videos about billing. We explain the customer’s telephone bill or
electricity bill based on their real invoice data. We integrate this complex information into an easy-to-
understand medium.
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AninterviewwithourSeniorMarketingManagerNewmedia

2. Thilo Korte: Why is video such a successful means of communication today?
Adrian Tanasescu: It really is the trend at the moment. A video can emotionalise things in a very different
way from something written. And you can really see it for yourself. Video is a key feature of all modern
communications media now. People are faced with so many forms of information and services, and you
don’t always want to have to read the small print - you want to be served well. People want to have their
information quickly and easily. Videos are just the thing for tablets and smart phones – on the sofa, in
the office or on a train – videos work everywhere.
Thilo Korte: Materna newmedia has successfully introduced personalised videos to the German
market. Your task now is to offer the product to the international markets. How are you going about it?
Adrian Tanasescu: Right now we are talking to customers on various continents. Qatar is the most exotic
country so far.
Thilo Korte: Exotic – is that because you are dealing with a different family of languages with different
characters as well?
Adrian Tanasescu: That’s right. We are running two versions at the moment, an English one and an Arabic
one as well.
Thilo Korte: That sounds like a lot of work and very complex technically.
Adrian Tanasescu: Yes, the script goes from right to left. That’s why we have to completely re-adapt
the design and layout. We get the script from our B2B customer and then adapt all the layouts and
animations accordingly.
Thilo Korte: Who will be interested in using Smart Video then?
Adrian Tanasescu: It is relevant for all companies working in the B2C field. Why? Because it provides
companies with an additional innovative channel of communication; they can increase their turnover
and reduce costs as well. Videos can provide answers to many questions even before the customer
picks up the phone. That saves resources in customer care for example. But it can also make sense for
B2B companies, for example, as a USP to get one up on the competition.
Thilo Korte: What sort of Use Cases are you following for B2C businesses?
Adrian Tanasescu: We differentiate between four different areas: customer acquisition, service, up and
cross selling, and customer loyalty.
Thilo Korte: Which Use Case is the most important at the moment?
Adrian Tanasescu: Right now the service area is definitely the most important, for onboarding new
customersontheonehandandvideobillsontheother.It’sreallyimportantthatwehavetherightmessage
in the right context. This applies across the board - relevant industries include telecommunications
companies and electricity or gas suppliers as well as insurance companies, financial institutions and
e-commerce firms or companies in the travel industry.
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3. Thilo Korte: What does a company have to do, if they want you to implement a video service for them?
How do you work on it together?
Adrian Tanasescu: First of all we discuss what goal we want to achieve with the video. Does the company
want to improve its net promoter score? Does it have problems getting customers to like their new
product features or products? Or does it want to stop a particular customer segment from deserting
them and going to the competition? We can then advise them and offer a customised video solution.
Of course we also have to take our B2B customer’s corporate identity stipulations and data security
policies into account. We discuss all of these details face to face with the customer.
Thilo Korte: What sort of challenges do you come up against when producing and processing the data
for personalised videos?
Adrian Tanasescu: It’s important to save large amounts of data safely and to be able to provide them
on demand, i.e. exactly when the customer wants to access them. We also put a lot of effort into data
security. Our servers are in Germany and we run them ourselves. The data is stored carefully and safely
and we have ISO 9001 and PCI certifications, so of course we take our customers’ data security very
seriously. That is why, at this point, I would like to mention
once again that we are an independent company.
Thilo Korte: What conditions do the video users have to
fulfil?
Adrian Tanasescu: They don’t have to fulfil any conditions
themselves since we are the ones who wish to serve them
in the best possible way. We can provide them with their
own video experience via their web browser and on all their
mobile devices. We send the videos by email or via text
message. We can also integrate videos in print media using
QR codes or place them in the company’s self service areas, e.g. via apps and customer portals.
Thilo Korte: How do you send videos by text message?
Adrian Tanasescu: We want to enhance it with more interactive functions. The end customers
expect everything to be just a click away. For example, they want to be able to get more information
immediately or to be able to buy everything instantaneously. We have been implementing this sort of
video-interactivity for some time now.
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Smart Video Tutorial: personalised salutation
Vodafone Qatar Video Bill: the Arabic version

4. Thilo Korte: Videos are just the beginning – what does the future hold for us?
Adrian Tanasescu: I don’t want to give too much away, but we are working on bringing videos into the
age of the internet-of-things, where all a devices of a particular user are connected with each other.
We want to expand our range to get onto the screens of even more devices. At Materna newmedia,
we originally come from the smartphone world, but of course we want to be able to address the users
personally on all types of screens in future.
Thilo Korte: What is the internet of things?
Adrian Tanasescu: This is where all your devices act intelligently, and at just the right moment as well.
For example, you have slept badly. Your watch has registered this fact and passes the information on to
your coffee machine which then decides to make your coffee stronger this morning.
Thilo Korte: Let’s take a look into the future. Mass communication on a one-to-one basis always
seemed to be utopian – now it’s really happening in some areas and is becoming something quite
normal. What’s going to happen next?
Adrian Tanasescu: I reckon it will be possible to address other types of senses as well. Apple and co are
already making inroads into this. The Apple Watch can, for example, transfer your pulse to your partner.
This is all about feeling things. If you take this idea further, you could be shown a video about high
blood pressure via the internet-of-things, or your health insurance could point out some preventive
steps for you.
Thilo Korte: That’s getting really private...
Adrian Tanasescu: Of course, these sort of services can only work with the full agreement of the end
customer. Once again companies like Apple are showing us how this can be handled in a user-friendly
way. Apple Pay, for example, does not share any customers’ credit card numbers with the sellers. All
sensitive data that is exchanged or stored is encrypted. We handle data transfer in a similar way too.
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Smart Video campaign for airlines
Internet of Things: the
smart coffee machine
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Smart Video or go to
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