Motionlab creates personalized videos on Azure to engage shoppers and increase brand loyalty

“Personalized communication is a very effective way to form personal relationships with your customers. It delivers more interesting content and enriches the shopping experience,” says Filip Koubek, Chief Marketing Officer at Motionlab.

Motionlab enables brands and agencies to engage with their customers on a personal level through video. Based in the Czech Republic, it now services a large client base in Europe—including big names such as HBO and Microsoft—and has a presence in the Middle East and East Asia.

The company’s platform crafts videos that use information such as people’s names, location, and purchase history to construct highly customized content. The clips can be either entertaining or informative, but ultimately speak to every customer individually about their purchases or relationship with the brand.

Pushing boundaries with the cloud

To power its high-quality video production, Motionlab turned to Azure. “We wanted a scalable solution that could flexibly grow with our clients’ needs. To generate millions of versions of one video, we needed high computing capacity and a stable platform—Azure offered these qualities,” explains Koubek.

Motionlab used a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform on Azure to make its personalized videos, which clients can access via an app. Clients create a dynamic video template, which is fed with customer data from a customer relationship management system (CRM), customer data platforms (CDPs) or uploaded CSV files. Once the platform develops videos featuring individual customers, integrated third-party solutions can automatically send them via direct marketing channels such as emails and text messages.

“By changing a few elements, such as text and images in the videos, based on customer shopping preferences, we can increase their efficiency,” says Koubek. “Clients also receive information about the videos’ performance, such as number of views or any actions taken in the video. It helps them see how effective the personalized videos are.”

The video creation app is easy to use, making it convenient to develop videos even without deep technical expertise. “Our clients can do a dynamic video template within one or two hours. So instead of spending time learning how to use a new video production software, they can focus on being creative,” says Koubek. “The platform also integrates easily with clients’ existing delivery solutions, making the process smooth from start to finish.”

Motionlab can also provide high data security via Azure, which is particularly important for its clients in the financial services industry. “We work with banks and insurance companies that are primarily concerned about data protection. Knowing that we use Azure—a service that offers industry-standard data security—often assures a client that our platform is safe to work with,” says Koubek.

Ramping up engagement rates

Motionlab has helped many companies reach their customers with high-quality personalized videos. One of these companies is Notino, a cosmetics brand. Notino wanted to specifically catch the eye of its female buyers who hadn’t made any purchases in the previous weeks. “We wanted to address our target group directly through e-mails and were looking for a solution that would create an impactful message,” says Veronika Šklíbová, Head of CRM & e-mailing at Notino.

The cosmetics e-shop created funny custom videos that effectively attracted 20,000 customers to take action. “Around 80 percent of those who opened the email played the video and followed up by clicking on a personalized thumbnail to enter the brand’s website,” Koubek says. “Moreover, 90 percent of the customers watched their videos to the end—people don't usually watch entire videos in general—and 30 percent used the coupon code displayed in the videos.” Veronika Šklíbová adds, “Several people even emailed the Notino director to give positive feedback and thank us for the campaign. We’ve never received this kind of reaction before”.

Creating an emotional impact can inspire customers to share their joy. “If you give your customers a distinctive experience, they feel appreciated. That means they are also more likely to share the video among their friends, which increases the brands’ audience,” adds Koubek.

Moving forward, Motionlab will continue to expand its use of Microsoft solutions across the business. Koubek says, “Microsoft has supported us not only in the technical aspects of our projects, but also in marketing and sales. We are glad for the partnership we have with a team that has been there from the start.”