Andy Wilson, senior director at Dropbox
Andy Wilson has 17 years of experience in broadcast innovation and strategic technology program management. At Dropbox, he leads media development, working with organizations across media, entertainment and publishing to maximize the use of Dropbox technologies and services. Prior to joining Dropbox, he led growth and technology development at Digital Production Partnership, where he developed a new international format for the exchange of video content and advertising. His career, which began in 2000, includes roles at Aardman Animations and the BBC, where he contributed to projects such as BBC iPlayer.
The demand for new content is insatiable, as evidenced by the flow of the latest series available on streaming platforms and the countless publications on social networks. Thus, by 2030, the global market for digital content creation is expected to representing $38.2 billion. For creative teams, this demand is an excellent opportunity to offer more and more content, in line with new cultural and emerging trends on social networks. However, it also represents a challenge in terms of productivity as the production rate is frenetic.
AI-powered recommendation systems drive demand
Content recommendation systems, such as those that suggest upcoming Netflix shows to watch, are becoming increasingly intelligent and personalized thanks to AI. Many attribute TikTok’s explosion in popularity to the power of its algorithm and its ability to understand user preferences. This personalized content, combined with increased demand across multiple platforms, has led to an acceleration of societal and cultural trends, with new trends moving from a niche community to mainstream in a matter of weeks or days, rather than months or years.
Keeping pace with new socio-cultural trends
With this explosion in demand, creative and marketing teams have the opportunity to connect with consumers through engaging content marketing campaigns. According to Demand Metric82% of customers prefer brands that regularly produce content. But content production is a real challenge for companies with multiple stakeholders involved in a production. Between the initial idea, the shooting, the revision and the final validation… Some processes can last weeks or even months. When the content is finally online, in the meantime, a new trend can emerge. And it is already too late to capture the audience.
Generative AI: The Ultimate Solution for Rapidly Producing Video?
While the use of generative AI in the creative industry is still controversial, Google’s Veo and OpenAI’s Sora promise to speed up video content production. Creating short videos from written instructions can dramatically reduce the time it takes to produce videos for social media, as well as quickly position yourself on the latest trends. This is the case, for example, with new AI-powered video editing software such as Aug X Labs’ Augie, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can be integrated into an all-in-one video editing software to streamline workflow.
While these technologies have proven their ability to create realistic videos based on natural language instructions, the behind-the-scenes footage of the “Air Head” video created using Sora by creative collective and indie band Shy Kids demonstrates that post-production techniques such as video editing, color correction and sound design will continue to be an integral part of the creative process.
Optimize content review and validation steps
When working to tight deadlines, creative teams can save time by ensuring team members are aligned and by implementing a streamlined review and approval process. Responding quickly to client requests is critical to maintaining deadlines while preserving the creativity of employees, especially when teams are geographically dispersed.
Teams often face a disjointed review process, receiving unclear or conflicting feedback via email or Slack, leading to multiple iterations and back-and-forths. This is a common issue in the industry: changes that have already been made end up having to be reverted, while other people are still providing feedback. In these complex cases, using the right technology can make a significant difference in the process, but also in creating a smoother customer experience.
Prioritize quality over quantity
With the growing demand for video content, fueled by the success of AI-powered recommendation systems, there is no doubt that we will see an increase in AI-generated content on our social media and news feeds. The ease and speed with which generative AI creates images and videos could further accelerate the emergence of new trends, further reducing the cycle of previous ones and the reaction time to capture the audience’s attention.
While the explosion of AI-generated content is inevitable, it’s important that creatives continue to prioritize quality when creating it. They need to ensure that this content meets the needs of their target audience in the long term, rather than getting overwhelmed by the latest, sometimes fleeting, trends.
