Video Templates 4 DOOH DIY Creative from @Spotomate
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Making it easy to put creative into digital signage, Spotomate is a new online Do-It-Yourself service that its developers say makes it possible for operators of digital signage networks to produce agency-quality advertising and messaging video spots for $75 or less.
Spotomate is promoted as enabling anyone with basic web-browsing skills to produce, in just a few minutes, full-motion advertising and messaging videos, and then download HD versions for use on screen networks, kiosks or online.
Some three-dozen video templates are already available on Spotomate – tuned to auto dealers, retailers, restaurants and other vertical markets – and more templates are being added weekly.
“I see it being of interest to both the small-to-medium business owner as well as to solutions providers and integrators,” says Dave Haynes of Vertical Media Consulting Group, which runs Spotomate – better known of course for PressDOOH; and the Sixteen:Nine blog, Ed
“Anyone with experience in the digital signage business will tell you the biggest remaining pain point is the cost of feeding the content beast,” says Haynes. “Keeping ads and messaging fresh on screens can easily cost five and six figures annually. With this service, we’re dramatically reducing costs for network operators, and also speeding turnaround times. The idea that you can get an ad that looks like it could cost as much as $10,000, for $75, is a little mind-blowing.”
Haynes, who has been soft-launching Spotomate in recent weeks, says that some creative companies may be a bit unnerved by Spotomate, but he doesn’t see this as taking over the work of the big creatives. “However, it could supplement what they do. To get broadcast quality creative for such a low cost will be of interest to companies watching their content budgets.”
With Spotomate, customers browse and preview video templates, then, using a selected template in a pop-up browser window, they drag and drop images into designated areas and add text to specified message boxes. The template engine steps users through the video sequences, and when done, users get an email that includes a link to a streamed draft version of the video.
If users like the results, they can buy the final version online and get a download link for an MP4 HD video file. Or they can return to the pop-up window to do some fine-tuning. No fees are applied until users upgrade to a paid version that removes the watermark.
The system takes full advantage of the latest cloud video rendering and storage capabilities, and the template engine and output are mapped to motion graphic project files built in the creative world’s most used platform, Adobe After Effects.
Behind Spotomate’s rendering engine is Shakr Media, a Seoul, South Korea start-up that runs a primary service for online video production.
David Lee, founder and CEO of Shakr, says, “We realized early there was a business opportunity for us in digital signage, but it’s not an industry we knew much about, so partnering with Dave is an ideal way to enter the market.”
“Shakr is just flat awesome,” says Haynes, “but it has a challenge in that there’s so much on there that’s great for online and for personal messages, but not so much for the digital signage industry. So what Spotomate is doing is curating the templates and providing a digital signage portal. We’re also building and populating Spotomate with custom templates that address specific gaps in digital signage, like corporate and education messaging.”
Motion templates and automated video production systems are not new to digital signage, Haynes concedes. Many software companies have libraries of templates available to clients, but they are tuned to entry-level users and necessarily generic by design.
“The real difference here is the creative quality, and the turnaround time,” Haynes says. “If you have the images you want to use ready, and also have your thoughts together on the messaging, it’s possible to build and generate a gorgeous video in 10 to 15 minutes,” he says. “You can go from idea, to live on a sign network, in an hour.”
Spotomate is also already speaking with production firms about re-purposing templates or dormant archive material to be used on Spotomate, with the producers receiving royalties on sales.
The early release version of the service is available online at Spotomate.com. Haynes says the service will be refined based on industry feedback and interest
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