Digital brand ambassadors Vs traditional talent and production process?

Our brand ambassadors are something I'm really proud of, when else in human history can I say, "day-to-day, I make people, create their personalities, their hobbies, and place them around the world.". As one of the few companies that can consistently replicate talent, there is a slight feeling of playing God, similar to a juiced-up Sims. With my history in video production, I'm aware of the costs, time, and coordination required to create an effective campaign/advert, we aim to streamline the process, expand the scope, and ultimately, be leaders in the new age of Digital Marketing.

What's the difference between us and a film crew?

The elephant in the room is cost and time. It's no secret productions are expensive, at the end of the day, you're selling a product and they want their cut, furthermore, each crew member is talented and brings tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear. The alternative is going for the cheaper option and creating content that poorly reflect the quality of your company and doesn't engage audiences. Not to mention, production can take days, and editing will take weeks. Our generations are quick, high quality and on-brand. Don't get me wrong, we do not "set and forget", we iterate from version to version internally, with each generation improving upon the last. If we don't like the lighting, we don't wait 30 minutes for a lighting change, we change it in 30 seconds, If we want an ambassador to be on the other side of the world, you're not paying for our plane ticket. Our talent don't get sick, they don't not show up to shoots, they are consistent and always ready to represent your brand.

Pros and cons of traditional production Vs AI virtual talent or models

Digital Brand Ambassadors

Pros:

• Cost Efficiency: Digital ambassadors eliminate the need for expensive film crews, location shoots, and actor fees. You can achieve the same results for a fraction of the cost.

• Time Savings: Changes, such as adjusting lighting or location, can be made in seconds rather than hours. Campaigns can be deployed quickly, allowing for rapid iterations.

• Consistency: Digital ambassadors are always available, never fall ill, and consistently represent your brand across campaigns without the unpredictability of human talent.

• Global Reach: You can place digital ambassadors anywhere in the world without travel costs, enabling diverse and geographically relevant campaigns.

• Scalability: Multiple campaigns can be run simultaneously with different digital ambassadors, allowing for extensive A/B testing and targeting different demographics without additional production costs.

Cons:

• Perceived Authenticity: Some audiences may not resonate with digital characters as strongly as with real human talent, which could impact the emotional connection with the brand.

• Limited Spontaneity: While digital characters can be meticulously crafted, they may lack the spontaneous, unpredictable charm that human actors can bring to a campaign.

• Technical Limitations: The creation of digital ambassadors requires advanced technology and expertise. If not done well, it could result in a poor representation of the brand.

Traditional Talent and Production Processes

Pros:

• Authenticity: Real actors bring a human touch and relatability that can resonate deeply with audiences, creating a stronger emotional connection.

• Creative Flexibility: Human talent can improvise and bring unexpected elements to a campaign that might not be possible with digital characters.

• Established Methods: Traditional production methods are well-understood, with established workflows and a large talent pool to draw from.

Cons:

• High Costs: Hiring a film crew, renting equipment, paying actors, and securing locations are all significant expenses. Reshoots and changes add further costs.

• Time-Consuming: Traditional production processes are lengthy, involving coordination, travel, setup, shooting, and editing, which can delay campaign launches.

• Logistical Challenges: Coordinating schedules, managing talent, and handling unforeseen issues like weather or illness can complicate production and add to the timeline and budget.

Is a Brand Ambassador right for your business?

At the core of your campaign, you need your clients to trust you. How do you do this? Good product/service, honesty and consistency. Twitter rebranding to X is a great example of the connection users make, despite their campaigns, loud media attention and noise, 3/4 of users still call X Twitter - people are connected to that name. The little blue bird changing to an X is similar to your company using a new actor in every campaign, to have a driving force, you need consistency. Traditionally in marketing, that comes with expenses, if you're looking for a campaign head, you're their sole client now, and you will be paying for that, every shoot, every edit, cost-cost-cost. That's what we want to change. Our services reduce costs associated with campaigns, allowing your brand to run unique campaigns to effectively engage your audiences, to create experimental ads to test the waters of new demographics, to create ads from anywhere around the world, from a snow storm to a Sahara desert. If you want to reduce costs, expand scope and connect with your audience, reach-out to us about our ambassador services.

Case study - The running shop branding and advertising

Hydra Digital's client, The Running Shop (TRS), had an issue which in a roundabout way, has provided me my job. At the core of their marketing, Hydra Digital wanted to sell the vision of The Running Shop - Customers running in the Burleigh Heads areas. Since taking on the campaign sales were up 300% in 2 months, but there was a lack of creative content that would appeal to the target audiences of The Running Shop's unique offering of expert shoe fitting, involvement in sports and the customer type they appeal to.

Hydra Developed a brief for a series of archetypes that would cover the range of customer types no matter their running goals and aspirations. However, after coordinating our production crews, talent, videographers, and talent for the 2-day production, due to the availability of staff and timing conflicts, the production was delayed past the deadline, and we wanted to launch the cam[aign material.

Our Director Matthew Cage and Director of Hydra Digital did not want to delay the benefits of the new branding and approach and created what would be our first ambassadors, realistic, Australians running around the Burleigh heads area.

A common misconception with generated talent is that users won't resonate with the characters and, subsequently, the campaign. This campaign, remains to be the most effective campaign The Running Shop has ever ran, requiring us to bring the characters back for more and more campaigns. This, in tern caused us to develop consistent characters and eventually bring our talent to life through video. But I'm getting ahead of myself, this is about cost savings. For each image, we had a unique location and character, allowing for a diverse spread of people and locations to run A B campaigns to hone in TRS strategy. If they chose to use a film crew, each actor, whether used or not, would have be an expense, each location would add another shoot date, it would cost them 10's of thousands. They achieved the same result, for a fraction of the cost.

Since this campaign, we have continued to develop the technology and virtual talent is now available for any campaign and any format, including video and product placement with virtual models.

See samples from this first project for the Running Shop below.