Join Capabilities to Connect with Consumers in Real Time

Romain Demongeot has joined MediaMonks in Amsterdam as creative director where he'll be applying his expertise in VFX, film and 3D animation and will work with teams across the globe. Romain has penned down his views how real-time power can be the backbone of the customer decision journey. 

The past year has introduced a dizzying array of digital channels for brands—accelerating the drumbeat of content they must build to show up for audiences far and wide.

Now isn’t the time to fall onto old strategies; with a new digital landscape come renewed forms of storytelling and experiences. “Covid-19 has pushed the industry forward,” MediaMonks founder Wesley ter Haar recently said in a recent Q&A with SoDA, hosted by Adobe Creative Cloud. “In digital, brands have long relied on filmic storytelling—often a cutdown of the TVC—and a focus on conversion.”

But now, brands have a clear need to show up for their audiences in a variety of meaningful ways: from building experiences around the home, embracing their brand role and showing up within virtual environments. As they face an urgency to virtualise experiences and support a widening group of digital channels, production efficiency will become top of mind­–requiring expertise capable of threading together and unifying a myriad of core capabilities and disciplines that connect across the customer decision journey (CDJ).

Let Real-Time Power the Backbone of the CDJ 

From motion-captured live animation to explorable virtual worlds to VFX, one technology has claimed significant ground in virtual experiences: real-time rendering and production. What makes the technology especially useful to brands is its versatility across touchpoints, as well as the ability to automate tasks and speed up the creation of assets.

Last December, a Forrester report detailed how 3D modelling serves to help brands scale up their content across channels. Applications include CAD models used in product design, using game engines to render shooting environments in real time (like The Mandalorian’s virtual, photorealistic sets) and the creation of unique digital experiences for consumers—like extended reality or even virtual humans. And of course, faster production at scale. 

In the past year, investment in real-time rendering has grown exponentially. Traditionally, this process was limited to big studios and required a very specific team to develop stories and experiences using this technology But now, the technology is becoming more democratised as agencies and smaller production shops catch up to the technology. We’re no stranger to real-time production ourselves; last year, we received an EPIC MegaGrant to power automated production, and have recently welcomed real-time production house STAUD STUDIOS to the team.

I believe this technology will define our reality in the coming years, partly because the tooling offers so much value across the CDJ, from filming original content to performances in virtual events. What this means is that the categories are mixing.  

Unify Capabilities to Connect Across Channels

As categories mix and collide, brands require an agile team that can draw on a diverse set of capabilities. Modern filmmaking isn’t just about placing a camera in front of an actor and a set anymore. Now, it’s much more technical: teams can bring together 3D developers and post-production experts to sit and weigh in on step one of a shoot. Films can also inspire interactive, immersive digital touchpoints—just like the digital altars we build to support our latest Day of the Dead film with Cerveza Victoria—highlighting the power of creative collaboration across disciplines. 

Traditionally, shop layers are separated—you have production versus agencies.As areas that were separated begin to merge, it will come down to who’s able to unlock it fastest. Brands can maximise the power of their creative by working with a partner who can identify and plan for opportunities to remix and reuse assets on other channels. A 3D model of a live performer, for example, can also be ported into an AR experience that provides fans with another way to engage. In achieving these needs, a new partner model is emerging that breaks down silos and connects stakeholder needs. 

These strategic conversations will prove essential for brands seeking to connect random acts of digital across the CDJ. From powering a variety of experiences through game engines or boosting the performance of assets through insight-driven creative, navigating the dawn of the new era in digital will demand that brands draw together a team of diverse expertise to better serve and show up for audiences everywhere.