Updated: Jul 22, 2020
Even more immersive, ever more engaging interactive videos.
(The Smartzer interactive video on the Harvey Nichols site, featuring a Marc Jacobs makeup tutorial. Click here to see it live.)
Smartzer and Harvey Nichols have partnered a fifth time to optimise their video content, making a beauty industry a-list artist’s makeup tutorial video even more engaging. The global ambassador for Marc Jacobs Beauty, Michael Ashton - Adele’s makeup artist renowned for creating her iconic cat-eye look. The interactive makeup tutorial is now a shoppable video featuring Michael’s top tips; from dry skin hacks to creating the perfect feline flick, and a walk-through on how to become the master of a smokey eye look.
Smartzer’s video overlay transforms the makeup tutorial into an easily shoppable video, where consumers can intuitively and directly purchase products being used without disengaging or leaving the actual video. This optimisation maximises the view-through rate, and increases consumer engagement, thereby leveraging the video content to generate sales and further product exploration and discovery. The bespoke HTML5 video overlay makes the interactive aspects of the video content marketing campaign blend seamlessly with the overall UX and design of the Harvey Nichols site.
Easy shoppable video creation, in-house design
The video player which sits on Harvey Nichols’ own website, uses Marc Jacobs Beauty products which are featured and can be bought directly through the video. The player has been optimised and designed by the Smartzer in-house team to blend perfectly with the aesthetic design of the Harvey Nichols site. Through communication and immense attention to detail, the interactive video design is cohesive with the overall UI of the Harvey Nichols website. The full design service was provided by Smartzer for an easy, curated and streamlined process.
The Smartzer and Harvey Nichols design teams worked together to create a smoothly functioning and powerful bespoke interactive video that enhances the Harvey Nichols video asset and their design aesthetic. Functionality and an intuitive customer journey through the video and product discovery pipeline was as always at the heart of the process.
Increased consumer engagement and optimisation for discovery and sales globally
Clear call to action buttons (ie. ‘VIEW ALL’ or ‘CLICK PRODUCTS TO EXPLORE’), hot-spots and suggestive click buttons distributed throughout the video encourage consumers to utilise all the features of the clickable video. The smart video draws in the viewer and offers them easily accessible product information, a purchasing button and a link to learn more about the product. All videos are optimised to work beautifully on desktops, smartphones and tablets, ensuring the diverse range of viewing platforms can play the Smartzer smart video overlay with shoppable content anywhere and any time.
The video has been distributed after its Smartzer optimisation and transformation on the Harvey Nichols site.
- Nov 9, 2018
Updated: Feb 15, 2021
New York City was flooded with leaders of the media, marketing, entertainment, digital technology and other creative sector representatives during the 15th Annual Advertising Week, from the 1st to the 4th of October 2018. Smartzer founder and CEO Karoline Gross was one of the attendees from around the globe at Adweek 2018.
(Image: newyork.advertisingweek.com)
Over the four days, seminars and workshops on topics ranging from leadership to trend prediction provided valuable opportunity to discuss industry trends and the state of advertising in an even more online and international world. The entire event saw 98,000 industry professionals and experts pass through the doors, as reported by Adweek 2018. The 290+ events and 1216 speakers were well received, and there was much discussion and insight exchanged the industry over over the four days.
Some of the talks attended by our CEO and founder Karoline Gross include :
What Brands Must do to Engage Today’s Conscious Consumers
Presented by Playbuzz
Exploration of how brands are undergoing a ‘digital renaissance’ in order to align themselves more personally with consumers and adapt to evolving consumption habits.
Staying Creative in a World of Data
Vince Lynch, Emily Withrow, QUARTZ
Discussion over the impact of AI on creative industries thus far and predictions for coming years
Video: Omnichannel Strategy in a Fragmented World
Presented by XAXIS
Looking at the evolution of video abilities and platforms in order to discuss the promotion of a user-centric approach, measure the impact of videos, an stand out within an ever adapting market.
Unlocking the Potential of Programmatic Video
Presented by Pubmatic
The influence of video as a strategic marketing component, in terms of its benefits, and the risks associated, followed by a panel discussion exploring whether this strategy is being utilized to the best of its ability.
How Leading CPG Brands are Pushing the Boundaries of Digital Video
Various brand representatives
Discussion of the transformation from traditional TV adverts to individual-specific video marketing strategies in terms of strengths and limitations.
Katie Couric: The Next Chapter
Katie Couric
Presentation by award winning journalist and news anchor into the challenges women face in the media industry and her battle to overcome them.
In all it was an incredibly successful and eye opening trip, and the whole Smartzer team is delighted to have had the chance to be represented at such an important and influential industry event. Access to the breadth of experience represented throughout the event is invaluable for a company such as Smartzer as we continue to strive and fulfill our potential.
- Nov 7, 2018
Updated: Jul 22, 2020
(A play-through demonstrating Smartzer's interactive video overlay tech at play, as seen on the Feelunique website)
As the Christmas season approaches, more and more brands are gearing up their marketing for the festivities and the onslaught of sales potential the season brings with it. Feelunique, one of the leading online beauty retailers in the UK have chosen to enhance their video content created to market their advent calendars with Smartzer tech.
Increasing product engagement
Smartzer has put Feelunique’s campaign video through the optimisation and design process, and the results are clean, powerful and productive. The relatable and eye-catching creative design of Feelunique’s video features gifts for a special guy, an overworked boss or that one vegan friend everyone has - and is made accessible and easily discoverable through a natural and fluid exploration process designed and powered by Smartzer.
Streamlined and intuitive product exploration
Smartzer tech increases engagement with products featured in clickable videos by making the exploration journey intuitive and further steps in the purchasing journey easily accessible to the consumer. The viewers need only click on an item as it features on the screen - by engaging with a targeted click prompt in this instance - to bring up further details. The smooth pop-out extending sidebar has a scroll-through feature, displaying all products in the video.
Consumers can now easily access full details on the products without disengaging with the marketing material or video content. The product details embedded into Smartzer’s side drawers in the video overlay shows the viewer the exact contents of each parcel, prices, discounts and is offered the option to ‘BUY NOW’. This streamlines the shopping process and is one of the tech & design elements built into Smartzer’s unique interactive video overlay tech that supercharges engagement and click-through rates.
(Feeluique's shoppable video powered by Smartzer as it sits on their Christmas homepage)
Smartzer and Interactive beauty videos
Smartzer has in the past worked with numerous beauty brands and retailers, and have had great successes in increasing sales through the optimisation and creation of clickable video content for clients. Household names such as Sephora, NARS and Jo Malone have also partnered with Smartzer to increase engagement with their consumers and to monetise video content.
Data as a driver
The data collected by Smartzer’s smart video overlay informs clients of the traffic on their video, click through rates, view through rates, best performing products, and collects a wider array of analytics from all consumers from the moment the video goes live. Whether it be through the brand website, Facebook, Instagram story or in an ad online, Smartzer enhanced interactive videos are a valuable asset for data collection to inform on future and current marketing projects.
The Sephora campaign which has now concluded provides interesting insight into the value provided by Smarter’s video overlay and shoppable functionalities. The client’s animated product videos were made shoppable with Smartzer tech and the design highly customers, perfected to blend seamlessly with the Sephora website UX. Displayed across the French, Spanish, Italian and Polish regional websites the detailed analytics collected provide valuable insight into the successful increase to consumer engagement and monetisation of video content through Smartzer optimisation.
Increased CTA clicks, click-through rates and engagement through shoppable video
The Sephora clickable video campaign had the following results :
34% CTA click rate. CTA was titled ‘ADD TO CART’
9.2% Click-through rate
46.5% Interaction rate