Technical Considerations when Adding a Virtual Spokesperson to Your Website

Considering adding a virtual spokesperson to your website? Adding a virtual spokesperson to your site can add a whole new level of interactivity and personalization to your website. However, you may be wondering what’s involved or if your site meets the requirements for adding video overlays.

Shooting Video Overlays

If you’ve ever seen a video spokesperson walk onto a website, you’ll notice that only the actor appears; there’s no distracting background and the actor isn’t confined to a media player’s box. In fact, the actor looks as if he is part of the website. In order to create this effect, the original video must be shot in front of a “green screen.” This technology is the similar to the technology used by television stations. For example, when the weather forecaster appears in front of a weather map or satellite image, he is actually standing in front of a bright green wall. Inside the control room, a technician filters out the green color and replaces it with the background images.

When shooting a video spokesperson, the actor performs in front of a green screen just as television weather forecasters do. The green background is removed so that only the actor’s body appears. All background video is rendered transparent, giving the illusion that the video spokesperson is a part of the website’s overall design.

Because the background color, usually a bright green, are filtered out, it’s important that the actor does not wear clothes, jewelry, and other accessories featuring that same shade of green. Otherwise, those items will disappear along with the background. Professional actors and video studio staff members are well aware of this effect and know to avoid it. However, if you want to appear as your site’s own virtual spokesperson, it’s important to be aware of this before your scheduled video shoot date.

Hosting Video Overlays

Fortunately, the technology required to host a virtual spokesperson on your site doesn’t require much technical tweaking on your end. If you have a live website, chances are good that it is fully capable of hosting a virtual spokesperson. In fact, most virtual spokesmodel videos are hosted on the video production company’s website, not yours. All you need to do is enter a line or two of code into your website and the production company takes care of the rest.

Some video spokesperson production companies allow you to host the video overlays on your own or through a third party host. Before you opt to host the video elsewhere, make sure to find out about video streaming and bandwidth requirements because if the server doesn’t have enough bandwidth to support the video overlay, the streaming video could suffer through pauses and other interruptions.

All in all, if you want to incorporate a virtual spokesperson into your website, going with a professional video company from start to finish is the smart move. You’ll have few technical considerations and you’ll have a lively, interactive spokesperson working on your behalf 24/7.

The Mechanics of Video Spokesperson Production

Adding a video spokesperson to your website requires a basic understanding of the video production process. After all, a video spokesperson needs a script to follow and must be filmed and edited. In general video production is broken down into three stages: pre-production, production, and post-production.

Video Spokesperson Pre-Production Tasks

Think of pre-production as the planning stage of the video production process. During this time, you’ll need to: consider how you’ll use the video spokesperson throughout your website, write the script, cast the virtual spokesmodel, and schedule production.

  • Planning the virtual spokesperson’s role – A successful video spokesperson implementation begins with a plan. Where will your virtual spokesperson appear on your site? What will she talk about? What type of person should play the role? Which demographic will you try to reach?
  • Writing the script – Once you understand the video spokesperson’s role, it’s time to write the script. You’ll use a portion of the script during auditions and then later during filming.
  • Casting the video spokesperson – If you are not planning on being on camera yourself, you’ll need to find an actor to fill the role. Many video production companies have demo reels of local video spokesmodels that you can view or you can hold open auditions.

Video Spokesperson Production Tasks

Once the plans have been made, the script written, and the talent hired, it’s time to move into the production stage of the process.

  • Lighting, staging, and sound – Filming should take place in a video production studio where you’ll have full control over lighting, staging, and sound. Virtual spokesmodels are typically filmed in front of a green screen which is later filtered out of the shot, allowing the video spokesperson to appear as an overlay on your website without distracting backgrounds.
  • Rehearsals – While many video spokespeople will prepare for the shoot on their own time, allow plenty of time before shooting begins to rehearse the script and fine-tune its delivery.
  • Filming the video spokesperson – Finally, cameras roll and filming begins. It may take several takes before everyone is satisfied with the delivery. Even if the video spokesperson delivers a flawless delivery the first time, shoot several additional takes as a backup.

Video Spokesperson Post-Production Tasks

Now that filming is complete, it’s time to head into the editing room to select the best scenes and complete the production. If you’re paying for editing time by the hour, view the videos at your own location and take extensive notes so that you can limit the amount of time spent in the editing bay.

  • Editing the video – You’ll work with a video editor to select the best scenes and piece them together.
  • Overlaying the video onto the website – Once the video spokesperson’s scenes have been selected and edited, the video production company will package the video for your website. On your end, you’ll simply need to copy and paste a line or two of code into your website. Once the code is embedded, your virtual spokesmodel will appear on your website.

Like any video production, adding a virtual spokesperson to your website involves pre-production, production, and post-production tasks. Hiring a reliable, professional video production company ensures your success.

Web Usability and Eye Tracking: Location Really Does Matter

In the offline world, “location, location, location” is a common mantra. The same is true online. Where you place your most important messages, calls to action, video spokesperson, and other elements really does matter. This is due to how users interact with their computer screens.

Think about this for a moment from a Web user’s point of view. When you encounter a webpage for the first time, you don’t know much about it, right? You’ll quickly scan, from left to right (the way you were taught to read) in search of clues. Clues usually appear in the form of titles, headings, subheadings, and bulleted lists. These items tell you the page’s general focus. While your own experiences give you a general sense of how users view the Web, eye-tracking studies have demonstrated it.

In the Yahoo! Style Guide, Yahoo! discusses its own eye-tracking studies. Yahoo! concludes that there’s a general pattern to how people browse webpages:

  • First, users scan a page’s main sections to understand what the page is about and decide whether or not to stay on that page.
  • Users make decisions about the page within three seconds of viewing it
  • Users that stay on the page pay the most attention to the information located in the top part of the screen, typically the upper left corner.

Yahoo!’s eye-tracking studies and resulting heat map show that users tend to focus on a triangular section in the upper left corner of the screen. This upper left corner is prime real estate for your site’s most important content. Go to any Yahoo! page and see how Yahoo! puts this knowledge to work. For example, on the Yahoo! Personal Finance page, the Home and Investing tabs are located in this corner as are its most important categories (Banking & Budgeting, Career & Work, Family & Home, Insurance, Loans, Real Estate, Retirement, and Taxes). Less important information such as the date, “word of the day,” advertisements, and Yahoo! Answers appear elsewhere on the page.

In addition to the upper left corner of the screen, there’s another crucial piece of real estate: the area “above the fold.” Like a newspaper folded in half, the top section of a website, the section before it becomes necessary to scroll for more content, is extremely important. While users have become accustomed to scrolling, that first screen impression should contain the page’s most important element.

For example, if you want to feature a high-impact marketing video on a webpage, and that video is the most important element of the page, it should be located “above the fold.” A long textual introduction, advertisements, graphics, and other elements above the video could potentially push the video below the fold, leading to fewer views and poor results.

Location, location, location is a mantra that all Web property owners should adopt. What’s in the upper left corner of your website? What are you featuring above the fold? Share your thoughts and ideas with us!

Should You Use Multiple Video Spokespeople on Your Website?

By now, you’ve likely encountered a video spokesperson on a website. Video and Web technology have blended to create a welcoming video presence on websites. While one virtual spokesmodel appearing on a website is fresh and innovative, would two be even better?

It’s something to consider. For example, morning news programs regularly use co-anchors to add banter and different perspectives to their programs. These same concepts can be transferred to the Web. As with adding a single virtual spokesperson to your website, you’ll want to carefully consider the actors, the script, and whether or not your site lends itself to co-spokespeople.

What types of sites lend themselves to having two video spokespeople? Let’s say that you and a partner run a real estate business and have built a brand around your partnership. Your photos appear on your business cards and signs and the two of you appear together in local advertisements. In this case, having both of you appear as virtual spokespeople on your website remains true to your brand. You could walk onto the website from the left and your partner could walk onto the site from the right. You could appear side-by-side near the top of the screen. You could “interview” each other as you relay information important to your site’s visitors. You could position yourself as the expert in one category and your partner as the expert in another category. You could appeal to one demographic while your partner appeals to another. . . the possibilities are endless.

Another type of site that could benefit from having two virtual spokespeople would be a website that has distinct segments. For example, a website that covers the latest mortgage and auto insurance news might want a female virtual spokesperson for the mortgage content and a male virtual spokesperson for the auto insurance content.

If you’re considering a co-video spokesperson strategy, speak with your video production team. Just as you’ll need a solid plan for incorporating a single video spokesperson into your site, you’ll need even more planning when incorporating two spokespeople. Will they appear together? Will they provide light banter before digging deeper? Will they have a similar appearance or do you want contrast? Will the video spokespeople be peers (such as two coaches) or will one be more authoritative (like a coach and a trainee) than the other? Should one always appear on the left while the other always appears on the right?

Keep in mind that having two video spokespeople will likely cost more than having just one. After all, there are two actors to hire, not one, and additional scripts to write. If you and a partner are playing the roles, it may take more time in the studio before you both are satisfied.

Having two video spokespeople appear on a website can make perfect sense for some websites. When done correctly, doing so can also make for a unique user experience and set your site apart from others.