What if Albert Einstein taught you online physics classes or Newton explained the laws of gravity? Sounds exciting, right? Deepfake has the potential to replace the “what if” of the above question with a positive YES. It’s possible to simulate videos of anyone talking and bring the loved ones back to life with their videos. But wait, deepfake is much more than that. Deepfake, when properly utilized, can help brands up their marketing game and bring in more sales and revenue.
What exactly is deepfake and why is it called so?
Courtesy: David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Deepfake is nothing but a portmanteau of two words “deep learning” and “fake”. It’s the 21st century’s extended or advanced photoshopping technology using a form of artificial intelligence called deep learning to make manipulate images, audio, and videos from scratch or swap faces in videos and digital content to make them look eerily realistic. They make the video’s subject seem as if they are saying words that they haven’t actually spoken. In the past, these videos could only be made by professional special-effect video editors. But now, with synthetic video generation platforms like DeepWord, making a convincing deepfake is easy and fast. And how’s that possible?
How does a deepfake technology work?
There are several techniques for creating deepfake videos and images, but the most common use deep neural networks of autoencoders and GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks) that employ a face-swapping technique. The deep learning algorithms teach themselves how to solve problems when a large set of data is given. The same strategy is used to swap faces in the video and digital content where a target video is used as the basis of the deepfake and then a collection of video clips or images of the person you want to insert inside the target video is fed into the neural network.
The autoencoders study the video clips and images from various angles and environmental conditions and then map that person onto the individual in the target video. The GANs detect and improve any flaws with multiple rounds until accurate results are obtained.
What are the benefits of deepfake technology?
Deepfake technology is just in its nascent stages and it’ll take time to realize its full potential. The ability to automatically swap faces or make the actor speak any text in your language has some interesting applications.
Reduced costs
You might be aware of the costs needed to produce video content. From buying equipment and camera to hiring studios and actors, it’s nearly impossible to create videos if you don’t have a big budget. However, with deepfake, you can create videos easily without having to spend on anything. It’s easy and your video is ready in minutes helping you reduce your marketing budget spend. Recycling old footage audio or text to create synthetic videos can be used as nostalgia marketing campaigns that can help brands pull a lot of new emotional customers to their side. Deepfake for content generation is a cost-effective solution and has a strong role in the future of marketing.
Localization
Read any article on deepfake and you’ll definitely find the mention of David Beckham’s anti-malaria message in nine languages. The deepfake technology makes it possible for actors, celebrities, influencers, or anybody to speak in as many languages as they need eliminating the need to recruit dubbing artists or pay license fees. All you need to do is purchase a license for an actor’s identity and use it to create a limitless amount of content. Deepfake allows for instant vocalization from English to any other foreign language. It makes it easier for companies to reach more people.
Personalization
Brands can use deepfakes in marketing practices to create hyper-personalized experiences for consumers. Brands are also experimenting with live marketing or event marketing to connect directly with customers. For example, a fashion platform can use deepfake to swap the customer’s face onto the model’s face to help customers see how a dress looks on them. A cosmetics company can swap the model to a consumer’s face to encourage them to see how lipsticks or hair colors suit them. A study shows that 80% are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer consumers personalized experiences.
Soon, we might be scanning for deepfake videos to see ourselves shopping for clothes, cosmetics, and lifestyle products on online platforms. Next, we might see our faces on sponsored target ads for products running all over Google’s associated websites! Deepfake technology, undeniably, has great future prospects in personalization and it is a matter of time before we begin to see results.
Scaled solutions
It’s easy to say personalized marketing, but brands find it challenging to create such videos in bulk. This is where deepfake technology steps in. Email campaigns for brands are effective when they segment users and create personalized videos for each segment. With DeepWord, you take it a few notches higher. You can input a person’s name, designation, or location for your ad text and the output video will fetch each of the parameters from your CRM list. This is the finest example of personalization at scale. Imagine each customer getting a personalized video email with their name in the greetings. That is the power of deepfake.
Where can you use deepfake technology?
While everyone has been talking about scams and fakes, let’s get to the brighter side of this amazing technology and see which sectors can reap its benefits.
1. Art
Deepfakes have been widely used in art applications to make video content more engaging. It also makes the tasks simple for the crew to change the dialogue or insert portions that are left out. You don’t have to go back and reshoot the entire scene if something is needed later. Technicians work day and night using advanced technologies to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. Deepfake helps to a great extent to bring an artist’s imagination to the screen.
Using deepfake technology, a video where Mona Lisa moves her eyes, head, and mouth has been created. The Dali Museum in Florida has resurrected the Catalan artist Dali as a charismatic host to give information to the visitors on the artworks displayed there.
2. Corporate training
Deepfake has been extensively used to create training videos both for the corporate and education sectors. It has been a boon, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, as creating video shoots involving real people was challenging to make. Corporate training videos or onboarding videos for new joiners can be created to instruct or educate the staff about their roles and responsibilities and about the workplace standards and procedures.
3. Real estate
Virtual house tours are more of a convenience in today’s fast-paced life. Real estate agents can add a new dimension to their business by overlaying their faces on a video and speaking to their clients explaining to them the property benefits as they take them on a guided home tour.
4. Health industry
he benefits of using deepfake technology in the health sector are immense. For people with difficulties in speaking and hearing, synthetic text to audio or video helps them to communicate and become independent. Innovations are going on in deepfake technology to help the visually impaired navigate places both in the virtual and real world. AI-generated synthetic media can also be used to provide personalized assistance navigation for pedestrian travel.
More specifically, the technology may create fictitious patients whose data can be used in studies. This preserves patient privacy and liberty while yet giving researchers useful information. Another benefit is in making Video instructions of doctors speaking to patients as per their medical needs. It works wonders in clear communication and better interaction.
5. Education
Millions and zillions of educational content in text formats can be automatically translated to video formats using deepfake tech. So, it’s easy to create an avatar teacher and use AI to produce academic videos. These professional-level lecture clips save a studio’s worth of equipment and even significant time to transfer, edit, and upload footage of each lesson.
6. Sales and marketing
A popular and perfect example of deepfake advertising is the football star, David Beckham delivering an anti-malaria message in nine languages. Deepfake made the advertising task easy and delivered the message right across the globe to different countries using the power of influencer marketing.
Imagine the extent of influence a deepfake video may have if used rightly for advertising and marketing! Deepfake technology can also be used to send personalized videos to sales prospects or existing customers. And it makes for an interesting strategy because 72% of the people respond to messages aimed directly at them. Including a personalized video in an email increase the click-through rate by up to 200%. And such emails aren’t limited to cold-outreach campaigns, but also to re-engage existing customers.
Deepfake technology has ample benefits in advertising and marketing. It allows small businesses to create custom ads through their website, where they can share basic information about their services. It not only cuts down the costs but will enable brands to stretch their marketing budgets and makes it easier to enter foreign markets.
Concluding Thoughts
Many deepfake projects have exemplified positive business impacts where marketing is concerned. The technology has an excellent capability as a communication tool and it can be used across social media channels and the internet as a part of the acquisition and retention of the customer journey.
DeepWord, an AI video synthesizer platform, helps businesses, big and small, create deepfake videos and convey an immersive marketing experience for brands. It’s a good start to providing a hyper-personalized experience for your customers. Are you game on for it?
FAQs
Yes, there are many platforms available to make deepfake videos for your business and marketing. The most popular software is DeepWord through which you can create and personalize AI videos at scale.
It takes up to 2-5 hours to make a deepfake video. If you have to just lip sync any avatar for input audio or text, it is simple and is ready within minutes.
Yes, there are many platforms that allow the creation of free deepfake videos. For instance, DeepWord allows you to create up to 2-minute length videos for free. You can also use 4 video actors or avatars for your video.
No, it’s not illegal to create deepfake videos and share them on your social media or use them for your branding and advertising purposes. But political deepfake videos within 60 days of the election are illegal in the U.S. Also, do not misuse any deepfake platforms to create videos for malicious activity and the formulation of disinformation.
