Sophisticated tools for advancements in content types and formats

The way people consume content has changed dramatically in recent years. From lengthy blog posts and YouTube videos, to short-form TikToks and Reels, to quizzes and augmented reality (AR) that offer a more participatory experience—audiences today demand engaging and visually compelling content. 

More importantly, they require a variety of content because no single type of content will  appeal to everyone. Trends, demographics, and personal preferences all affect different audience segments’ preferred content formats. 

In response, brands are shifting away from traditional forms of marketing and doubling down on digital content, and with good reason. 

According to recent data, content marketing is not only more cost-effective but also significantly more impactful. It costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads per dollar spent. This has fueled a massive industry boom, with the content marketing sector expected to grow from $400 billion today to nearly $900 billion by 2028.

However, creating, managing, and distributing these diverse content formats can be challenging. This is where Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions like Wedia come in. By centralizing assets, streamlining content production workflows, and offering automation features, DAMs make it easier for brands to meet the demands of today’s varied content landscape.

Let’s take a closer look at some of these content formats in more detail and how technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and DAM support these innovations.

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Automation and AI in Content Creation

As the demand for dynamic content grows, automation and AI are becoming indispensable tools in content creation. According to Hubspot, 22% of marketers use generative AI in content creation to find ideas and inspiration, 20% to write marketing copy, and 20% to create images. These technologies speed up production and enable content creation at scale.

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Popular AI Tools For Marketers 

The most popular kinds of AI tools for marketers today are Chatbots like ChatGPT, Copilot AI, Gemini, and Claud. With the right prompts, these are easy and fast to use for marketers of all backgrounds and skill sets. Then there are tools for more advanced content production tasks such as Midjourney for image production, ElevenLabs for voice reproduction, and Opus Clip for video repurposing.

AI democratizes the content creation process and makes light work of labor-intensive tasks, empowering brands to produce a larger volume of high-quality content in less time. It also helps to prevent writer's block and inspire creativity by analyzing data on trending topics and successful content formats and suggesting new ideas that have high engagement potential.  

Wedia’s DAM platform incorporates AI-driven automation that can streamline asset tagging, metadata generation, and content search. For example, Wedia uses AI to automatically generate relevant metadata and tags for new assets uploaded into the system, saving time and making it easier to organize, retrieve, and deploy content across multiple channels.

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Brands Utilizing AI

A leading example of AI in content creation is Coca-Cola, which has experimented with AI-generated ads. By using AI to analyze consumer data, Coca-Cola was able to create personalized advertisements that resonate more deeply with different segments of their audience. 

The result is the advert ‘Masterpiece’. Created in collaboration with OpenAI using their DALL-E2 generative image model and ChatGPT, the video brings to life some of the world’s most famous works of art, seamlessly integrating AI-augmented animation with live action.

Another example is The Washington Post’s use of an AI tool called Heliograf, which automatically generates news stories on topics such as sports and finance, allowing the publication to cover a broader range of topics more efficiently.

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Interactive and Immersive Content: The Future of Engagement

Interactive and immersive content formats like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and 360-degree videos that blend the digital and physical world are radically transforming how brands engage with their customers. 

From immersive VR showrooms to AR try-ons that allow people to visualize how a product will look on them, brands are leveraging cutting-edge tools to offer personalized and highly engaging customer experiences.

A DAM system like Wedia supports advanced content formats by providing centralized storage for 3D models, AR experiences, and VR environments. This ensures that all assets are accessible to the right teams, optimized for the relevant platforms, and can be easily deployed across multiple channels.

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Virtual Try-Ons and Enhanced Product Visualization

One of the most compelling uses of AR in the retail space is virtual try-ons. This feature allows customers to visualize how products—such as clothes, accessories, or makeup—would look on them, providing a convenient way to make purchasing decisions without visiting a physical store. Luxury brands like Gucci and Cartier have successfully integrated AR into their apps, allowing users to try on shoes, jewelry, and more in real-time. 

At the end of 2023, Maybelline New York activated the world’s largest AR mirror—43,000 square feet—on the side of Gulliver Mall in Kyiv, Ukraine to promote its Falsies Surreal mascara. For one day, visitors could interact with a kiosk below the screen to virtually try on the mascara while at the same time their reflection appeared on the giant screen above. The activation garnered more than 3 million organic views.

Maybelline New York partnered with Ffface.me, an innovation studio, to create the AR mirror. Ffface.me uses a range of tools including Lens Studio, Unity, Unreal Engine to create immersive experiences for brands like Bershka, Visa, and the aforementioned Maybelline New York.

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Immersive Brand Storytelling and Virtual Showrooms

VR offers brands the ability to create fully immersive environments where customers can explore products and engage with brand stories. In 2024, Porsche announced it was “stepping into mixed reality” combining VR levels of immersion with the ability to orient oneself in real physical space thanks to headsets that have pass-through viewing capability.

These headsets allow customers to view virtual car models from different angles and perspectives, which is much more meaningful than looking at images on a screen. In this immersive setting, sales representatives can easily guide customers by highlighting specific areas of interest, isolating certain parts, or switching to an 'exploded model' view to reveal sections previously hidden. This approach combines the detailed insight of a technical slideshow with the visual impact and interactivity of a physical exhibit.

As one of the presenters said, “the storyline of the content works like a traditional presentation. You have your notes on a virtual billboard that only the host can see, and you click through life-sized, immersive 3D animations that are free from the confines of a screen—you’re standing within the presentation, surrounded by it.”

Wedia enhances immersive storytelling by integrating with platforms such as Fab.com by Epic, Sketchfab.com, and Dassault’s 3D solutions. These integrations provide brands with access to robust 3D asset libraries and management tools that seamlessly connect with specialized VR engines. This streamlined workflow empowers brands to manage their assets effectively, ensuring they can be easily deployed in captivating virtual environments and cutting-edge storytelling experiences.

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Personalization and Virtual Consultations

In addition to enhancing product visualization, AR and VR enable brands to offer personalized experiences. Some luxury brands offer virtual styling sessions, where customers can receive one-on-one consultations, customized product recommendations, and even personalized wardrobe suggestions. 

This level of personalization mimics the in-store experience and helps brands cater to the high expectations of tech-savvy, experience-driven consumers. Tools like ARKit and ARCore further enhance these experiences by providing robust APIs for mobile AR applications, making it easier for brands to create tailored shopping journeys on a customer's smartphone or tablet.

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The Rise of Short-Form Video

When TikTok truly took off during the global pandemic, so did short-form video. More than a fleeting trend, this format has become one of the most popular ways for companies to share educational content and brand storytelling. Not just on TikTok, but on Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube Shorts, too. 

It’s a format that capitalizes on an audience’s short attention span and can be more engaging and immersive than a photograph, making it highly effective for marketing campaigns. According to Hubspot, short-form video delivers the highest ROI compared to other marketing trends. 

With Wedia’s centralized asset library, brands can easily repurpose existing videos for different platforms, ensuring that each version is optimized for the channel it’s published on, whether it’s a 15-second Instagram reel or a 60-second YouTube Short.

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Why Short-Form Content Works

A 2022 Dentsu study on the impact of various ad lengths found that shorter ads were able to drive higher recall and choice uplift from the same number of seconds of viewing time compared to longer ads.

The brevity of short-form content makes it ideal for capturing attention in a crowded digital space—particularly among younger audiences, who value immediate and in-the-moment content. But why is short-form video so good at delivering on this? There’s a few reasons:

1. It takes less effort to engage with compared to other content formats
2. By drawing users into a full-screen visual experience (often with sound on) it offers an incredibly immersive experience
3. The combination of visuals, audio, and sometimes text on screen, engages multiple senses, which can lead to richer information processing

Brands Succeeding with Short-Form Video

Never a brand to take itself too seriously, Chipotle tapped into the popularity of user-generated content (UGC) to create a short-form video with content creators, @cheekyboyos. As one of their target audiences is young college students looking for affordable, this was the perfect collaboration to resonate with that category. Offering fantastic ROI, UGC is a great format to incorporate into your content strategy.

Here’s another example from Chipotle, featuring employee Grace. In the video she builds her go-to order. Featuring the people who actually work at the company is a fantastic way to build trust with customers. This style of video—captured on a phone—is far more authentic than a highly-produced and professionally shot brand video. 

But it’s not just cheeky brands that are winning with short-form video. API and automation company, Zapier, shares regular TikToks that dig into the endless possibilities of the platform with videos like ‘How to build real AI assistants’ and ‘How to make an AI content generator’. They’re simple, no-frills videos featuring people who work at Zapier talking face-to-camera about how to use certain features. This approach works really well for the brand, with videos regularly generating tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of views.

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The Role of DAM in Supporting Content Innovation

As content formats evolve, a powerful DAM system like Wedia is essential for managing, creating, and distributing cutting-edge content. Wedia enables brands to innovate with AI-driven content management, automated workflows, multi-channel distribution, and performance insights. 

By streamlining processes and supporting diverse formats like AR, VR, and short-form video, Wedia helps brands stay competitive and deliver personalized, engaging experiences across platforms.

For more information on how Wedia DAM can help you stay ahead of the content curve, book a demo today.