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How to use AI video generation to scale your digital marketing campaign
Every marketer knows that content needs to capture the audience’s attention quickly – often in a matter of seconds, if not microseconds. When it comes to busy social media feeds, one useful tool is video: something fast-paced and exciting to draw users in. But realistically, a lot of modern marketing teams consist of just one person and many, many hats to wear. Creating engaging video content requires time and expertise that a lot of us simply don’t have. In steps Adobe Firefly: a creative aid that will produce video content for you in a matter of minutes.
About Adobe Firefly
Firefly is Adobe’s answer to generative AI for content creators: use it to quickly develop images, video, audio and other creative work. Like most similar tools, it uses a simple chat interface where you can enter your prompt and then chat further to develop the output. Create content from scratch or use Firefly to edit existing images.
You can try it out for free, but to do anything substantial you’ll need one of the paid plans. For this tutorial, we used a free trial of the standard Adobe Firefly subscription, which gives you seven days to test it out before making a commitment.
Getting started
All you’ll need to get started is access to Adobe Firefly and a killer idea for your marketing campaign. From the Adobe home page, navigate to Firefly using the menu across the top of the page. This will open up the Firefly home screen, with an invitation to ‘Create anything.’
Use the menu on the left of the screen to select video and then hit the generate video button in the centre. There are also edit video options available here, if you have existing content that you’d like to work on.
Generating your content
The video generator has a prominent prompt box at the bottom of the screen, and this is where you’ll want to focus most of your attention. AI tools need clear instructions and plenty of information to work effectively, so think carefully about what you want to see and how you should describe it.
Adobe Firefly is designed to create short snippets of video, so a simple idea is likely to give better results. This is no bad thing – simple ideas can be particularly striking and help to keep your campaign focused.
Down the left-hand side of the screen are a few different toggles and tools to help you get the content you need:
Model: Choosing the right AI model is particularly important, as each one has a different approach to training and licensing. The options include a range of partner models, as well as Adobe’s native Firefly Video. Adobe labels Firefly Video as commercially safe, and you can read more on the site about how the company trains the model. Partner models may have different licensing terms, so it's up to you to check they're appropriate for your intended use.
General settings: All the expected options show up here, including resolution, aspect ratio, frames per second, video length (4, 6 or 8 seconds), and whether you would like audio generated to accompany the clip.
References: There’s also space to upload frames or reference images that will enhance your video. From our experience, this is an essential part of the process: a reference image is the easiest way to get more information to Firefly about the look and feel that you want, including key details such as colour palette and art style.
When you’re happy with the settings, hit generate in the bottom right-hand corner and let Firefly work its magic. The time this takes will vary, but in all our tests the first video was ready in well under ten minutes.
Refining the video
Once the video is ready, you can click across to the edit tab to start making changes. Do this by describing the changes you would like to see – as before, the more specific you can be the better. The AI editor is best for making small changes to the video content; if you want substantial edits, it might be easier to start from scratch.
Editing is a premium feature, taking around 400 credits for each round of edits. On the plan we signed up for you get 2,000 credits to play with, so think carefully about the changes you want to make and, where possible, describe the full set of changes in one prompt rather than starting a back-and-forth dialogue.
One of our test videos, created using a flyer as a reference image.
Taking it further
Happy with what’s been produced? You can customize the results further and add your own brand identity by making manual edits. Hover over the video within the edit tab, and a modify button will appear in the top left corner. Clicking on this will bring up the option to ‘take it further’ by opening the video in either Premier Desktop or the Firefly Video Editor.
The Firefly editor is simple, but for quick and dirty marketing collateral it probably offers everything you need, including adding text or images, changing transitions and making basic adjustments such as speed and audio. You can also add your own media, for instance a title image or credits frame.
Sharing the video
Another example from our test-run.
Ready to put your creation out into the world? Simply click download in the top right corner, choose your resolution and video quality, and then select download video. You’ll get an MP4 file ready to use across your marketing channels.
Quick tips for marketers
- Write your prompt like it’s a creative brief. Generative AI can feel like a mind-reader sometimes, but realistically it needs good input to get you the right results.
- Use reference materials wherever possible. Whether it’s existing marketing collateral or a simple colour palette, reference material will help you personalize your video and give it a feel that fits your brand.
- Think about sets of videos rather than single clips. A great campaign will be made up of multiple variations on the same idea – so how can you take your concept and spin multiple pieces of content from it? To maintain the same look and feel between videos, you can use the seed number. This will appear under advanced settings when you create your first video and can be copied and pasted into future videos to recreate the same style.
- Always check the output carefully. AI isn’t infallible, so look out for anything that seems warped or jarring, like visual glitches, blurred text or inconsistent motion.