Creating a new video

Scene Settings dialog

Under Add video, you can go to the video file that you want. Communicate uploads the video, then displays it as a thumbnail. You can repeat for a number of videos, and all the thumbnails appear below.

For the first scene, choose the thumbnail of the video that you want and click it. The video will appear in the screen at the left, like this:

The video for Scene 1 is now in place. You can set the video clip volume as a percentage of the volume of the imported video.

Scene Duration

Use the dropdown Adjust Scene Duration to to specify the scene duration. The available options are:

• Clip length: sets the scene duration to the duration of the video clip (the default setting).
• Custom length: sets the scene duration to a specified number of seconds. The minimum is 5 seconds and the maximum is the clip length.
• Voiceover length: this option is only displayed if the video has a voiceover, and sets the scene duration to the voiceover length.

Scene Transition

Scene Transition is a toggle switch that allows you to select or unselect Scene Transition for this scene. When Scene Transition is selected, a black fade out effect is added at the end of this scene and a corresponding fade in effect at the beginning of the next scene (if there is a next scene). Both fade out and fade in effects are 500ms long. By default, Scene Transition is selected.

Using the Logic tab to apply conditions

The Logic tab is shown in the Scene Settings dialog for each scene. It looks like this:

This tab is used for applying conditional rules to the scene. The scene will only be included if the specified conditions are met. The conditions use Custom Fields in the specified data source, or System Fields available regardless of data source.

For details of how to create conditions, see Applying conditions. Note that the only System Fields available for video scenes relate to date and time.

Adding a new scene

To add another scene, click the + button at the bottom left.

To edit the video settings, or replace a video with another video, click the video icon .

Configuration

This section allows you to:

• Define an action that the user can take while playing the video.
• Specify the Landing Page for the video.
• Embed the video on your website.

Click Configuration. The following screen is displayed:

Actions

Click + Add Action to create a new action. The following window is displayed.

Enter the following information:

• Name - the name of the action.
• Type -t the type of action. (Currently only Send Email is available.)
• Unlimited Executions. By default, this is set, meaning that the user can take this action on this video element an unlimited number of times. If you deselect it, you will be prompted to enter the maximum number of executions per element (the default is 1).
• Communication. Select the communication name in which this action is included.
• Recipient. The email address of the recipient of the action email. This can include personalization (click the box at the right; see Personalizing communications for more information).
• Email sender. The sender email address for the action email.
• Subject. The subject of the action email.
• Sender Name. The name of the sender for the action email.
• Campaign. The name of the campaign to which the video communication belongs.

Once complete, click Save. The action is stored and the option of sending this email is available to the user when watching the video.

If you want to delete an action and it is in use, you will be asked if you want to unassign it from all trigger points, then save the communication (including all unsaved changes). Click Yes to proceed or No to cancel.

Player Settings

Allows you to hide the timeline progress bar and/or the video time duration.

Landing Page

This allows you to specify the Landing Page for your video.

To use a custom landing page, you must first select the button Use Custom Landing Page. This opens up the rest of the tab so that you can create a custom landing page.

Specify the following to define the landing page:

• Background color.
• Logo - will be displayed in the top center of the landing page.
• Alt text - text that will be displayed if the logo does not exist or cannot load properly.
• Link - the link that is followed when the user clicks the logo.
• Footer text. This can include personalization (based on a data source) and links. You can also set the color.

If you want this page to be the default landing page for this project, select the box called Save as default project landing page.

To see the custom landing page in a new communication, you must first save it (in Preview, only an example landing page will be visible).

Fallback page

When the user views the video with the link created in step 2, they will see the fallback page.

Default setting

The default setting for new video PURLs is with the button Use Custom Landing Page set to off. However, all videos created before this button was introduced will have the button set to on by default.

Embed Video

Embed the video on your website. For more information, see Embed Video for details.

Additional enhancements

Once you have added a video, click Done, and you can then make the following enhancements:

• Add a title. By default, the text "Add a Title" and "Add a subtitle" is included. You should edit this, and if necessary change the font, text size and color. Alternatively, you can remove the text altogether. You can use personalization within this text, in the same way as for emails and documents. If you move a text box around, a vertical red line will appear when it is centered.
• Add a voiceover. See Voiceovers.
• Add a simple text box overlay. Drag the Text button to the left side and drop it where required. This is a non-interactive text box, similar to those that can be added to Email or Document communications.
• Add a background or foreground image overlay. Drag the Image button to the left side and drop in either the inner area (for a foreground image) or the outer area (for a background image).
• Add a dropdown overlay, with different options for the user to select.
  Note: If you add a dropdown overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added. For more information, see Submit button for form overlay.
• Add an interactive text box overlay. You can insert an interactive text box within the video display area by dragging the Text Box button (found under Interaction) to the left and dropping where required. For more information, see Interactive Text Boxes.
  Note: If you add an interactive text box overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added. For more information, see Submit button for form overlay.
• Add a button overlay. You can add a button within the video display area. The text, font and background are editable, and you can add a link to a URL or to a specified scene of this video. For more information, see Buttons.
• Add a check box overlay. You can edit the text that goes with the box, and change its font and color.
  Note: If you add a checkbox overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added by Communicate. For more information, see Submit button for form overlay.

Managing overlays

For information about how to manage overlays, see Managing overlays.

Contacts tab

This allows you to add personalization to the video using data from a Data Source. See Data Sources for how to create a Data Source. After importing a Data Source, the fields in that source appear as Data Fields when you select Add personalization.

Music tab

This tab allows you to specify music to accompany the video. You can either make a selection from the pre-populated dropdown list, or you can specify your own audio file.