Creativity driven by automation.
SIXT uses artificial intelligence to deliver highly relevant content to its diverse audience.
More time to be creative thanks to AI
Products:
Objectives
Create personalized, tailored content to support a successful communication strategy
Meet increasing demand for video as part of marketing and customer engagement efforts
Increase creative output of the design team while freeing time to experiment with new ideas
Results
SIXT delivers purpose-fit customer communications: Content is adapted to the requirements of each channel, giving customers real added value
AI and process automation enable a small team to create more content in less time
Customized communications call for creativity
SIXT SE based in Pullach near Munich offers a wide range of products — from removal vans and flexible car-sharing offerings to high-class rental cars, including chauffeur services. All of this is offered to a diverse audience across more than 110 countries.
As a leading provider of high-quality mobility services, SIXT knows: A modern communication strategy relies on tailored creative communications, delivered at the right time via the right channel. But that doesn’t mean that customers should expect a scattered product landscape. Students, business customers, and vacationers alike can book all products — from SIXT rent and SIXT share to SIXT ride and SIXT+ — using a single, flexible app.
In the office or on the go: Cloud-based tools are always at your fingertips
In social media, at train stations, or at large business events: Images grab people’s attention. Moving images even more so. SIXT knows this too, so established its own motion design team to quickly and flexibly produce tailored video content for brand communications. To deliver high-quality video content asap to colleagues worldwide, it is essential that both the team and their video and design tools work totally in sync.
The cloud-based structure of Adobe Creative Cloud enables multiple team members to work on the same project or document at the same time. According to Angelika Schneider, Executive Creative Director Motion Design SIXT, Creative Cloud tools make collaborative tasks much easier: “A typical project workflow in our team consists of my colleague cutting footage in Premiere Pro, while I create animations in After Effects. Later we just bring it all together — thanks to the smooth integration between the two applications. This makes collaborative tasks so much easier, both within our team and with other teams.”
The Creative Cloud mobile apps offer even more benefits: Angelika’s team can work on projects anywhere at any time. If necessary, they can make last-minute changes on the go — even on a plane to Marrakesh. “That was a very exciting project,” Angelika says. “We were working on a charity concert with many famous arias, like Romeo and Juliet or Salomé. And for a long time, we did not know if the event would take place at our venue of choice — an amphitheater in Marrakesh. When we finally got the approval, I had to be quick: On the plane to Marrakesh I designed the backgrounds for Romeo and Juliet in Adobe Draw on my tablet. Thanks to the cloud-based structure of the Adobe applications, I was able to open my drawing directly on my desktop.”
Automation drives creativity
Tools that interact seamlessly with each other simplify workflows tremendously. But the increasing demand for multi-channel video content requires more output in less time. Enter artificial intelligence (AI) and process automation: Adobe’s AI and machine learning framework, called Adobe Sensei, is embedded in almost all Creative Cloud applications, from Photoshop to Illustrator and Premiere Pro. Photoshop, for instance, can crop images automatically with utmost precision — including the tiniest details such as wavy hair. The Auto Reframe feature automatically adjusts video content to different aspect ratios, such as those used on social media.
“I often hear from peers that they fear artificial intelligence will one day render our services superfluous. I believe the opposite is the case: AI will take on the redundant and time-consuming routine tasks that creative pros are seldom keen on,” says Angelika. “AI is good news for creative teams: They gain more time to be truly creative and to develop new and exciting projects.”
“I often hear from peers that they fear artificial intelligence will one day render our services superfluous. I believe the opposite is the case: AI will take on the redundant and time-consuming routine tasks that creative pros are seldom keen on. AI is good news for creative teams: They gain more time to be truly creative and to develop new and exciting projects.”
Angelika Schneider
Executive Creative Director Motion Design, SIXT
Automated creative workflows offer business benefits, too. For example, a company needs a constant feed of content for large LED screens. This can be quite costly. While technology prices may be declining, the continuous production of content ties up staff, which in turn drives up costs. These challenges can be solved using a digital signage system.
“Displays set up in public spaces always have to show up-to-date content to ensure that they really do generate added value for the company. At present, this requirement exceeds our department’s capabilities,” Angelika says. “We plan to give AI access to a digital asset management system. The AI will then prepare and broadcast targeted animated content in real time based on existing real-time data. Thus, a task that our five-person team currently cannot manage could be done almost with a wave of the hand.”
Each channel has its own rules
Not all video content works well on all screens. “The first thing I usually ask when somebody proposes a new video project is: Where is the video to be broadcast? Who is the target audience? A short sales clip for LinkedIn poses very different requirements from those of a video for a trade fair,” Angelika explains. “Therefore, we go by the ‘purpose-fit’ rule: Videos are not just tailored to the destination channel, but also to the targeted audience.”
SIXT’s biggest takeaway: “The automatic customization of video sequences works well,” Angelika explains. “We can capture a generic sequence showing a car driving across the screen, for instance, and then track the logo on the vehicle, and apply expressions to the image layer in After Effects. This enables us to replace the existing logo with any of our customers’ logos. We can thus provide our customers a more personalized product — which is much appreciated.”
“AI, automation, and collaborative workflows are the future of motion design.”
Angelika Schneider
Executive Creative Director Motion Design, SIXT
Moving forward
Angelika wants to rely even more on automation in the future to reduce her team’s workload and allow the designers to spend more time creating. In addition, a plan is in place to deploy Creative Cloud Libraries throughout the entire company, providing access to logos, fonts and colors for all employees — including those who do not work with Creative Cloud applications, but need to create a PowerPoint presentation or business letter. User can access assets stored in Creative Cloud libraries without leaving their Microsoft applications. Libraries help ensure consistent design and reduce the creative team’s workload even more.
“AI, automation, and collaborative workflows are the future of motion design,” says Angelika.
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