ST. LOUIS — FleishmanHillard and Wibbitz, the automated video creation company, are partnering to optimize the AI-powered platform for the communications industry.

With the collaboration already in motion, FleishmanHillard’s tech, social and innovation teams are exploring ways to further reach and impact via the short-form videos that Wibbitz creates, said senior VP and partner Ephraim Cohen, who is also general manager of the agency’s New York office.

Wibbitz could enable agencies to use video for social distribution, mobile-friendly press releases and employee communications without incurring the high costs associated with producing video in a studio, he said. “Our interests are developing things that are game-changers for individuals, and for the industry at-large,” Cohen said.

At this point, Wibbitz partners primarily with news and TV outlets — brands like Bloomberg, Forbes and The Weather Channel — that use the platform to create the kind of simple, text-driven video news stories frequently posted on their websites.  

Creating video using Wibbitz starts with writing the text for the video, from which the platform gleans the pertinent information it needs to create a video using relevant images and footage from its bank of content. Wibbitz adds a soundtrack to boot in a process that runs less than seven minutes on-average start-to-finish, according to Wibbitz.

Additionally, making videos with a platform like Wibbitz is quick and easy enough that agencies can customize them to promote products or, say, target different audiences, Cohen said.

“As much as all the firms talk about creating video content, and the importance of it, it is still very manual and very expensive,” he said. "The idea that anyone can create a video acceptable to a news organization is very appealing.”