Through the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Generative AI Accelerator, the company furthered its mission of helping businesses create personalized, high-quality videos at scale.
How did the smallest businesses in India get Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to star in their ads?
Ashray Malhotra (Co-Founder, CEO)
The ads were powered by Rephrase, a company leveraging generative artificial intelligence to create high-quality videos featuring digital avatars. In partnership with Cadbury and in celebration of the holiday Diwali, Rephrase recreated Khan’s face, voice, and mannerisms and enabled people to input the names of local shops so his digital avatar could say them in each video. The campaign, dubbed #NotJustaCadburyAd, went viral spawning more than 130,000 versions of the ad and accruing 94 million views across social media platforms.
Rephrase’s text-to-video technology simplifies and democratizes video production. By using AI to generate realistic digital avatars, Rephrase enables anyone to create professional-quality videos with reduced complexity and cost. The company has built an impressive client list and in 2022, announced a $10.6 million Series A fundraising round.
“Most professionals express their ideas in a document or presentation, but most people typically prefer to consume information by watching a video. Reprase aims to bridge that gap.”
— Ashray Malhotra, Co-Founder, CEO @ Rephrase.ai
To start, Rephrase users select a high-quality standard avatar or create their own, inputting text for the avatar to deliver in the video. The platform even allows marketers to input a blog post, slide deck, or essay into the system to generate a video. Rephrase can be used to deliver messages to employees, personalized marketing campaigns to customers, or to empower teachers to provide training classes to mass audiences.
Historically, video creation can be time consuming and personalization nearly impossible. Rephrase makes it easier to create high-quality video and personalize at scale.
“I really love making films and videos and as an engineer, I am passionate about making that process easier than it is today,” said Malhotra. “If everybody in the world was able to express themselves with high-quality video, it could be a breakthrough in communication.”
Joining the LIFT Labs Accelerator
Marco Chavira (VP)
Rephrase completed the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Generative AI Accelerator to gain insights on working with large enterprise clients in the United States to build on its strong traction in India. The six-week program allowed Rephrase to interact with professionals inside and outside Comcast NBCUniversal, fostering strategic partnerships and learning their video creation needs. Now, they’re collaborating with Comcast on a pilot project that utilizes their technology to create personalized videos.
“It’s an opportunity to collaborate with an organization as dynamic as Comcast NBCUniversal, which will aid in the development of our next product iteration.”
— Marco Chavira, VP @ Rephrase.ai
Behind Rephrase’s Realistic Avatars
Rephrase’s digital avatars stand out due to their realism, achieved by a meticulous process that involves capturing a few minutes of video footage then analyzing voice modulations, and movements of the mouth, jaws, eyes, and more. The process enables the creation of a highly accurate digital copy.
“Some people open their mouths wider, some people open their mouths just a little. Some people have beards or dimples. We capture it all so our avatars are incredibly accurate,” said Malhotra.
Early iterations required professional camera crews to collect video and audio but a forthcoming version will allow users to create their own digital avatar using a simple web cam.
With deep fake technology becoming increasingly prevalent, Rephrase is careful to have privacy and security guardrails so its tech isn’t misused. Rephrase is compliant with ISO 27001, an international standard for information and data security, and SOC2, a cybersecurity compliance framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The company built its systems with strict access controls and actively monitors usage to guard against misuse.
Another emphasis for company leaders is personalization, which they believe will be a key component of video content in the future — particularly for marketing efforts.
As people continue watching more video and companies crave engaging next-generation solutions, Rephrase seeks to be a go-to platform for organizations looking to create high-quality, personalized video content without traditional video production constraints.
To read more inspiring startup stories and to stay connected to Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.