Feature
The same face in ad twenty, from the same single photo
A spokesperson works by the fifth exposure, and most small advertisers never get there. Twenty bookings, matching light, and somebody staying available is what breaks first. Here one front-facing photograph of somebody who agreed in writing renders the presenter at 320 credits a minute. Here is what consent has to cover, what a campaign costs, and how to write for a presenter who cannot improvise.
- Photo, reused indefinitely
- 1
- Credits per rendered minute
- 320
- Credits per voice-over minute
- 70
One photo, one audio track, and a presenter that renders in minutes
You supply a single front-facing photograph and the audio of the read. It returns a lip-synced presenter video, which runs through the editor like a filmed take and exports as a 9:16 MP4.
A rendered minute is 320 credits. Generated voice-over is 70 credits a minute if you are not recording the read yourself.
Basic at $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits is a little under eight minutes of presenter footage. Premium at $79.99 for 5,000 is about fifteen. A $15 top-up adds 1,000 credits, around three more minutes.
A campaign of twenty ads at forty seconds each is roughly thirteen minutes of render. Plan it as a quarter rather than a week.
Write all twenty scripts before you render any of them. Consistency is the asset you are buying, and a wobble is easier to hear in a document than in ad fourteen.
Minutes of presenter footage, by what you buy
At 320 credits a minute. A twenty ad campaign at forty seconds each is about thirteen minutes.
- 7 day trial, 300 credits0.9 min
- $15 top-up, 1,000 credits3.1 min
- Basic, 2,500 a month7.8 min
- Premium, 5,000 a month15.6 min
It works at the fifth exposure, which is why small advertisers never get one
A spokesperson works by the fifth exposure. The same person has said something about your product five times, so the viewer is not meeting a stranger.
That is the entire reason the role exists. It has nothing to do with how good-looking or persuasive the person is.
Most small advertisers never get the effect. Getting it means the same person in twenty ads across six months. Twenty bookings. Matching light and wardrobe every time. Keeping somebody available who has other clients.
Any one of those breaking ends the run, and one of them always breaks. Usually in month four, right as the recognition was starting to compound.
Generating the presenter from a single photograph removes every scheduling problem at once. Framing is identical in ad one and ad twenty.
You can see the effect in your own reaction to an ad you have been served six times. You do not remember choosing to trust it. You stopped treating it as a stranger, which is a different mechanism and a much cheaper one to buy.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Settle consent in writing before you settle anything else
Somebody must have agreed, in writing, to their likeness being used in generated video in your paid advertising. Not agreed to a photoshoot. Agreed to this specific ongoing use.
There are three realistic candidates. You. A founder or employee who has explicitly said yes. Or a licensed likeness where the licence covers synthetic video by name.
Ordinary stock portrait licences do not cover it. Public figures are never available, regardless of where the photo came from.
Get this right first, because longevity is the whole value. A spokesperson you have to drop in month four is worse than no spokesperson at all.
You will have spent the repetition and thrown away the recognition, which was the only thing you were buying.
Write for a presenter who cannot improvise, and let footage do the pointing
The presenter speaks and moves their head a little. That is the performance in full. No gesture on a chosen word, no glance away and back, no picking anything up.
So write for the voice and let footage carry everything a body would have shown.
Highlight the phrase where the product is named and a shot of it lands over exactly those words. It does the job a gesture would have done, and does it more clearly.
Keep uninterrupted screen time short. The illusion is strongest in bursts and thins over long holds, so cut away before a viewer settles in to study the face.
Record real audio wherever you can. A supplied voice-over usually beats generated speech and costs nothing extra.
Cut away on the fourth or fifth second rather than the fifteenth. That single habit does more for the result than any choice of photograph.
What a booking still buys, and the five rows a photograph wins
Booking a real presenter wins two rows. They hold, point and demonstrate, and they pass close inspection at any framing.
If the product has to be handled on camera, book that shoot. Then bring the footage back here and place it under the words that describe it.
Everything else goes the other way. One photograph gives you the same framing in ad one and ad twenty, with nothing to schedule and nothing to lose in month four.
The render has fixed limits worth knowing. No hands and no props. One look for the life of the campaign, so choose the photograph as carefully as you would choose a logo.
Some viewers will clock it on longer holds and at wider framing. That is a real cost where being believed is the sale, and it is the reason to keep the holds short.
And a consistent face makes a consistent message land harder in either direction. Get the words right first, then let repetition do what it has always done.
A generated spokesperson against booking the same person twenty times
Two rows go to the person. The five under them are what twenty bookings never managed to deliver.
| Booking the same person for twenty ads | Cutroom | |
|---|---|---|
| Holding, pointing and demonstrating | Hands do the selling | No hands and no props |
| Passing close inspection | It is a filmed person | Some viewers clock it on longer holds |
| Ad twenty framed exactly like ad one | Light and wardrobe drift over six months | Same photo, same framing, every render |
| Surviving the month they are unavailable | One cancellation ends the run | Nothing to schedule and nothing to lose |
| Twenty scripts rendered inside a week | Twenty separate bookings | 320 credits per rendered minute |
| A new script live the same day | The diary decides when | Render, batch, export |
| What the twenty-first ad costs | Another booking to arrange | 320 credits per rendered minute |
Questions people ask
- Whose photo can I use?
- Your own, or somebody who has agreed in writing to their likeness being used in generated video in your advertising. Stock portraits usually do not cover it and public figures never do.
- Will the presenter look the same in every ad?
- Yes, and that is the point. The same photo produces the same framing and the same look every time, which is what produces recognition across a campaign.
- Can the spokesperson hold or point at the product?
- No. There are no gestures and no props. Cover those lines with real footage of the product instead, placed on the exact words that name it.
- Should the presenter be on screen for the whole ad?
- No. It reads best in short bursts between footage. Long unbroken holds give viewers time to study the face, which is where the illusion gets thin.
- Is it right for every category?
- It is built for a face you want recognised across a campaign. If the product has to be handled on camera, book one shoot for that footage and place it under the presenter's words here for 100 credits a batch.
Pick the face once, get the permission in writing, and let repetition do what it has always done.