User information at a global scale

Philips Consumer Lifestyle is the consumer division of Philips that develops, produces and markets personal lifestyle & healthcare products in over 50 countries. Providing products to consumers also requires accurate information on safety, warranties and directions for use (DFU) for each product. The development and production of this information is handled by a centralized DFU/IFU department, located in the Netherlands.

Quest for a future proof alternative

For decades the way to provide warranty and safety information, as well as directions for use, is to include it as printed matter into every product package. With the ongoing digitization, this is now subject to change. Consumers are shifting away from paper-based information, while the production of manuals and quick reference guides takes a lot of effort as well as costs. All information needs to be provided in the language of the customer, leading to on average more than 30 language versions per product. At the same time, specifications or features can differ per region. With the changing media landscape in mind, Philips’ DFU team was looking for a faster, more engaging way to convey their content to consumers around the world and save costs at the same time.

From print to video

Today, our customers often want online support information and prefer to watch a video instead of reading. Minimizing print materials saves paper waste and shipment costs while offering video content improves the customer experience and satisfaction with our brand. Our business as a DFU team is topic-based authoring which results in printed manuals and PDFs. It optimizes content reuse and compliance control, but it is also beneficial for producing brand-controlled and localized videos at scale. This way, topics from manuals become marketing aligned how-to videos by reusing already localized – legally approved – content at once.

The solution

Starting with the first pilot projects, using texts and animations, the DFU department also publishes high-end how-to videos with live-action footage, voice-overs, and more. A decisive advantage is that they hardly have to change anything in their text-based workflows and content systems. With a fee for the platform and production per title by TXTOmedia, Philips uses TXTOmedia as a VaaS solution (Video as a Service). TXTOmedia's Video Creation Cloud automatically extracts the necessary content from the content management system as source material for the how-to videos. As of 2022, TXTOmedia integrates fully with Philips' workflows.

Benefits

Waste reduction

Localize Videos

The DFU team at Philips is now looking at an estimated 80% reduction of video localization costs

Waste reduction

Lower TCO

>50% less creation costs compared to traditional video

Waste reduction

Reduce waste

Significantly smaller CO2 footprint due to less paper and transport.

Waste reduction

Improve CX

Improved customer experience and less calls to the call centers as a result of increased self-support from users.