On this page you'll find processes and best practice for creating and uploading videos.
- New or updated videos – request process and best practice for new videos or those being updated as part of off-times.
- Transcripts/subtitles process
- Video upload/update process
- Archiving a video
- What to do if a video is too large for MOS
1. New or updated videos – process and requirements
Video compliance
All videos must be requested and stored on MOS. Each video must have its own asset ID (which should not change between MOS workspaces) with final approval completed on MOS. An expiry date must also be set within MOS. All videos should have a transcription provided by APS.
Requesting a new video
Most of our videos are created by our in-house APS team. To request a new video, fill out a creative brief and send a 'Creative Concept' action. If you have any questions about the process, get in touch with APS Account Management.
If you're working with a third party or are creating a video yourself (pitch/demo etc), the following best practice requirements should still be followed.
Best practice standards and requirements
For accessibility and best-practice, please adhere to the following requirements:
- The video should be 16x9 ratio.
- ‘Mobile first’ approach – consider text size when videos are viewed on mobile or not expanded to full screen. We need to ensure the messaging is clear enough to work on small mobile devices.
- It must meet accessibility standards through the correct use of colour contrast and typography requirements for responsive sizes.
- All videos should have subtitles provided separately as a transcript in SRT format, rather than being part of the video itself. Find out more about this in the following section.
- Caption exclusion zones – make sure that important disclaimers or caveats are not at risk of being hidden by subtitles. APS will do this as standard but if creating your own video or working with a third party, please take this into consideration.
2. Transcript process (for use as subtitles)
All videos should have subtitles provided separately as a transcript in SRT format, rather than being part of the video itself. This is to prevent subtitles becoming blurry or illegible if a video is struggling to load in high quality.
The Digital team will upload the video transcript alongside the video when adding to Vimeo.
a) New or updated videos made by APS
- Videos created by APS will be provided with a separate time-stamped transcript as standard, in SRT file format. This will be used as both subtitles and transcript in Vimeo.
- For shorter videos, APS will proof-read the transcript for you, but please double check yourself to ensure it's accurate and amend if required. SRT files can be opened and edited in Microsoft Word.
- If your video hasn't been provided with a transcript, or you're extending an existing video that doesn't currently have a transcript, please request one from APS as a 'first proof' action.
b) Videos made internally by stakeholders (e.g. demo or pitches)
If your video wasn't made by APS, for example demo or pitch videos – APS will still provide a transcript for you
- Upload your video into a MOS job as usual and send a 'first proof' action to APS.
- They will run your video through their software to provide a transcription.
- It is your responsibility to check the accuracy of the transcript against your script and make any amendments as necessary before sending to the Digital team to upload.
c) Videos made by third parties
If you’re working with a third-party agency who is creating a video, they must adhere to our transcript process:
- Videos should not have embedded subtitles – a separate time-stamped transcript should be provided in SRT format that the Digital team will upload alongside the video.
- Any caveats or disclaimers in the video should be positioned so that they won’t be covered by subtitles appearing at the bottom of the screen.
- You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the transcript provided.
Video subtitles example
The purpose video is a good example of a video adhering to our best practice standards. The subtitles can be turned on and off by hovering over the 'cc' button at the bottom right of the video and selecting the 'English' or 'Off' option.
To the right of the 'cc' button is the transcript button – by clicking this, the full transcript will appear to the right of the video.
3. Video upload/update process
We use Vimeo to host our videos. From there, videos can either be shared using the provided link, or embedded onto our website.
New video uploads:
- Make sure your video has been final approved in MOS, and that the video transcript has been checked and provided in SRT format in the MOS job
- Send a 'Publish/remove asset' action to Calli Wilson or Abby Scott on MOS
- In the action comments, note the desired title and description for your video, the expiry date, FP/NFP status and privacy requirements
- If a video is going onto the public Aegon website, it must be set to public
- Otherwise, a setting of unlisted (accessible via link only) will be used
- Once the team have completed your action, we will reply back with a link to the URL of your new video
Updating a video:
If you're updating an existing video, this will be updated by replacing the video on the existing URL.
- After the video has been approved, send a 'Publish/remove asset' action to Calli Wilson or Abby Scott on MOS
- In the action, provide the link to the existing URL where the old version of the video currently is
- Please confirm whether the existing title, description, transcript, privacy setting and expiry date are still relevant, or whether they need to be updated
Embedding a video on the Aegon website
If a video needs to be embedded on a public website webpage, follow these steps and guidance:
- Send an 'Publish/remove asset' action to the 'Marketing: Web Publishing' team to ask them to add the video to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM - where you build webpages) as an experience fragment.
- Once this has been completed, create a new workflow for your webpage within AEM and add your video to the page using the 'Content fragment' component.
- The video should be at least 3/4 width of the page and a transcript must be available either under the video as an accordion dropdown, or within the embedded Vimeo video.
- If you need support in adding a video to your page, please contact the Digital team.
4. Archiving a video
If a video expires or you no longer need it, you need to let us know so we can remove it from Vimeo/our website.
Send a ‘publish/remove asset’ action from the MOS workspace to Calli Wilson or Abby Scott including the URL of the video you’d like to remove. Please let us know in the action if it's on the website or not and where it features if so.
Please note, it's your responsibility – not the Digital Operations team – to ensure that videos live on Vimeo have not expired and remain compliant. Vimeo does not have an expiry date feature internally, so any expiry dates must be managed through MOS.
5. If a video is too large to upload to MOS
In the case of a video being too large to upload to MOS (for example, a long pitch video you've recorded yourself), please do the following:
- Upload your video to a Microsoft 365 location (for example Stream or Sharepoint) and send a link to a member of the Digital Optimisation
- We'll download the video and upload it to Vimeo as a hidden video, and share the link with you
- You'll then be able to share the hidden video link with APS, who will download it and make the required changes