Katherine Mayer, Product Manager at Kapwing, a cloud-based video editing platform, joins the podcast to discuss how video editing is evolving with AI and how marketers can create high-quality content more efficiently than ever before. The discussion covers the unique advantages of browser-based editing, the integration of AI tools, and how Kapwing serves a diverse range of users, from individual creators to marketers.
Katherine emphasizes the importance of combining human creativity with AI, highlighting how Kapwing facilitates collaboration and simplifies the editing process. She also addresses common mistakes marketers make when creating video content and the specific challenges faced by B2B marketers.
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About Kapwing
Kapwing is an AI-powered creation platform built for creators, marketers, and enterprise teams. By blending a fast-moving product culture with cutting-edge technology, Kapwing stays ahead of content trends and makes video creation accessible to everyone.
About Katherine Mayer
Katherine Mayer is a Brooklyn-based Product Manager with 3 years of experience building AI-powered products at Kapwing. She specializes in 0-to-1 product development, AI/ML strategy, and monetization. She has launched tools like an AI dubbing product with 30k monthly active users and a text-to-speech tool scaling to 128k MAU.
Time Stamps
00:00:18 –Â Guest Introduction: Katherine Mayer from Kapwing
00:01:44 –Â Overview of Kapwing and Its Customer Solutions
00:02:46 –Â The Role of AI in Video Editing at Kapwing
00:08:35 –Â How Kapwing Supports Marketers
00:09:50 –Â Repurposing Content for Marketing Efficiency
00:12:10 –Â Examples of Impactful Marketing Videos
00:14:28 –Â Common Mistakes in Video Production
00:17:01 –Â B2B Marketing Video Considerations
00:18:25 –Â Future of AI in Video Marketing
00:21:09 –Â Best Marketing Advice for Professionals
00:23:12 –Â Advice for New Marketing Professionals
00:24:46 –Â How to Get Started with Kapwing
Quotes
“AI can be used on top of that to sort of enhance the process to automate some of these more monotonous tasks that take a long time and are expensive.” Katherine Meyer, Product Manager at Kapwing.
“I really think it’s valuable to be able to learn more about what you want in your career by connecting with your coworkers and other professionals in the space.” Katherine Meyer, Product Manager at Kapwing.
“I think that it is, in some ways, there’s maybe more trust built when you hear someone and can see someone speaking the words that they’re sharing.” Katherine Meyer, Product Manager at Kapwing.
Follow Katherine:
Katherine Meyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katmeyer
Kapwing website: https://www.kapwing.com/
Kapwing on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kapwing
Follow Mike:
Mike Maynard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemaynard/
Napier website: https://www.napierb2b.com/
Napier LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napier-partnership-limited/
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Want more? Check out Napier’s other podcast – The Marketing Automation Moment: https://podcasts.apple.com/ua/podcast/the-marketing-automation-moment-podcast/id1659211547
Transcript: Interview with Katherine Meyer at Kapwing
Speakers: Mike Maynard, Katherine Meyer
Mike: Thanks for listening to Marketing B2B Tech, the podcast from Napier, where you can find out what really works in B2B marketing today. Welcome to Marketing B2B Technology, the podcast from Napier. I’m Mike Maynard, and today I’m joined by Katherine Mayer. Katherine is a product manager at Kapwing. Welcome to the podcast, Katherine.
Katherine: Thanks for having me. I’m really excited to be here.
Mike: It’s great to have you on. What we always like to do when we start off is learn a little bit about the person on the podcast. So I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about your career and why you chose Kapwing as your current company.
Katherine: Yeah, I’d love to. So I am based in New York. I started working at Kapwing almost five years ago. And I chose the company because I was doing a living abroad situation and actually teaching in Spain. I was working at a high school. I was also working at a real estate company there doing part-time work and tutoring. And I loved wearing multiple hats, but I wanted to combine it into working at one company. And I was interested in startups. And so I, you know, looked on a ton of websites. I found Kapwing. I’ve always been interested in video editing. I did that when I was younger. sort of for personal projects. I’ve used that in different jobs and I really liked the idea of working at a company that had a video editor as a product. And so I, you know, applied. I really liked the team and what they were working on and the problems they were solving. And so I joined. And I started at Kapwing on the customer support team. And I did that for about a year and a half and then moved into product management.
Mike: That’s really interesting. You know, you’ve hinted that the company is involved in video. Maybe you could talk a little bit more about what Kapwing does and also the problems it solves for its customers.
Katherine: Kapwing is a cloud-based video editing platform, and we serve individual users as well as teams to help the content editing process move smoother. So we serve a wide range of customers, including individual creators, so maybe someone creating videos for their YouTube channel, to marketers who are creating professional advertisements for social media or for television. And we’ve been around since 2019. And yeah, I think that’s kind of an overview of what we do, but happy to dig into it more.
Mike: Yeah, I mean, the first thing I noticed when I go to the website, is that obviously you talk about AI, I think everybody’s talked about that, particularly around video. But you also talk about having tools as well. Does this mean that, you know, as a solution, you think that there’s a lot that can’t be done by AI? So it needs a mixture of humans and AI?
Katherine: I would say so. So what positions Kapwing well to use AI, I’d say, is that we have a really strong structure and a great product that is sort of stable on its own to deal with these really heavy video editing flows. And then I think that AI can be used on top of that to sort of enhance the process to automate, you know, some of these more monotonous tasks that take a long time and are expensive. And I think that what AI can do is sort of enhance what an editor or someone who is, you know, creative is already doing. But I think that you sort of need the context first to be able to add AI on top of that and create really high quality pieces. So I guess to more clearly answer your question, I think that AI can do a lot of things, but AI needs sort of the context and the direction that people bring to create really high quality pieces.
Mike: That makes a lot of sense. So I mean, obviously, you’re a combination of tools for humans to use and AI as well. So what does Kapwing do that’s really, really good? Where do you excel?
Katherine: Yeah, so we’ve done a lot of work to make editing in the browser performant. As I mentioned, and as you know, and the listeners probably know, video editing involves, you know, a lot of big files. And some projects can be really large and complicated with transitions and different layers. that is a problem that we have really invested in. So I think like five years ago, editing a really large project with lots of video assets on the browser was buggy and hard to do and slow. And Kapwing is really good at attacking that problem of making that performance better in the browser. And it’s been really fun, you know, in my career to see the evolution of that and to to be there for those advancements. I also, you know, think that Kapwing excels in providing a collaborative space. That is, you know, sort of a benefit of being a cloud-based platform is that you can have your whole team on the site. You can log in from anywhere and, you know, review projects, edit projects, and you can do that together. So I think that I would note the performance of Kapwing as well as the collaborative features. And then finally, I would say, you know, we’re a really small team and we move really fast. And so in this world of new technologies coming out, including AI, It’s really important in our space to move fast and to add new tools that are popping up. I think something that is really amazing right now with where we are with technology is that a lot of different people have been enabled to create new things and that could be something you know, like video, or that could be a new model. And one example of this is, we’ve been seeing this cling model, which has this motion feature where you can add a video of a person doing some sort of physical motion, and then a reference image and transfer the motion from the video to the image. And that’s something that our content team, you know, found. And we were able to integrate that new model into our tool in a day so that we could have users jump on those trends. And I think that that, like, the way that we can move so fast is something that we, you know, excel in and is something that differentiates us and helps us serve our customers better.
Mike: I mean, that sounds great. There’s a lot there. The thing you really, I think, brought out was this uniqueness of editing in the browser. So the benefit of that to users, is that primarily collaboration? Or why do you think people want to edit in the browser?
Katherine: Yeah, it’s definitely collaboration. But even for people who are, you know, editing on their own, it’s, you know, you don’t lose work. I think like something that I really loved is I don’t have to consistently be saving my work, it’s all auto-saved. And so that is a pain point that I think video editors have felt who have worked on the desktop. And then again, I do think that being on the browser allows us to plug into different integrations and allows us to move fast and add new technologies versus having to sort of build that out and have users update a desktop application. And then one other thing I’ll mention is that you can access your projects from different devices. So I could open my phone and log into my account and have my projects there. Or if I’m working on a different laptop, I can go to the website and access my projects. So I would say that that is sort of a benefit of the nature of being cloud-based as well.
Mike: I mean, that sounds great. Looking at, you know, our audience, which obviously is predominantly marketers, I’m interested, you know, how does Kapwing help marketers? I mean, maybe you could give us some examples of some of the content that marketers are using the platform to generate.
Katherine: Yeah, so there’s a lot here and I’ve spent a lot of time talking to marketers about creating video and their pain points. I guess I’ll answer this question in a few different parts. One is that I think that it’s really nice to have a tool where you can organize different types of assets. So If I’m a marketer, I have some images that I need to edit, and then I want to integrate those images into, let’s say, a video for maybe an intro. I can do that all in one place. So it’s really nice to have a space where you can keep your multimedia assets and be able to reuse them for different projects. I think of the repurposing flows as really important for marketers, and I’m sure you can relate to this, having a podcast and repurposing different parts of that podcast for short form video. So Kapwing makes it really easy to create long form content or bring your long form content in and produce more high quality content, which can be in the form of clips. You could export different audio bytes from video. So I would say our repurposing features are really helpful to marketers. And then something else that I have worked on a lot at Kapwing is around localization. So translating a video into a different language and basically repurposing it for an audience that speaks a different language, is somewhere else in the world. And I think that that is really powerful for marketers as well, to be able to share their message globally, essentially. So I think that our repurpose flows, whether that is taking a long-form video, clipping it down, or translating a video, are really helpful tools for marketers and help speed up what would be a really long and expensive process for different teams
Mike: Yeah, and I think that’s really important. I think one of the things we see with our clients is that quite often they’ll generate some great content and then move on. And to be able to repurpose, reuse, generate clips, I think that’s a huge benefit for marketers and possibly something that’s somewhat underrated, don’t you think?
Katherine: Definitely. And something else that I just thought about when you were responding there is that there’s also, you know, a lot of different avenues you can take with repurposing content. I’m also seeing marketers take their articles and their written content and be able to produce, you know, different assets from that. You could think of writing an article and using that as a script for a short form video. I think it’s really important to be able to take advantage of this hard work and great writing that people do to produce more content and get it out there and produce it in ways that are sort of digestible to different audiences.
Mike: That sounds great. I mean, do you have some examples of some of the projects you’ve seen where marketers have created really impactful video?
Katherine: Yeah. So one video we focus on a good amount is this talking head video. And I’ve worked with teams to help them essentially do the flow that I was talking about before. I’ll call it article the video. So take a content piece that they’ve written and create a script from it and take a video or record audio of themselves doing this voiceover. And those do really well on social media. I think that it is, in some ways, there’s maybe more trust built when you hear someone and can see someone speaking the words that they’re sharing. I’m interested too in some of these tools that provide the option to not be on camera and create these talking head videos. So this would be like an AI avatar tool. I think there’s still a lot to be done there in terms of quality and building trust with audiences when it comes to that sort of technology. But that’s something that is pretty interesting to me. And I think I’ve also seen some really great examples of users taking, let’s say, like product photos and being able to really easily now with our technology on Kapwing and elsewhere to, you know, turn a simple photo into a high quality advertisement with maybe sometimes some image generation as well as combining different voiceover layers, music, sound effects. So it’s really amazing the quality that people can get right now. And I also see this in the wild, too. I just was looking at an ad for this shoe brand that they took this Wizard of Oz concept, and I think part of it was sort of made with AI and generative video, but it really It really was a great use and a good example of how creativity can be paired with these technologies to tell a very powerful story about a brand or a product.
Mike: I mean, that’s interesting. It feels like there’s so much opportunity. I guess, you know, one of the things that puts people off is they’re worried about rushing in and producing a video that everyone looks at and goes, well, that’s not good. So what mistakes do marketers make when they’re generating videos? What can they avoid?
Katherine: Yeah, that’s a good question. So I think that the planning process when coming up with a video is really important, especially if you’re going to be using some of these AI tools to generate any video assets, audio assets, or image assets. I think that we’ve found success in our experience with giving our tools more context about our brand and the brand voice that we’re going for. I think that there is maybe this misconception that AI is so powerful that you could send a one-sentence prompt and magically get back something that is postable and doesn’t fall into the category of AI slop. But right now, I would really recommend that people try out these different tools and also feed in a lot of context around their brand, their voice, what they’re looking for. I find that AI is really good at coming up with scripts and also being sort of a creative brief partner. And so, yeah, I would sort of recommend coming in with the context of your brand. And you don’t need to necessarily have an idea or multiple ideas. I think that you can, you know, try out having this AI tool, whether it’s, you know, on something like Kapwing or whether you’re chatting on GPT or Cloud. But I would try out, you know, coming up with a creative brief with the AI and seeing where you get from there. I also think that there’s a misconception that you have to be on camera or you have to be sort of recording voiceovers to make good video. And there are so many tools out there that can help with that process if that’s not something that the individual is interested in doing or if that’s a painful part of their process. So, yeah, I would get out there and try a lot of different stuff, but come in with the context of your brand so that you can create pieces that fit with that.
Mike: And, I mean, a lot of our audience are B2B marketers rather than B2C. So, I mean, presumably there’s a real importance to get it right in B2B. It’s a little bit different to B2C because I think there’s a lot more risk associated with purchases in B2B. Do you agree?
Katherine: Yeah, I would agree. I think that I’ve been, you know, asking this question when I’m doing research around our own users and the products we’re building and I see that there’s sort of more risk because they may be, you know, more reputation there and handling larger deals. I also think it depends on the product because You know, if I’m selling a doctor service, there’s sort of a different trust that I want to build with my customers there. But I wouldn’t stray away from using some of these tools to help build content. But yeah, I definitely see that there’s a bigger quality bar and less room for, I guess, experimentation with B2B customers.
Mike: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I mean, we’ve talked a little bit about AI-generated video versus video that you film with real people. I mean, how do you see this changing? For example, what percentage of marketing videos do you think will be AI-generated in, say, a couple of years’ time?
Katherine: Yeah, it’s a great question. So I don’t know if I can predict what percentage of videos will be made fully with AI, but I would say that the majority of marketing videos will have some sort of AI involved in the creation. Yeah, I think that’s what I would say there.
Mike: I’m interested, you know, obviously you’re involved in building the Kapwing business as well. So kind of at a high level, what’s your strategy for marketing the product and getting more users?
Katherine: Yeah, that’s a great question. So we have built our business off of mostly organic growth. Our CEO, Julia, I think of her as sort of an SEO wizard. We’ve, you know, really gotten into search optimization and creating really intentional articles, landing pages that really all have to deal with content creation and have positioned our business as an expert in that space, specifically on search. And so, yeah, I think that is our main strategy and we’re still digging in there and trying to figure out sort of the needs of consumers and what people are, you know, trying to learn about when it comes to content creation. I think that the This AI movement and AI moving more into content creation and content marketing has brought an opportunity for us to do more research and do more research pieces on how this content is performing, what kind of models there are out there. and really become an expert in the space and a place where people can come and sort of read about different models or try them out. And that has been our main marketing avenue. We do have YouTube videos. We work with some really great video creatives and editors. who do use Kapwing as well to create content. And that is, you know, a really important avenue for us to market our new features and to give users more information on how to leverage them in their own workflows. But yeah, we’ve built sort of our business off of organic search.
Mike: That’s really interesting and great to hear a really positive SEO story. It’s been really interesting talking to you, Catherine. But before you go, there’s always two questions we’d like to ask to try and get some of your insight that’s going to help listeners. So the first thing I’d like to know is, what’s the best marketing advice that you’ve ever been given?
Katherine: That’s a great question. I will say I’m not a marketer, so I’m not an expert in marketing. I wouldn’t say that. But I think being a product manager at a startup, I’ve gotten to learn a lot. And one of the areas I’ve learned about is marketing. I think that it’s really important to use this motto of done is better than perfect. And I know not everyone has that affordance, but we have found a lot of success in our business in finding really good problems and then just shipping things out and seeing what happens. I think there’s a graceful way to do this. And we talked about in this podcast being more intentional about sharing the context of your brand and with what pieces you put out there. But I think that in my career in product management and in my experience in marketing, it’s always better to sort of make a decision, or in this case, ship something out than not ship something out at all. And I guess one other thing I would say is that, you know, I think that there’s a lot of fear around new technology and my, you know, advice, especially for marketers, would be to just try things out. I think that I’ve also found, you know, in my own personal projects and in my professional projects that Trying out new technologies has been eye-opening and has changed my process. And I still keep my core creativity and message that I’m trying to share. But just by doing and going out there and trying things, I’ve been able to share that message more efficiently and effectively.
Mike: I think that’s great advice. I love that. The other question we always like to ask and hopefully not going to say move into product management here is what would you tell someone who’s just starting a career in marketing? What advice would you give them?
Katherine: Yeah. I think in general, what I’ve found in my career starting up, the advice I would give is to just talk to people at your company about what they’re currently doing, what they’ve done in the past. I think as a young professional, it’s really important to just be consistently learning on the job. I know that the marketing space moves really fast and there is also still so much value in these sort of soft skills that people have, you know, gained throughout their career. And I’ve just personally learned so much from just picking the brains of my co-workers who maybe just join the company or have been at the company for a long time, I really think it’s valuable to be able to learn more about what you want in your career by connecting with your coworkers and other professionals in the space. So that is kind of the general young professional advice I would give that I’m still benefiting from today and in my career right now.
Mike: I love that and it’s great you’ve given advice that I think could apply to almost any role, not just marketing there. That’s fantastic. Katherine, it’s been really interesting and I’m sure that there’s going to be people who want to go out and try Kapwing now. So if people want to find out more or maybe test a product, what can they do?
Katherine: Yeah, so you can head to kapwing.com. That’s K-A-P-W-I-N-G dot com. And we have, you know, a very clear way to get started on our site. It’s free to sign up and have an account. You’ll get the ability to test different features on the site. And I’d love to hear what you think. I’ll also share my professional email. It’s Katherine at Kapwing.com. I’m always interested to talk to, especially marketers, about their workflows, what their pain points are, if they have any feedback on Kapwing. So feel free to give it a try and reach out and let me know what you think, I guess.
Mike: Well, that’s awesome. And very kind of you to share your email address as well. Yeah. Catherine, thank you. It’s been fascinating. I’m certainly heading to the site to try out the product. Thanks very much for being a guest on Marketing B2B Technology.
Katherine: Thank you for having me, Mike.
Mike: Thanks so much for listening to Marketing B2B Tech. We hope you enjoyed the episode. And if you did, please make sure you subscribe on iTunes or on your favorite podcast application. If you’d like to know more, please visit our website at napierb2b.com or contact me directly on LinkedIn.
