Are you tired of old-school advertising? Do you want something new? Something fresh for your brand?
Here comes Vooza. According to Matt Ruby (or sometimes called “Matt Stillman“), Vooza’s creator, CEO and professional comedian, Vooza is a video content platform targeted at the startup world that uses native video advertising integrated into the experience. In other word, that means that startups and other advertisers have been paying Vooza to include them in videos that take the piss out of the whole “startup” scene. The team behind Vooza is called Fort Pelican, and it’s a group of full-time NYC comedians, directors and editors who have specialized for years in the business of making people laugh.
The truth is, Vooza is something that has been pretty successful. So far, Vooza’s clients have included email newsletter startup MailChimp, app analytics platform Tapstream, branding firm Eat My Words and others. The companies pay to have their brand worked into a segment written by Vooza’s writers and featuring its cast of characters — the video then goes out to Vooza’s own audience, and can also be used by the company in any way they wish.
Thus far, all the growth in clients reaching out to work with Vooza has occurred organically on a case-by-case basis and it’s not exactly something that Ruby had planned for initially when he started making his first Vooza videos. But now, he’s looking to scale things out a bit more, and amp up Vooza as a real business. He put it like this:
When it comes to advertising, the big brands, the Snickers and the Toyotas, are all going through ad agencies. That’s not who we’re going after. There are many companies out there, especially in the startup space, who would never think they’d advertise in video or on TV, but they would come to Vooza and say, ‘Let’s make a fun video together.’
It’s a fresh angle that could be hitting at a good time for its niche. Upstart tech companies have more and more competition these days, and advertising is a tried-and-true way to help differentiate your brand from others — but traditional modes can be expensive. Meanwhile, founders nowadays know it’s good for business to be funny. It’ll be fun to see what comes out of Vooza in the future.
Here’s an example of a sponsored video by Vooza, done for MailChimp: