Everyone is hunting for clicks, likes, shares, followers, and friends. Page views mean a great deal to brands and startups, who are trying to measure success of new products and gauge public opinion. And, of course, generally get people talking about what they’re doing.
Giant Media, a Venice Beach-based viral video company, has the aim to bring startups and established brands to larger and more diverse audiences.
After leaving another startup, CEO David Segura started Giant Media in 2009, wishing to prove a specific thesis: Content doesn’t always get seen on its own.
“Coming off my experience at Comedy.com, a content producer and publisher, I was eager to capitalize on my belief that brands we're underinvesting in supporting the content that they were already producing and commissioning,” he said.
“At Comedy.com, we had a hand in creating great content, but did not always meet brands’ desires to achieve virality or breakout success.”
What startups and established brands need in crowded markets and on an even more crowded Internet is a way to distinguish themselves from their competition, as well as ways to get as many people sharing their content as possible.
Organic virality doesn’t happen often or easily. Rather, it’s places like Giant that are a behind-the-scenes push, strategizing for clients as to where content should go.
Using both relationships with established publishers and blogs, as well as a core social media team -- Giant prepares for media blitzes and campaigns, timing everything so that content hits the rights spots at the right times. Their syndication model results in greater audience reach.
“Brands and startups can really take advantage of the emerging social video space. What's great about the model is that brands benefit by leveraging their paid media spend in such a way that drives earned media,” he said.
Earned media, meaning people sharing on their own with their own social networks versus a paid placement.
“We build the tools and user experience required to maximize that natural propensity to share great content, thus we often help spark viral success. Why would anyone be satisfied with getting exactly what they pay for? In our business model, historically clients have paid for two user-initiated views in order to generate one earned media view. This drives down clients’ costs and creates an immediate media ROI.”
Of course, there has been the general thought that users have ADD on the Internet and that no one will read more than 140 characters or watch something that’s longer than 30 seconds.
Segura has seen the opposite trend.
“We've accumulated an enormous amount of data related to viewer behavior on the Internet. What we've seen is that viewers are more likely to engage and watch through longer-form content than previously expected. When stories and narratives are more fully fleshed out, viewers are more likely to love video content and even share that content with their friends.”
Giant is growing fast -- adding staff and scaling up quickly. Their revenue for 2012 is on track to more than quadruple their 2011 figures. ($2M in 2011 to more than $8M in 2012).
Campaigns they’ve worked on include: Dollar Shave Club and Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames, as well as those of large brands such as Nissan, Honda, Acura, American Express, Gillette, Method, and a growing list of others.
Segura summed it all up, pointing back to serving what users are really looking for.
“Viewers crave great content. We grew up expecting high quality production as a result of T.V. and film -- why should the Internet be any different?”
