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Video marketing is a new trend, and companies are putting together cool videos to put their brands on the map. Emma, our Content Marketing Specialist, hung out with Chris Bolman, CEO of ZoomTilt, to learn more about video marketing. ZoomTilt has a great platform for connecting companies with video producers.

If you're strapped for time, here are the top takeaways:

Emma: Hi everybody. I'm Emma of Grasshopper, and today we are meeting with Chris Bolman, CEO of ZoomTilt, who is a Grasshopper customer. We're going to talk to Chris a little bit about what he does and what his company ZoomTilt does. So, hi Chris. How's it going?

Chris: Hi. How's it going, Emma?

Emma: Hi. So can you tell me a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Who's Chris?

Chris: Yeah, sure. I am one of two co-founders of ZoomTilt. We are an online platform that connects brands with really talented content creators to generate video, unique sort of analytics and A/B testing solutions to test, rank, and compare videos, and then also sort of technology advantage distribution solutions to make sure that the right people see their videos.

Emma: Cool. That's great. Video marketing is a hot new thing right now.

Chris: It is. It is.

Emma: Yeah. So could you talk a little bit about why you started the company?

Chris: Yeah. My co-founder and I, Anna, we met early last year. Anna is a software developer and filmmaker by background, and I have a lot more of a marketing pedigree, but I've also done a lot of web design and front end development. I have some filmmakers and entertainment professionals in my family. So we both were looking at similar areas or similar spaces for opportunity. We said, 'You know, on the one hand, video marketing is this huge opportunity. But it seems like an accident of history where a lot of brands don't know how to create great content. They don't know how to measure it. They don't even know where to start.'

Emma: Right.

Chris: So we really designed ZoomTilt as a full service, end-to-end solution where a brand can pretty much plug and play, create their own video marketing strategy from scratch, and they can basically outsource the entire process or automate it through us.

Emma: Cool. So, what are some of the cool things that customers have done with ZoomTilt?

Chris: Yeah. Our first ever project was actually a Valentine's Day web series, which we did for Equal Exchange, which is a company that does coffee and chocolate bars.

Emma: Okay.

Chris: They really wanted to spread an emotional message around Valentine's Day that people should unplug from technology and really connect with each other and also have some chocolate. So we used YouTube as a great vehicle and a lot of other social media where we created this series where we embedded coupon codes for chocolate within the footage, and it ended up being this scavenger hunt where people would look for the coupons in the footage. They'd share it with their friends. We ended up being one of the top trending videos on YouTube for Valentine's Day. It ended up being really successful for the client, getting a lot of viewership. It was also a great test pilot.

Since then we've worked on a couple other branded projects, whether it's integrating the product as a really cool experience or product placement into the footage, or just creating great original branded entertainment work, centered around kind of the brand's identity and message, and then testing to make sure that that really resonates with their customers.

Emma: Cool. That's really awesome. It sounds like quite an exciting company. So you guys have only been around for a couple of years now?

Chris: Yeah. We actually launched the very first kind of beta website last August. So we're not even really a year old. We just actually celebrated our first year of like incorporation anniversary.

Emma: Well, happy birthday!

Chris: Yeah, thank you. Thank you. But yeah, we're a young company. We're looking to grow, and just really help make the video space of content marketing a really unique, defined niche.

Emma: Yeah, that's awesome. So my last question is:  Do you have any tips that you'd give to any small company or startup that's starting that wants to do video marketing? What would you tell them?

Chris: Yeah. Don't get discouraged. A lot of people look at these huge blockbuster productions and these million dollar web series that a Kmart or Proctor & Gamble or whatever is doing. But you really can start quite small. I mean, for example, if you look at the Will It Blend? guy, the CEO of this tiny company who was blending like iPads and iPhones in a blender.

Emma: Right. I remember that.

Chris: His company got a 500% sales increase, and they really put that on the map. There are a lot of other examples – oral hygiene companies, the Pebble smartwatch guys. Or even actually Dollar Shave Club is another great example.

Emma: Right.

Chris: They spent a couple thousand dollars on marketing, making something really authentic, really entertaining, and really compelling that really resonated with people, and people shared it around. It ended up being a phenomenal ROI on their marketing dollar. So you don't need a big production budget. You don't need tens or twenties or hundreds of thousands of dollars. You can start small. Just make sure that the type of content you're creating really creates value for your audience, whether it's informative, it's entertaining, it's fun. Really think about it from that standpoint.

Emma: Great. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to meet with me Chris. That's all I've got for you, but it's been great hanging out.

Chris: Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Emma: Yeah, I hope we can do it again soon, and I will be on the lookout for ZoomTilt. So thanks so much.

Chris: Sounds great. Take care Emma.

Check out the video ZoomTilt created for Equal Exchange:

About ZoomTilt: ZoomTilt's complete video marketing solutions helps brands, agencies and media companies create better videos. Their tools match media buyers with top-caliber creative talent, content measurement analytics and unique video distribution approaches to generate branded entertainment activations that are shareable, memorable, trackable and targeted. ZoomTilt is a proud Grasshopper customer.

This article was written by Emma Siemasko.