The Future of Branded Video with Wistia Founder Chris Savage

“You’re going to get judged by your video.” If this quote scares you, you’ll want to listen to this week’s episode. With 80% of online content set to be video by 2019 more brands are pushing into the space. However, many are afraid of looking stupid. We talked about using video to build your brand and your business this week on the On Brand podcast with Wistia cofounder and CEO Chris Savage.

About Chris Savage

Chris Savage is the cofounder and CEO of Wistia, a web-based video hosting solution built for businesses. After graduating from Brown University, Chris and his co-founder, Brendan Schwartz, started Wistia in Brendan’s living room in 2006. Chris founded the company with the goal of helping businesses effectively market their products or services more creatively through video. Recently, Savage and Schwartz turned down an offer to sell Wistia and took on $17.3M in debt instead, which allowed them to buy out their investors, gain full control of Wistia, and take the path less traveled in the tech industry.

Episode Highlights

The story of Wisita. We talk a lot about story on the On Brand podcast. Wistia as a business has several fascinating stories including the classic startup story of the founder starting a business in his living room. It also has a new story about taking on debt to take back the business and focus their efforts moving forward.

“I’ve never seen employee engagement higher.” When you buy out your investors and take control of the company, it sends a message to your employees. After some initial fear (mostly based on misunderstanding about debt), the Wistia team was excited about being to take tangible control of their business.

“If I get on a camera will I look stupid?” This is the million-dollar question for brands considering video. Actually, this customer pain point drove Wistia’s content marketing in a unique direction. After watching their videos, viewers would asked what they did to make them look and sound so good. Eventually, Wistia started creating their own video tutorials.

What does the future hold for video? “Lots of people are consistently creating great stuff. That wasn’t the case a few years ago.” What’s harder moving forward is creating unique content that connects with your customers.

What brand has made Chris smile recently? Chris gave a shout out to cool new initiatives by Mailchimp and Envision.

To learn more, go to the “Learn” section of the Wistia website, follow Chris on Twitter, and check out his personal blog, Savage Thoughts.

As We Wrap …

Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … User experience designer Larry Sickmann found the On Brand podcast for the first time and likes what he’s hearing so far. Thanks for listening, Larry!

Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.

On Brand is sponsored by my new book Brand Now. Discover the seven dynamics to help your brand stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Order now and get special digital extras. Learn more.

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Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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