Case Study / Storyblocks

OVERVIEW

Storyblocks, a stock media company that was recently recognized by Inc. Magazine as the fourth fastest growing media company in the United States, engaged 5WPR to spearhead the launch of its innovative new stock music and video marketplaces and tell the story of the company's contributor-first approach in order to increase its overall subscriber base and position it as an industry disruptor. Challenged with driving awareness and business growth against well-positioned industry goliaths Shutterstock and Pond5, 5WPR leverages Storyblocks' aggressive business strategy for growing its existing subscription-based stock media service: providing a new marketplace for content contributors to offer premium clips to consumers at 40 percent less than competing marketplaces while letting them keep 100 percent of their commissions.

PRACTICE AREAS

Technology Apps & Marketplaces

STRATEGY

5WPR has developed and executed a strategic campaign for Storyblocks over multiple years, targeting trade, consumer tech, and business verticals with messaging around the company's ability to more competitively serve both content contributors and potential stock video customers. 5WPR immediately developed Storyblocks' position with influential trades and consumer-facing media to generate interest and engagement from global contributors, while developing consistent media coverage to pique interest from stock video consumers leading up to the marketplace's public launch. 5WPR has developed consistent coverage around Storyblocks' marketplace from the initial pre-launch targeting contributors to build the premium content library, leading up to and around the full launch of the marketplace for customers, and following it up with features on the company's growth and new investments to showcase its disruptive business model set to reshape the industry. Over the full launch period, 5W secured over 55 media placements across strategic verticals, totaling over 160 million media impressions for Storyblocks and helping drive growth of its new marketplace platform and increase subscriptions for its primary service.

RESULTS

Following the initial marketplace pre-launch, only open to contributors to build the premium video library, Storyblocks saw more than 200,000 clips uploaded from over 1,000 different contributors worldwide in just under three months.

5WPR secured 14 feature articles within the first 48 hours of the marketplace public launch, totaling over 14 million unique impressions, with notable coverage from top-tier technology and industry trade outlets including:

TechCrunch
DigiDay
Digital Trends
VentureBeat
The Next Web
VideoMaker

Popular technology publications Techmeme and Hacker News both picked up the public marketplace launch as a result of the in-depth article published on TechCrunch.

5WPR helped drive a constant flow of traffic to the Storyblocks booth at the NAB Show, creating opportunities for the Storyblocks team to meet with media and potential content contributors and customers to discuss their services and the benefits of the new marketplace.

5WPR secured follow-up thought leadership and business feature opportunities with tier-one business, trade and regional news outlets including: