Media release: Vloggi strengthens team, secures strategic video investor

User-generated video platform Vloggi strengthens team, secures strategic video investor

• Video producer becomes third largest external shareholder through strategic investment

• New board position created for Head of Video Tarryn Myburgh

• Head of Growth recruited from fast-moving no-code software sector

Sydney-based video scale-up Vloggi is welcoming two new strategic team members as it moves into the rapid growth phase for its generated video production platform this year.

Vloggi’s executive board is delighted to onboard Tarryn Myburgh as the company’s new Head of Video. Ms Myburgh will also become a board member of Vloggi’s parent company Ciné Souk as part of the strategic investment deal. Aiming to drive the company’s overall video strategy, Ms Myburgh will be responsible for ensuring professional video production quality translates into Vloggi’s automated video ecosystem.

Ms Myburgh is the creative director of Sydney video production company TM Creates and will become the third-largest shareholder outside the founding team under the investment.

Ms Myburgh will be joined by David Taylor-Smith, who will join as Growth Marketing Manager. Mr Taylor-Smith will drive the growth of Vloggi’s partner-driven software-as-a-service (SaaS) business. In his role as growth marketing manager, Mr Taylor-Smith will be responsible for optimising the customer acquisition pipeline.

With a strong focus in B2B customer acquisition campaigns, Mr Taylor-Smith joins Vloggi from the European no-code specialist Zeroqode, where he redefined and executed the company’s marketing strategy that saw increases in brand awareness, traffic and sales.

“With a deep understanding of video storytelling and the discipline of visual identity, Tarryn brings a depth of professionalism to the Vloggi core team. Our clients are demanding greater and greater visual fidelity to their brand identities and Tarryn will ensure we are able to satisfy that demand,” said Justin Wastnage, founder and CEO of Vloggi.

Ms Myburgh will also have significant input on the core product design, bringing her expertise of corporate video projects to the onboarding and user experience flow of Vloggi, the self-service video production platform.

“My dream is to create a series of videos for brands that tell their whole story with an unlimited budget. When I worked with Vloggi on a project for the New South Wales Government, I saw how quickly the platform could not only create an entire video series, but also its potential for authentic, genuine video content. As someone within the video production world, I saw a tool that can really take the world of video to the next level for businesses,” said Ms Myburgh.

Vloggi is also now embarking on an ambitious growth strategy ahead of a seed round of capital raising starting in April. A core part of this strategy is in reaching the low-hanging fruit of corporations who need community or stakeholder engagement videos created  at large volume. Crucial to this is to double down on the company’s inbound marketing strategy, initiated in late 2021.

“With a proven track record within SaaS marketing to businesses, I’m thrilled to welcome David Taylor-Smith as our new growth marketing manager. As we accelerate the growth of our business, targeted marketing is vital, and we warmly welcome David’s experience,” said Mr Wastnage.

Mr Taylor-Smith will build on key brand marketing and search engine marketing efforts launched by Vloggi in the final quarter of 2020.

“I am super excited about working on growth marketing for Vloggi. Video is the hottest trend right now in content marketing and everyone in the industry needs authentic videos shot for their customers by their customers. The fact that Vloggi is a tool that makes user-generated video so effortless is a marketer’s dream,” said Mr Taylor-Smith.

 

TEAM REBOOT FOR 2021

The appointment of Ms Myburgh and Mr Taylor-Smith completes the refocus on B2B sales that started during the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020. In March last year two software engineers and its marketing personnel left the company.

In 2020 the company’s go-to-market strategy was built around the travel and tourism industry.  With the leaner, stronger team, Vloggi explored new opportunities and was able to find a new product:market fit in the community engagement space in time for a product relaunch in September last year.

“In March last year we were looking at total wipeout. But Jérémy [Giraudet] took lockdown as an opportunity to rebuild the platform and orient it away from an app to a highly performant browser-based tool. Meanwhile, I conducted hundreds of customer interviews with new prospects, before honing down the value proposition,” said Mr Wastnage.

The Vloggi platform is available to teams wanting to create high volumes of consistent video using their customers, colleagues or clients as sources of footage. Customers include JAX Tyres & Autos, the New South Wales Education Standards Authority and JUCY campervan rentals. Video clips are instantly formatted with the brand assets of the client, making it the fastest video production tool on the market.

“The projects we’ve seen our platform used for since our relaunch in September 2020 have all come from very different sectors. But what they have validated to us is that there is a need for organisations to source video clips of their product in action by customers, to source soundbites from stakeholders and to engage their loyal customers.

“Each of these projects contained some elements of the automation we will be rolling out progressively in 2021. Now that we have rebuilt a strong team around us again, we are confident that we will reach the aggressive sales targets that the board has set us this year,” said Mr Wastnage.

Media enquiries

David Binning, Brand Comms Bureau
[email protected] / +61 406 397 033

About Vloggi

Vloggi is a Sydney-based user-generated video automation tool. The company makes it easy for brands to source, manage and publish video content created by their community, colleagues or customers. The platform includes a customisable uploader tool and an automated video production platform.  Vloggi makes it easy for companies to create video at scale by harnessing their customers’ own footage.

Vloggi has named one of three Australian finalists for the global Pitch for $1m contest and has participated in accelerators programs including University of Technology of Sydney’s FutureUp and Antler Launch. The company has raised A$750,000 in angel investment and is planning a seed round in early 2021.

To learn more about how to engage your customers to produce video content for your brand, read our 5 top tips here.

Vloggi is 100% owned by Ciné Souk, a video technology investment company founded by Justin Wastnage in 2018.  Mr Wastnage is joined on the board of Ciné Souk by the five largest shareholders, Vloggi Chief Technology Officer, Jérémy Giraudet, founding team member Satu Raunola-Spencer and lead investor Brendan Leonard, former founder of Sydney technology consultancy Capiotech. Tarryn Myburgh will join the board effective February 2021.