‘Content marketing’ is one of the most platitudinous media terms at the moment and thanks to a fresh take on what content can (and should) beand also LaunchLab’s MultiChoice Breakthrough Innovation Challenge, there is a new kid on the block – EightStreet Stories.
The company creates short-form video content specifically for mobile platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WeChat, which is a smart call for the market they are trying to reach – 13yr – 18yr old girls. “We need to go to where they are,” says co-founder Ashlin Simpson. “If we can’t reach them we’re not going to make an impact on them at all.” With the high attrition rates of traditional TV-viewership in this market, there are very few sources from which to educate, and even fewer trusted ones. The company aims to change this and, by doing so, connect with a very under-served market and change lives. It is this thinking that caught the eyes of MultiChoice (the sponsor of the challenge) and LaunchLab judges, in the first phase of the challenge. After all, the challenge is all about identifying ideas (and the talented individuals who developed them) that can change the world.
In their live pitch to the judges, they showed the audience exactly what they mean by “high-quality narrative content” with their proof of concept, a web-series called ‘Please Scare Me’ (a play on the Please Call Me SMSes, sent as an SMS, and takes the receiver through to a rather nail-biting exploration of South African urban legends – and you should really watch it here).
The result was a third place in the challenge, which earned them R20 000 to kick-start the company, as well as access to the Knowledge Acceleration Programme: a 3-month programme which schools the winners on the basics of business: business model development, market strategy and planning, financial forecasting and management. Unlike many enterprise development programmes, which focus only on textbook-style ‘book smarts’, the biggest impact for Ashlin and her team came from the far more important executional knowledge they received through live fieldwork, as the programme actually built the businesses with the participants.
With the financial capital to fuel their dreams, and the knowledge on how to grow them into something sustainable, EightStreet Stories are carving their own niche in the world of online content. They have received funding from the National Film and Video Foundation to produce a show called ‘Millennial Love’ which talks to our young folk about love and relationships in a digital age. Hey Girl is a platform for girls, created by girls, where knowledge on health, news and love can be shared in a way that the audience will listen to. Lastly, they’re working on a deal with MultiChoice to create honest, authentic content to help the company touch the lives of an entirely new market through mobile devices. www.8streetstories.com will be up and running shortly, and we suggest you bookmark it.
Every idea starts somewhere. For EightStreet Stories it started with a group of friends who knew things could be done better, and was accelerated through the LaunchLab. For more information on the LaunchLab’s current challenges, visit http://www.launchlab.co.za/breakthrough-innovation/
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