Interview with Co-Founder, Wideo – Agustin

“Video content has changed the way that companies communicate and promote their products nand services. Every social network has become much more video-friendly. This means that most marketing managers and internal communication managers have had to start thinking about their strategies of promotion and communication through video.”

1. Tell us about your role at Wideo.
I’m one of the co-founders and Head of UX/Design. I have years of experience as a motion grapher, so I manage the product team. This last year, in particular, I strongly advocated for the launch of the new editor. I also oversee all of the design elements of the website, marketing, and templates.

2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
I was always interested in design and animation. I graduated as a graphic designer in 2005 from the University of Buenos Aires and immediately started working as a broadcast designer in different companies such as YPF, ARTEAR and MTV. In 2009, I launched my own studio and worked with brands like FOX, Warner Channel, Unicef, TNT, among others. I then started to work on explainer videos, creating videos for different companies to make their products and services understandable with storytelling and animated videos. In 2011, I met my partner Agu De Marco and started putting together a solution for those people, startups, and small businesses who wanted to create an explainer video in an affordable and simple way.

3. How do you think technology is changing the marketing sector?
Technology keeps growing and changing the way almost everything is done. Big data, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things are all playing a disruptive role in the marketing industry, changing the way that marketers collect and analyze data and promote their products. This change has lead marketers to redesign their marketing strategies. Marketers need to be constantly up-to-date in terms of marketing technology to be competitive.

4. Can you explain how video creation has evolved into an important part of marketing strategies?

Video content has changed the way that companies communicate and promote their products and services. Every social network has become much more video-friendly. This means that most marketing managers and internal communication managers have had to start thinking about their strategies of promotion and communication through video.

This change is happening because consumers prefer video as a format to consume information. Nobody has time, or wants to spend a lot of time, reading everything brands have to say or promote in a plain text. The most effective way to capture a consumer’s attention today is now video. This is because, among other reasons, our brain loves motion and multisensorial messages.

5. How does Wideo help with customer acquisition?
Video is the most efficient way to communicate a message or promote a product or service. Therefore, video has become a powerful customer acquisition tactic. Video improves sales leads and drives better conversions.

The problem is that most SMBs or startups do not have the budget to hire professional video designers or enough time to learn how to use complex animation tools. Moreover, a business does not need just one video. They need multiple videos for different marketing campaigns.

With Wideo, users can upload new video content easily to their social networks or website. Here is a case study on how one company saw an increase in PPC-related conversations leading to customer upgrades, as well as inbound leads and new customer acquisition using Wideo.

6. How do you differentiate Wideo from other platforms available in the market?
In the last two years, many new competitors have emerged in the video market. We understand consumer needs and wants because we’ve been in this landscape for more than six years.
Furthermore, we have always focused on creating an animation and video creation platform built around simplicity and design, which helps our users save time. We always want the experience within the Wideo editor to be simple. Also, we constantly create templates for the different needs of our customers, and we strive to ensure that the design of each template is high quality.

7. What digital innovation in marketing do you think will dominate in 2019?
I believe that video will continue to be the main communication format for marketers in any industry throughout 2019. Something that has been gaining strength in the world of video is using interactivity and personalized videos. These two trends will likely grow this year.

8. How do you prepare for a technology-centric world as a business leader?
This year we prepared for our biggest challenge we had to face, which is the end of the technology on which we had based our first video editor, Flash. Having already overcome this challenge, I believe that we can bring to the market a unique, personalized video alternative by taking advantage of our experience in the industry.

9. What are the major developments you are planning next for Wideo?
The incorporation of filmed video and footage, which is a highly requested feature from our users. We will make it possible to add filmed videos into the video creation process and manipulate the footage as any other object. This will bring many more creative possibilities to our users, such as the ability to make an app screencast appear in the frame of a mobile device to show how the app works while the mobile device is animated. Many other tools let users import filmed videos without the ability to manipulate their sizes or animations. We hope to launch this awesome feature by the end of June 2019.

10. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
I am truly grateful for the Wideo team. We manage to maintain a work process that is very efficient and organized, which allows us to move quickly in decision making.

11. Which movie inspires you the most?
I’m a big fan of “Nightmare before Christmas,” “Magnolia,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “The Matrix,” among others.

12. We have heard that you have a very joyful work culture; can you share any fun pictures of your workplace?
We are currently a smaller team than we were a few years ago, and in 2017, we decided to be 100% remote. We were very inspired by Jason Fried’s “Remote” book for this decision. Although, at the beginning, we had to get used to adopting new workflows to manage with the fact that we were not all in the same office every day. Today, I am grateful to have made that decision. I strongly recommend to other business leaders to read that book; it will open your mind. When working 100% remote, you only worry about the job that needs to be done, and you don’t have to worry about any other office issues (like coffee, blocked pipes, etc).

Working remotely can also bring to the team much greater concentration, efficiency, and focus. We try once or twice a year to get together, and the fact that we are fewer people makes this simpler. We also think no one needs to micromanagement anyone else or processes. We just work towards the same objectives, without requesting anyone a specific amount of job daily hours. Every team member has the precious opportunity to work from where she or he wants to spend their lives. For instance, closer to their families and favorite activities. We believe time is the most precious thing we all have and want everyone at Wideo (users and team members) to spend their time wisely and on things they love the most.

13. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone?
Google Mail, Instagram, Facebook, Waze, Insight Timer, Kindle, YouTube, Runtastic, Music Memos, and Guitar Tuna.