STARTUP OF THE WEEK: mighteor
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Ever wanted to make your brand look really cool? Mighteor does that. But they aren't your typical video advertising company.
Mighteor produces internet video, tailored to all social media platforms. And they are taking on mobile content next.
Elizabeth Giorgi, CEO, director and founder of Mighteor, calls herself a storyteller. In fact, she started out in journalism, helping University News Service upload videos to the internet for the first time, back in the infancy of YouTube. Four years later, she ended up here in Denver, bootstrapping a digital storytelling business with her savings.
"This whole business was kind of prefaced on the bet that there would be more internet videos," Giorgi said. Back in the late 2000s, Youtube was one of the few places people were posting videos on the internet. Oh, how times have changed.
Founded in 2013, Mighteor is a seven-person production company that develops creative online content for clients ranging from nonprofits to tech companies.
Unlike many advertising companies, Mighteor won't settle for one-off projects. The team prefers to develop long-standing relationships with clients in order to develop authentic campaigns that embody the spirit of the companies they work with.
"One of the reasons it's really hard for a traditional production company to dive into a project and come up with something authentic is because it's a gig economy," Giorgi said. "You aren't spending years with somebody, getting to know their leadership team, their customers. The more you get into that, the more you are able to naturally tap into what their vision is for their company."
Willingness to engage in more long-term relationships is one criteria for a Mighteor client. Another is openness to nontraditional advertising.
Mighteor has worked with a variety of clients from tech companies, like Revolar, Gorilla Logic and Trendly, to nonprofits and everything in between. They recently completed a project for the Colorado Department of Health and the Environment's "Speak Now" campaign to combat drug and alcohol abuse in children.
Mighteor projects always begin with data. The team first identifies how clients' target audiences are viewing content -- be it Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin, Instagram, or otherwise -- then they devise how best to craft content for that specific platform.
Projects vary, but brands typically get a two- to three-minute visionary brand video, plus additional, shorter videos tailored to various social media platforms.
Then, Mighteor riffs off the longer brand videos they create to make shorter content, more suitable for various social media.
Since 2011, teens and young millennials have upped their mobile video consumption by 85 percent and halved their time spent watching on a traditional TV screen, according to Ericsson's 2016 mobility report. By 2021, 70 percent of all mobile data traffic is anticipated to come from video. In this changing age, it is important to have content that finds the target audience where they are online, as well as in the real world. In other words, content needs to run seamlessly on a mobile interface.
"That tide is only going to move more and more towards mobile, because we take it with us everywhere. It's so personal and so intimate," she said. "Any brand that is being forward-thinking is thinking about what is different about someone experiencing their story here, instead of across the room on a TV screen."
As part of Mighteor's business plan, they also strive to create programmatic content for their clients that keeps viewers engaged and coming back for more. Think about those Tasty videos on Facebook -- Mighteor campaigns are kind of like that.
If you're thinking that two to three minutes seems long for an internet video, you aren't alone.
But Giorgi doesn't believe that "shorter" video always means "better" video, and she thanks the internet for giving Mighteor the freedom to craft content of varying lengths.
"We have an obligation to create things that are dynamic, compelling and capture people's attention. It is irrelevant how long it is," she said. "That's the kind of freedom being this type of production company affords us. We are able to really create the right length content for the right situation -- to focus on story first and worry about run-time later."
Mighteor offers nontraditional pricing and encourages potential clients to contact them directly versus going through agencies to find their creative work. Pricing varies per project, but Giorgi said Mighteor can make great videos, even for budgets as low as $5,000.
No budget? No worries. Mighteor also offers master's classes to make online video less terrifying for the layman.
As for the future of this forward-thinking media company, in 2017, Giorgi looks forward to being one of the first internet production companies to produce a video series intended to be experienced exclusively on mobile.
Founder: Elizabeth Giorgi
Employees: 5 in Denver, 2 in Minneapolis
Industry: Media production
Founded: January 2013
Funding: Bootstrapped with $50,000
Office: 2696 S. Colorado Blvd, Denver; Minneapolis
Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.
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