Rightster launches VideoSpring to search and license viral vids

According to Richard North, general manager of Rightster Asia-Pacific, giving marketers and agencies access to licensed, viral video content will enhance their creative possibilities and success rate.

“I don’t think it’ll make agencies and marketers lazy,” said North. “In fact, the agencies using the content are being smart about it. They’re using the data to make their decisions and are looking at what content resonates and with what kinds of people.”

Rightster’s business proposition to brands is straightforward: viral content is proven to work; it already has an audience. If brands can tap into these, they’ll be making a more powerful connection to the audiences they want to target.

However, North highlights that it’s not as simple as licensing a viral video and putting it online.

“What we’re seeing from brands and agencies using the service is that they blend viral video content with their own high production content,” said North. “In testing these videos on audiences, we saw people recognise the viral videos spliced in between the content the agency had created.”

“It’s a kind of light-bulb moment when they realise they’ve seen parts of the video before,” North added.
 

Here's an example of a Vicks ad using user-generated "viral" content:

While many of the viral videos come from “everyday users” Rightster also taps into its network of established influencers. The company’s criteria and definition of viral is a “video that is trending in the hundreds of thousands of views”.

North said Rightster has tools in place to trawl the web for viral content and teams that then reach out to content owners in order to acquire the rights to the content. While the company has an inventory of viral content that is licensed and ready-to-use it also searches for viral content on demand, North added.

“We’ll get a brief from an agency for a very specific campaign and then we’ll start to search for viral content on the web,” said North. “This is where we work very closely with the brand and agencies to create the final product.”

Due to confidentiality, North was unable to comment on the rate structure of licensing content, as well as how content owners are paid for their content. “It varies from one video to another and we have different arrangements with each advertiser,” said North.

Rightster claims a network of 2,500 content owners generates more than 1.6 billion online video views per month. The firm has recently partnered with global brands including Procter & Gamble, Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox on their online video campaigns.

The aim of VideoSpring is to give marketers, creatives, and producers the ability to discover and license the “best-known and most shared videos on the web without a long and complex clearance process”, North said.

Content will be sourced across all major video platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram and Facebook. In addition, all videos are exclusive to the portal, are fully rights-cleared for commercial usage and ready for licensing on request, he added.

VideoSpring will be updated daily with fresh content from around the world, with a “core focus on brand-safe videos with proven viewership.”