Hatch Global in conversation with Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo
Hatch invited Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo talking about Vimeo, videos and telling your story in the digital age.
How has the pandemic affected Vimeo users?
“We have a lot of video professionals, filmmakers, agencies and creatives working around the pandemic and for many of them it has been difficult. They’ve had to become a lot more creative in telling a powerful story remotely and in quarantine. We’re also seeing an incredible surge and demand for video for businesses and entrepreneurs as well,” says Anjali. Anjali’s role as CEO was to pivot a 15-year old media company to a SaaS technology company.
Focus in a business
While hardware capabilities of cameras have improved video, social media is still the largest driver for video as that’s where customers are. “Because of social media, the need for video as a marketing tool for businesses has gone from ‘oh that’s a fun thing I can try’ to ‘I need video’”, says Anjali. Vimeo’s strategy is that it wants to be distribution agnostic and help users get their content everywhere through all platforms which influence the partnerships that Vimeo ties with. The company doesn’t compete with platforms such as Netflix which creates original content, but creates the tools and technology for anyone to make their own content.
“The power of focus if you want to be great is so critical. Whether you’re a large business or a startup, you have to pick something and be the best at it and be willing to trade off other opportunities,”
Pricing of the product or service
Elaborating on the revenue model of Vimeo which is a membership-based business, Anjali said that it was driven by the users — the majority of them being professionals who require a clean, artistic user experience without ads.
“The biggest lesson to us is that we don’t try and drive transactions. We build relationships. Subscription or membership, it’s all about retention. Value is not about selling something — but really getting the customer to stay,” says Anjali.
Culture in an organisation
The best cultures are built intentionally. Vimeo has a culture of innovation that comes from any part of the company. “I think of innovation as less of ‘something cool and new’ but more as ‘impact’. Are we helping users in ways that they would never have thought of? That comes from understanding their problems,” says Anjali in terms of the heavy investments done by Vimeo on consumer insights, research and feedback loops.
Vimeo has a very open, vocal and comfortable culture that encourages everyone to contribute.
“If somebody comes to me with a point of view that I don’t agree with or a piece of feedback that I’m uncomfortable to hear, but it’s through the genuine lens of ‘I really believe that this point of view is worth hearing because it might help us make a better decision’ it melts all those other things away,” says Anjali on encouraging everyone in the team to be more open and approachable.
Secrets to be a storyteller
“For filmmakers and those using the story as a creative outlet is actually vulnerability,” says Anjali. You have to put yourself out there, start somewhere which is what’s very hard. A safe and supportive community such as Vimeo where you can be yourself is important as well. “For businesses and brands, the context matters. Know your audience, know where your story is going to be heard, and tailor it based on that. For example, now we all watch stories on our phones. From a storytelling perspective, most of your videos are going to be autoplayed on a newsfeed with no sound so videos with no text/captions won’t be heard,” says Anjali who addressed the practical side to storytelling on digital.
When using video to tell your story, there is a popular understanding that if you don’t get the attention of someone within the first few second, you might lose out. At the same time, there is an interest in long-form storytelling for brands that want to pull back the curtain on their culture, mission or customers.
For a good story, the length shouldn’t matter — the message and context does.
Videos are going to be more immersive and interactive, in forms of Virtual Reality and 360' videos and so on. It’s an area people are experimenting, but there is a shift towards that.
Women in business
“Early on, I felt like I had to change the way I talked and acted to embody the more traditional make leader from the way I cut my hair to not wearing jewellery and so on. The reality is that you will be great when you are yourself. Being yourself is really hard because you have to find the version of yourself that is most authentic,” says Anjali.
Resist the feeling that you have to be like somebody else. Try and find the notes of authenticity in you that brings out the passion and energy in you that is really, really you and experiemnt. You will find the right balance. The more real and authentic you become, the more well receievd you will be.
In concluding the conversation, says Anjali “Find things that bring you natural energy. If you’re struggling in what you’re doing, ask yourself if this is what you want to be doing,”
Watch the webinar of Anajlu Sud on our YouTube channel here.
