Tick. Done, a mobile-first video platform for ‘how to’ video stories, has opened itself up to branded content, with the launch of Tick Studio, an in-house creative agency dedicated to producing content for brands.

Tick.Done graduated from the Zinc VC Accelerator in Spring 2018, started by Franz Schrepf, Cedric Lam and Blippar co-founder, Jess Butcher MBE. It’s a micro-video platform where users can both share and learn how to do anything in seconds. It incorporates a simple, in-app mobile-first creator tool for step-by-step vertical video and a viewing platform for search and play. Tick stories are viewable in-app or directly on a mobile browser, in the open web ‘AMP story’ format launched by Google last November.

The content is indexable for SEO through the detailed text labels embedded throughout each story step. Tick. Done. Said it is working closely with Google to drive volume of content in the format. The launch of Tick Studio is designed to provide a place where brands can share branded ‘how-to’ explainer content to new levels.

“Most branded open web ‘how-to’ content is poor quality, hard for users to follow, difficult to discover and created in formats that dont work well with mobile,” said Tick. Done co-founder, Jess Butcher. “The videos are often horizontal, continuous-play, audio-reliant and verbose. This results in a huge amount of wasted time. “Yet many mobile-first social ‘stories’ are locked in social platforms, inaccessible for search and problematic for brands who have had to rely on either invasive pop-ups or diminishing returns from influencer marketing to access these audiences.”

Tick Studio offers brands two alternative content options. The first is professional, branded ‘how to’ stories created by Tick Studio. The company said this would be well suited to product user-guides and manuals, inspirational usage suggestions and best practice guides, for food ingredients, beauty products, self-assembly furniture, electronic devices, tools and more.

The second is to encourage the creation of user-generated content around branded products. The company said it has already seen success using competition prizes as a trigger for users to create ‘how-to’ and reviews content around branded products. As such, it is keen to invite brands to make use of competition and reward mechanics to incentivise their own fans and followers to create stories using their products, with links to purchase embedded in their stories. All user-generated content can be pre-approved before publication by the brand, and be connected to the brand’s own micro-channel on Tick. Done.

“We’re excited to open up the potential of our platform for brands,” said Butcher. “We appreciate that many of the most commonly asked ‘how to’ questions are related to brands and products and we figure there is no one better to answer those questions than the brands themselves and their biggest fans. We want to work with them to create a healthier, slimmed-down visual web where questions can be answered in seconds and we can all reclaim more of our offline lives.”

Tick. Done, a mobile-first video platform for ‘how to’ video stories, has opened itself up to branded content, with the launch of Tick Studio, an in-house creative agency dedicated to producing content for brands.

Tick.Done graduated from the Zinc VC Accelerator in Spring 2018, started by Franz Schrepf, Cedric Lam and Blippar co-founder, Jess Butcher MBE. It’s a micro-video platform where users can both share and learn how to do anything in seconds. It incorporates a simple, in-app mobile-first creator tool for step-by-step vertical video and a viewing platform for search and play. Tick stories are viewable in-app or directly on a mobile browser, in the open web ‘AMP story’ format launched by Google last November.

The content is indexable for SEO through the detailed text labels embedded throughout each story step. Tick. Done. Said it is working closely with Google to drive volume of content in the format. The launch of Tick Studio is designed to provide a place where brands can share branded ‘how-to’ explainer content to new levels.

“Most branded open web ‘how-to’ content is poor quality, hard for users to follow, difficult to discover and created in formats that dont work well with mobile,” said Tick. Done co-founder, Jess Butcher. “The videos are often horizontal, continuous-play, audio-reliant and verbose. This results in a huge amount of wasted time. “Yet many mobile-first social ‘stories’ are locked in social platforms, inaccessible for search and problematic for brands who have had to rely on either invasive pop-ups or diminishing returns from influencer marketing to access these audiences.”

Tick Studio offers brands two alternative content options. The first is professional, branded ‘how to’ stories created by Tick Studio. The company said this would be well suited to product user-guides and manuals, inspirational usage suggestions and best practice guides, for food ingredients, beauty products, self-assembly furniture, electronic devices, tools and more.

The second is to encourage the creation of user-generated content around branded products. The company said it has already seen success using competition prizes as a trigger for users to create ‘how-to’ and reviews content around branded products. As such, it is keen to invite brands to make use of competition and reward mechanics to incentivise their own fans and followers to create stories using their products, with links to purchase embedded in their stories. All user-generated content can be pre-approved before publication by the brand, and be connected to the brand’s own micro-channel on Tick. Done.

“We’re excited to open up the potential of our platform for brands,” said Butcher. “We appreciate that many of the most commonly asked ‘how to’ questions are related to brands and products and we figure there is no one better to answer those questions than the brands themselves and their biggest fans. We want to work with them to create a healthier, slimmed-down visual web where questions can be answered in seconds and we can all reclaim more of our offline lives.”