EditMate Expands to Boston to Help Brands Create Crowdsourced Videos
![EditMate Image Provided](https://cdn10.bostonmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/EditMate-App.png)
EditMate Image Provided
Company Name: EditMate
The gist: EditMate provides an online video editing service useful for any company hoping to use video to promote their brand but lacking production experience. Fill out a creative brief and submit your footage, and the team’s editors will return polished social media and web videos, at a price cheaper than the average post-production company.
Who will love the app? Startups and small business owners who lack the marketing budget or resources to hire a traditional film production firm.
Who will not love the app? Companies looking to produce longer, large-scale videos, given EditMate’s sweet spot in creating content brands can share across their social media channels.
Capturing video no longer requires bulky, expensive equipment or a full production crew. The quality and ease of use of smartphone cameras continue to improve. Or you can strap on a GoPro and start capturing everyday activities, like playing bubble soccer in the Boston Common, from a first-person view.
“People are more confident in shooting video themselves,” says Boston College alum Rachel King, creative director of startup EditMate. “But they still need help with post-production.”
King and her cofounder, Scott Stratford, met while working in the video production industry in New Zealand. Each experienced brands coming to them with footage they had shot themselves, but who were in need of an editor who could turn their raw material into a polished video—and affordably. Hearing the regular request sparked an idea: Why not create an online service that offers on-demand, premium video editing without the price tag of a post-production facility?
The nomadic founders moved to Bali in summer 2015 “to hunker down, work, and live cheap,” says King. Within three months, they built a website, mobile app, and backend project management system, and moved back to New Zealand to beta test EditMate. Four months later, they moved again, this time to Boston, to see if Americans liked the service as much as the Kiwis.
“We want to focus on getting into a few events around Boston,” King says, “whether it’s music festivals or conferences.”
The EditMate mobile app helps brands post video footage that King, Stratford, and their nine freelance editors (who can be available at all hours) can turn into shareable media, real-time, during an event. Companies can create a hashtag and encourage event attendees to download the app and upload their video footage, as well, which adds a crowdsource element to the videos. An editor will review the incoming footage and cut a video that can be shared on social media in formats specific to each channel, whether Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. There’s no limit to the quantity of footage users can send in, though the site does have some advice on video best practices for those who are less acclimated to filming.
Outside of events, brands can use EditMate to gather customer testimonials and product reviews to generate content straight from their most valuable source: their customers. They simply need to submit a creative brief detailing their request and then they’ll receive a cost estimate.
For startups and small businesses that lack the budget or resources to hire a production company, the online editing tool serves as a convenient alternative. Individuals have also started using the app for weddings—so many that King and Stratford are developing a white-labeled version of EditMate for the wedding market, called “WeddingMate.”
As more people engage with the app, the founders will build out additional features based on how users interact with it.
“The exciting thing is that what we’ve provided is sort of just a tool,” Scott says. “Now we’re going to see how people use it.”