On a dedicated platform called Wistea Channels, the video marketing firm Wistea not only helps companies and brands develop their own content, but it also hosts the resulting videos, promising a range of benefits for its clients and their customers too. The company insists that the key to success for brands today is “brand affinity marketing”—a term that refers to the need to do more than create awareness among buyers. For a brand (whether B2C or B2B) to succeed, it needs to engage its clients and create a sense of affinity or liking among them.

According to Wistea, the best way to do so is by telling stories through communications such as videos and podcasts. Therefore, it produces and sells advanced video marketing software that enables firms, especially those that do not have the resources to maintain their own video or even marketing departments, to produce professional-looking, entertaining, compelling content. Its tools encourage these clients to establish brand affinity marketing efforts that tell stories, such that they might produce a series of entertaining videos that engage customers, leading them to continue watching the marketing contributions over multiple iterations.

But as many companies have learned to their dismay, the best video or podcast in the world offers little benefit it no one sees it or, perhaps even worse, if they see it in an unpleasant or unsavory environment. For example, on YouTube, many brands have found their marketing messages surrounded by offensive or violent content, without any control over when and where their advertising appears.

The Wistea Channels platform offers a valuable B2B solution for these firms. Although similar in its basic functions to YouTube, Wistea Channels grants brands substantial control over how their branded content will be presented. Advertisements for other brands will not interrupt or distract from their content. Wistea does not remove any videos without notice either. Furthermore, because users of the platform subscribe to watch, these firms gain invaluable information about who is watching, what they find appealing, and whether they share the content—information that can critically inform a supplier’s ability to identify when a potential buyer has entered the need recognition stage for example.

If potential buyers come to love the video marketing, brands also can link their content to their own websites; Wistea does not hold the copyright on their advertising. But it helps them advertise in other ways too, such as providing a tool to send email notifications or undertake a dedicated targeting campaign on more widely used platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Source: Barb Mosher Zinck, “Wistea and Casted Are Redefining How We Manage Video and Podcast Shows,” Diginomica, October 10, 2019; Katelyn Fogle, “7 Outstanding Examples of Companies Using Instagram Video,” Weidert Group, January 21, 2019, https://www.weidert.com/whole_brain_marketing_blog/outstanding-examples-of-companies-using-instagram-video; Amy Gesenhues, “Wistea Launches Free Version of its Channels Video Platform, Adds New Features, Facebook Audience Integration,” Marketing Land, October 11, 2019.