Introducing Shelby (Not the Car)
I recently became acquainted with the founder of a startup here in NYC, run by 5 guys who’ve been working on a mobile video project for months, raising $1.7 million in investment earlier this year. One of the founders is Reece Pacheco, who is the CEO of Shelby.tv, which is a website, iPhone app, and iPad app that pulls in videos shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
A great concept, indeed, and considering they just graduated from TechStars NYC and were featured in the reality TV show about the startup accelerator, the meta-ness of it all doesn’t escape me (wait for it, the meta-ness is about to get out of hand).
Onto the Reality
I’m not much into watch video online. It takes too long and I prefer reading, but I actually have found myself changing my behavior a bit with this app. While using it, I had an idea about an inexpensive way to acquire customers (read: marketing).
Since the discovery of reality TV by the American population, seemingly everyone wants to be on the next episode of The Real Housewives of Montana. Why not play into that (ok, maybe not the Brawny Betty part)?
You’re on Candid Camera
Here’s the idea. Get out on the streets of NYC in your Shelby.tv shirts, with an official-looking video camera and ask to interview people about something (the weather, New York City, etc), or find some reason to get them on camera. They’ll be shy at first, but c’mon, how many people would say no to being interviewed?
Then, (maybe) create a reality channel on the service where Shelby.tv uploads these videos. Tell the people who were just filmed to check it out on this channel or just the service in general (give them a card, tell them to download the app or sign up on their computer).
The beautiful part is that these people will then SHARE the videos, and thereby Shelby.tv, on their social networks because, well, most people love talking about themselves. It’s one of the consumer behavioral rules for startups.
And there you have it: the beginnings of a viral marketing campaign through Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.
Maybe I’m way off base here, but I’ve got to believe that if you put the marketing incentive on your users (Dropbox comes to mind), instead of doing it all yourself, that’s the best way to acquire new users. And you don’t have to pay a dime for it, other than your time. And that seems better, and decidedly more fun, than calculating ROI on your Google and Facebook ads, no?
