Erik Gingles reacted to the news of Periscope’s purchase by Twitter with equal measures of elation and frustration.
The news broke March 9 that Twitter had bought Periscope, which allows Twitter users to display live video from their smartphones, for just under $100 million. It was a blow for Meerkat, another app that allows video live streaming, as Periscope’s links with Twitter appeared to give it market dominance.
Gingles, the CEO of I Communications in Moncton, was more perplexed than anything because he has a comparable product that he believes is in many respects superior to both Meerkat and Periscope.
For one thing — and it’s a big thing — Ginglelive.com can record video and then post it to social media, massively improving the use of live streaming as a marketing tool.
“We are recording,” Gingles said in an interview. “What I have been telling clients is our platform isn’t a toy. It’s a powerful marketing tool, and that’s how we sell it.”
Gingles is a mix of marketing consultant and tech entrepreneur. He was a member of the first cohort of PropelICT’s Launch36 tech accelerator in the summer of 2012, working on a social enterprise project designed to help charities live stream their events. After that, he went quiet on the startup front as the father of three focused more on his consulting business.
But behind the scenes he pushed on with the live streaming product, moving it into tools for journalists or marketers. He improved the functionality, adding more than just the recording feature. There is also the TAP, or “take a picture” feature, which allows the user to take a still photo from a video and use that to highlight the clip on social media.
The journalism product is on the back shelf, but he’s pressing forward with the marketing device and gaining traction.
After speaking on a high-profile panel in New York City, Gingles has grown his network in the world’s largest marketing community and is gaining acceptance.
He has tested its marketing capabilities in a one-year project with Mount Allison University, which has signed up with Ginglelive.com for another year. The university used the live streaming function as a key part of its communications strategy. It found that the following of its Ginglelive.com video was five times that of its YouTube content, though the former had been available for about one-quarter of the time.
When Mount A had a parent information session recently, 15 people attended the event. But the marketing team videoed it using Ginglelive.com and sent out an email blast. Some 178 people in 18 countries watched the video as a result.
Gingles is plotting his way forward with the product. The Periscope-Meerkat story has frustrated him because he believes Ginglelive.com is the superior product of the three, but it also gives him hope that he is on the right track.
In particular, he said, the educational sector could be a prime market for Ginglelive.com. He’s planning to attend a conference in Britain soon that he hopes could be a springboard to a client base of colleges in Europe.
“We’re not just selling the app," he said. "We’re selling the whole system and the marketing strategy behind it.”
Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support start-up companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies are featured in this column nor do they have the right to review columns before they are published.
