Sara Fischer / Axios:Salesforce launches Salesforce+, a free streaming service aimed at business professionals, with original programming from Salesforce and eventually its clients Salesforce is the latest tech giant to venture into video streaming with the launch of a new service aimed at business professionals
With the debut of Salesforce+, a new service aimed at business professionals that will be available to all users, Salesforce has become the latest tech giant go into video streaming, according to the company’s chief marketing officer Sarah Franklin.
What it means and why it matters:
The service is part of a broader attempt by Salesforce to shift its marketing strategy away from paid client acquisition and toward owned and managed media channels.
Franklin hopes that the content will assist people in refining their abilities while also developing an emotional connection to Salesforce, which will lead consumers to “desire to utilise our products and want to engage more with us,” according to Franklin.
Details:
Salesforce+, which will premiere globally during Salesforce’s annual mega-conference Dreamforce in September, is a free service that will contain original programming from Salesforce and eventually, material developed by its clients.
- The content will be available on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it will also include live event programming, which will debut with Dreamforce.
- To assist with the debut of the service, the business has employed approximately 50 editorial leads, including screenplay writers and broadcast producers. It intends to fill a large number of editorial positions in the coming months as it continues to develop its content slate.
- Additionally, hundreds of Salesforce employees are currently working on Salesforce+ across marketing, product, and digital departments across the company.
- Franklin said that for the time being, the company has no intentions to sell advertisements around the material or charge for it. In her words, “we’ll judge success by the number of free subscribers and views.” It will be launched in September with a significant amount of sponsored promotion to get people interested.
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As part of this effort, Salesforce has established its own in-house studio, Salesforce Studios, which will film and produce the material, which will include stories that, according to Franklin, are intended to be both amusing and inspirational.
- According to Franklin, “It will assist you in learning things that will help you accomplish excellent work in your current position, whether you are a salesperson, a marketing professional, a CEO, or anything else.”
- Even though Salesforce intends to provide the majority of the material at launch, the company expects to eventually develop a platform for professional content from its customers.
- According to Franklin, “We see an enormous opportunity to have community-submitted content and series,” stressing that Salesforce will review all of the content posted to the Salesforce platform. “We can supply some quality assurance and oversight approvals for the production process.”
Salesforce has produced 6 original programmes that will appear at launch. Some seminars, including “Leading Through Change” and “The Inflection Point,” showcase work and issues faced by corporate leaders. Others, including “Boss Talks” and “Simply Put,” will focus on professional advancement and strengthening business skills.
It will also introduce four “broadcast channels,” or channels that contain live programming from its events, with more than 100 hours of content.
New Platform Emerges for Business Journalists
A new startup called Workweek started Wednesday to enable authors of business-to-business content — previously content that lived in white papers or behind paywalls at trade magazines — full-time support to work independently.
Why it matters: The approach is supposed to give authors and creators more support than they would generally receive if they wrote for an independent publishing platform, such a salary and full-time benefits.
Details: The co-founders of the operation are media entrepreneurs and former executives from The Hustle, Adam Ryan and Becca Sherman.
The startup has raised $1.5 million in finance, led by LightShed Ventures, with other investors including: Packy McCormick from Not Boring Capital; Mario Gabriele; Lance Armstrong; Elizabeth Yin; and other individuals.
- It has so far hired 10 full-time staff, including a director of brand Partnerships, a head of operations, a content manager and four creators. It hopes on adding 25 more workers in the following months.
- It’s debuting with creators across a handful of areas, including healthcare, cannabis, money and financial innovation.
- The company is situated in Austin but has remote employees. It plans to continue onboarding new creators periodically.
- How it works: In addition to a pay, producers will be able to share percentages of revenue with Workweek across many business lines, including email subscriptions to start, and later things like events and e-commerce.
- The perks are generous given that the creators are not working for a newsroom full-time. Workweek would give creators 25 days of paid time off, 100 percent health insurance coverage, 120 days of parental leave to use within 1 year of childbirth, a 3.5 percent 401(k) plan match, a $500 annual stipend for home office expenses and more.
- It also claims it commits to helping creators create their own companies if they wish. In addition to offering things like a $1000 per year stipend for continuing education and career guidance, Workweek claims it will commit to investing in new startups from Workweek creators if they’ve been with Workweek for 3 years.
- What they’re saying: “Influential business content is no longer restricted to Wall Street Journal articles or Gartner white papers, but now comes in the shape of Tweets, product evaluations, YouTube clips, newsletters, and more,” said founder and COO Becca Sherman in a statement.
Now, because creators have many more options to develop brands on their own, media outlets are striving to discover strategies to discourage writers from leaving huge institutions and launching their own newspapers.
The New York Times, Forbes, and most recently, The Atlantic, have all started programmes that provide independent authors venues to begin newsletters.
Bottom line: “Traditionally, a great creator at a media company enhances brand value, user growth, revenue per user, and many other KPIs across the business. However, content teams have typically been one of the lowest-budgeted departments,” said Ryan in a statement.
