Vimeo Stock
Stock had been thrown around internally as one of those ‘no-brainer’ ideas for years. Vimeo is undisputedly the largest creative community of video makers in the world, a place where both sides (stock-buyers and stock-creators) were already interacting. So it made sense to bring them together and build a new kind stock marketplace that could leverage both Vimeo’s brand and integrate directly with the rest of the tools we were already offering these groups.
In the beginning
The goal of the first phase of this project was to finally lift this idea off a roadmapping post-it note and into something that was researched, sized and specced. By the end of that process we were able to shop around a presentation packed with user research, conceptual designs, a working business modal, a launch strategy and an initial content acquisition plan.
The plan takes shape
As we saw it, the trick to this product was how well it was integrated in to the rest of the platform. We needed to graft an e-commerce platform inside a SaaS product. Without connection points that made sense, we wouldn’t be leveraging the features that no other stock competitor could deploy. To do this we had to minimize the amount of new pages, and wherever possible utilize parts of the site where creators already interacted. Certain search terms would trigger Vimeo Stock CTAs. Stock purchasers would be able to save collections using our existing showcase product, unlocking advanced sharing and privacy features no other stock platform could compare with. Post purchase, a stock clip would be seamlessly added to any project in a user’s account and stored for free in perpetuity.
The brand stands up
Despite our principle of integration wherever possible, we wanted the Vimeo stock brand to feel big when it need to feel big. We wanted something big, with a ‘content forward’ approach that dismantled the idea of stock being endless lists of corporate handshakes and people in cheap santa suits.
Onsite discovery
Our integration strategy presented its own challenges. Positioning Vimeo Stock as a seamless part of the workflow meant it was also in competition with all the other parts of the workflow that were vying for a users attention. We had to work hard to find the right touch points that would bring a user to the stock eco-system when it mattered most.
Driving traffic
Immediately post launch, we shifted our focus toward building as many evergreen traffic bridges to Vimeo Stock as we could. One the most successful leveraged the image recognition AI we’d built for Stock Search to scan everyday Vimeo clips in search of similar looking stock in our marketplace. For users looking to augment their edits with stock, this was the ultimate shortcut
And finally, just add content
We built Vimeo Stock because our mission was to make our creators and their work successful. This product was designed to form the perfect loop. The best creators could market stock in a way they’d never been able to before, and access to that stock would in turn make more creators better at what they do.
