Zoomin on the global Gen Z view
BY Iliyan Stoychev
What is Gen Z? How does the Gen Z generation think, use the media and express themselves? Those have been some questions that studies have been trying to touch upon in recent years in order to orient digital content makers how to reach their target audience best. At Zoomin.TV those questions have long been answered, helping the company become the biggest creator and distributor of content consumed by the young generation globally. The secrets to success? Iliyan Stoychev tried to get some clues from CEO Jan Riemens.
Jan, let’s start with the million-dollar question: What is the right formula for creating content for Generation Z?
The best way to create Gen Z content is to involve them directly – which is exactly what we do at Zoomin.TV. It’s written into our DNA. Our short-form editorial team members are mostly in their twenties and the 30-strong team hail from 20+ nations across the globe. Our 3.500–strong international VJ network is only slightly older than that. Sprinkle into that mix some more experienced editorial managers and you have the perfect recipe. Likewise, at Zoomin Studios: when we upscale our top YouTube creators, we keep them closely involved and stay true to their editorial sensibilities, but we also ensure we hit the higher production standards for longer-form platforms such as linear television or OTT.

Our unique approach are our values that are inspired by Gen Z, defined by edgy and quirky topics yet always with a heartwarming and smart witty lens. We are not tied to an age group but inspired by this new mindset and the new habits that are contagious throughout all Gen Z’s. These values are defined by our mantra ‘Dare Care Share’.

What makes Zoomin.TV unique? What makes you stand out from the competition?
Zoomin.TV is unique in two ways. We’re the only online video publisher who does everything: content production, content distribution and advertising sales. And we’re the only one who creates video content from all over the world and distributes it in 21+ languages. Perhaps the explanation for that lies in our Dutch heritage. Being Dutch, we’re used to doing business with other cultures in other languages since the 16th century. Today, only a quarter of the people within our company actually speak Dutch.

Zoomin.TV is the world’s largest online video publisher and is part of Modern Times Group. How was the idea for your company born and what were the biggest challenges for you in the beginning?
It all started with the idea to bring financial news in a video format to the employees of banks and insurance companies in the Netherlands. These turned out to be quite expensive productions with limited possibilities for return on investment due to the small market (B2B and Dutch only). That led to the decision in 2005 to expand the target audience to consumers with domestic, international, entertainment and sports news and create Zoom.in. From 2006 this business format was rolled out to other European countries. The biggest challenge back then was to get distribution, which we solved by giving distributors the content as well as a revenue share.

What are the main qualities of the content you are looking for?
The excellent quality of our VJ network and our story hunters shows by the simple fact that we have a culturally diverse and dynamic young editorial team. This mix guarantees stories that are truly untold and unseen; therefore, we know that Zoomin.TV can surprise its audience at all times because of the authenticity, vulnerability, and edginess of its stories.
The pre-production aligns the story production, distribution, and sales potential in such a way that we make sure that the right story hits the right platform in the appropriate format. We can be flexible, cost-effective, smart and timely in producing remotely.

Furthermore, by using our own VJ network and not content partners we can customize every pre-production to encompass all our business models (Advertising, MPN, Social, Branded, Studios etc.)

Zoomin.TV has content with news, music and games and also several topical magazines. Which are the most popular ones?
Entertainment content is the most popular because it has the widest appeal globally.

Local Heroes is the most developed and popular of our six Gen Z topical MagaZines so far, not only with publishers but also among the audiences on various platforms. The quality of our MagaZines is the result of savvy recruiting in the VJ network and fostering international talents to create cinematic short form.

The fact that brands want to tell stories and focus on this emerging target group also makes us successful in branded content productions.



What share of the content Zoomin.TV produces is dedicated to brands?
Less than 1% of our produced content is branded content or native advertising; 99% of our produced videos are used by our clients to drive traffic.

Which are your key markets? Where is Zoomin.TV most-popular and which territories you would like to establish a wider presence in?
Our key markets are Germany and Brazil. We are currently rapidly establishing a wider presence in China and South-East Asia.

What is the share of the US business of Zoomin.TV in the company’s portfolio?
If we define the US business as what we do with American clients and platforms (i.e. YouTube, Facebook, United Nations, Yahoo, AOL etc.), then that share is about 45% of our global revenue. We entered the US market 3 years ago. Although there is a huge amount of video content available on this market we see that we offer a product with a specific and unique ‘Zoomin’-style, based on our Generation Z content strategy of ‘Dare, Care, Share’.

Let’s talk about Zoomin Studios. What are its most popular formats, and do you work with traditional broadcasters or predominantly with digital ones? What are your latest sales?
In our opinion, the most popular format is yet to be broadcast, but we are soon to deliver a unique international Generation Zoomin magazine show that packages together and formats the very best of our short-form stories with truly global appeal. That series is now into production and we expect it to be localized into over 15 languages towards the end of 2018.

We work predominantly with digital broadcasters such as OTT like the OWNZONES network and Facebook Watch, but interest from traditional ones is growing and we are now on the brink of some very exciting commissions in the linear TV market – watch this space!

Our latest sale is the production of the In Amsterdam series for 420TV. That explores the world-famous coffee-shop culture of our home city. But we should also mention a really exciting take on the growing drone-racing sub-culture in the USA that has grown from our Facebook Watch commission. We are calling it DRONERS and plan localized versions as part of an international series.

Can branded video content deliver bright future for digital advertising? How much branded video content can audiences consume?
The future is definitely brighter with branded content than with regular digital advertising, which tends to only irritate the viewers. Generation Z thoroughly dislikes regular advertising, but they understand that the content is not for free. As long as the branded content is interesting and engages them, they’re ok with it. So branded content is much less of a problem than regular advertising. ▪
JAN RIEMENS founded his first company MoneyView Research in 1993. In 1995 he founded Moneyview Online, online provider of financial news, which was successfully sold to Dow Jones Newswires in 2002. In 2000 he founded the Dutch general news agency Novum Nieuws, which was sold to ANP in 2014. Also in 2000 he founded Finance TV, soon to be shortened to FTV and later renamed Zoom.in and renamed again Zoomin.TV. Swedish media conglomerate Modern Times Group (MTG) acquired a 51% share in Zoomin.TV in July 2015. Later that year, Riemens started Zoomin Studios to develop cutting-edge formats and deliver ground-breaking long-form television content. In 2016 he launched Zoomin.TV’s new content strategy ‘Dare, Care, Share’ targeting Generation Z.
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