Henk Kleynhans joins Blink Tower, launches new service

The company has launched a new service to help its clients reach larger audiences and Kleynhans will manage this operation on a full-time basis.

"The company specialises in making animated explainer videos," says Kleynhans, who has been an investor in and advisor to the company since it was founded. "But we noticed that many of our clients were struggling to get large audiences for their videos and we realised this was an area where we could add significant value." He is based in Australia and will direct marketing from there, while building the company's presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Increasing traffic

The company recently ran a pilot campaign using Google's TrueView advertising platform, which returned remarkable results. "We spent about R6000 to place our own explainer video, as pre-roll advertising, on YouTube videos and generated well over 40 times that much in qualified leads in just two weeks. The campaign quadrupled traffic to our website. It was obvious we should be doing the same for our clients."

The pilot's success was repeated in a second test campaign it ran for a client, which generated an 18% click-through rate more than double what the team was expecting.

"TrueView provides highly targeted audiences, so there is a good chance that your video will match the viewer's interests - and if it doesn't, they can opt to skip the ad after five seconds. It is as non-intrusive as video advertising gets. It is equally good news for advertisers: They pay only when viewers choose to watch the whole ad and we have had a cost-per-click of less than a dollar so far.

Simplicity

"The company has a fantastic product. It does not just have great animators; it has an excellent instinct for how to explain difficult concepts in simple ways. It's a rare combination, which is why I invested early and am joining the team full-time now."

Blink Tower makes animated explainer videos for companies, non-profits and government agencies who need to tell the world what they do in simple, clear, entertaining ways. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, the team has made videos for clients all over the world including Vodacom, The Shuttleworth Foundation, Zando, ictQATAR and Stratus. In 2012, it won the global Why Open Education Matters video competition, organised by Creative Commons, the US Department of Education and the Open Society Foundations.

For more information, go to www.blinktower.com.