Interview: There.com and Paramount Partner for VooZoo—Video Emoticons

VooZoo, an application recently launched by Paramount to let users share movie clips (or “Voohoos”) on Facebook, is coming to There.com. Instead of adding emotes, like “LoL” “smile,” to their conversations, users can now pepper communications with pop up video clips from films ranging across the Paramount library.  “Now you can do an emote that could be from The Godfather with the guy saying, ‘I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse,’” explained Makena CEO Michael Wilson. “It’s the actual clip. You’d use the clip like an emote, and it’s a whole new way of interacting. It’s one of the very few things you can’t reproduce in real life unless you want to carry a movie projector around.”

For Paramount, under the brand of Voozoo, it’s all about finding ways to give consumers the content they want, how they want it. Derek Broes, SVP of Paramount’s New Business Group in Digital Entertainment, began his career in Hollywood as Cuba Gooding Jr.’s personal manager and served as executive producer for "Jerry Maguire."

"People use 'Show me the money!' all the time," he explained. "I thought if there was a way to clip up the movies and use that as an emoticon, that’d be amazing. We've just launched the VooZoo application that lets you add those to messages in Facebook, and after going in to virtual worlds, I looked at the bubbles that would pop up over their heads, and I thought, 'This is a no-brainer.'"

Pricing hasn't been set for the Voohoos, but the companies are looking at a price of about $1 each for the initial clips from movies ranging from Footloose and Flashdance to Mean Girls and Clueless with more on the way.

"The model is not new," said Broes. "Today in Microsoft IM you can buy emoticons, or what they call 'winks.' You can click to get more, and it takes you to a third party that builds these Flash animated links. We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, and we thought this was very compelling content. At the same time, we didn’t want to overprice it."

Although the service will launch at Virtual Worlds 2008 with a limited number of clips, more are on their way.

"We just started getting them in today and have to start reviewing them and ingesting them," said Wilson. "I think it’s going to take a while to decide which ones we want to use. We’re going to start with just a few next week, but I’m looking at a list with hundreds."

Broes adds the he hopes to see over 1000 in a matter of months with 5000-6000 rolling out over the year.

MTV and Viacom plan to join the service in There.com at some point in the future with clips from shows like South Park, The Daily Show, and Jackass. Along the same lines, VooZoo is set to become available in vMTV by Q2.

As the service progresses, Paramount, under the VooZoo brand plans to expand the style, placement, and length of its offerings.

"This is really one SKU of a larger product group that we can expect to see more of," said Broes. "These clips are going to be anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds long. As you go with potentially longer scenes, they have different purposes in different places. This is part of a larger strategy we have to entertain consumers in a way they want to be entertained."

There.com is exhibiting at Virtual Worlds 2008 - Booth 36

Comments

[Kevin]

I've got VooZoo on Facebook and it's pretty cool. There are only 35 movies right now but probably 700 clips. It's all free and there are no ads. I guess the clips themselves are ads!

[John Stevenson]

Listen, Kevin. This clips are more than ads. They are awesome...ads!

[david]

So far so good! Seems to work well with Facebook and really catching on!!!!! Check it out!