COLOGNE — BuzzFeed’s recently-inked $50 million advertising deal with WPP was a validation for its branded video efforts led out of Hollywood. Now those efforts are due to expand overseas.
Online video production veteran Ze Frank leads BuzzFeed’s video content efforts in Hollywood, but they are set to get an expansion.
“Branded video will be coming to my region very soon,” Kate Burns, BuzzFeed’s general manager for Europe, reveals to Beet.TV in this video interview.
“Our video business based in LA has been a significant driver of growth, both from an audience and a revenue perspective. It was only a matter of time, once I joined, that I’d be looking at how we can scale that business outside of California to Europe and beyond. So we’re looking at the UK as being the first market.
“We’ve now hired two editorial guys on the ground, shooting in London, British content. We’re working on signing deals with brands. We’ll soon have our first UK branded content videos to play for Q4.”
After having headed Google, Bebo and AOL in various regions, it seemed like there was only one logical next step in the digital media ranks for Burns.
She was named BuzzFeed’s general manager for Europe in March, and promptly hired The Guardian’s deputy editor Janine Gibson as BuzzFeed’s UK editor-in-chief.
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