Gizmoz, creators of rich media content distribution networks, this week announced a partnership with pop soul crooners Boyz II Men to publicize the group’s new album, “Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya” via viral marketing.
“This is the second gizmo we are doing with Boyz II Men,” said Gizmoz chief operating officer and co-founder Yossi Amossy. “The Deftones gizmo has received almost 400,000 views since it was launched in July and was taken by hundreds of fans to their homepages.”
A “gizmo” is a wrapper that envelops any type of content, from text or images to audio, video or animation. Fans of Boyz II Men click on the gizmo image on the group’s website and listen to tracks from the album, watch the videos, read news about the band, find out their tour dates and hear the band’s tour diary.
Fans can take the gizmo and insert it into their homepages, e-mail it to a friend or add it to the collection of gizmos on their desktop, for which they need to download the Gizmoz Collector.
However, the gizmo is more than a wrapper; it creates a content distribution network that enables Boyz II Men to keep in contact with all those who “took” the gizmo. If the band adds extra tour dates to its original gizmo, for example, then the next time the gizmo owner logs on, his or her own gizmo is automatically updated with the new content.
Individuals can create gizmos through the company’s website. Other clients include Artemis Records, 1-800-Flowers, Filmspeed, Lifescape.com, Digital Brandcasting and Daka 90.
Gizmoz, which was founded in 1996, is headquartered in New York with its R&D in Tel Aviv. Investors in the company, whose last round of funding in March raised $17 million, include Chase Capital Partners and Polaris Venture Capital, AOL Investments, Giza GE Venture Fund of Israel and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
–By Tania Hershman, israel.internet.com
