Press

What does MuseStorm do?

MuseStorm empowers agencies, brand marketers, and entertainment companies to produce, manage, analyze, and deliver widgets and applications (social, mobile) into viral and social-networking environments.  The MuseStorm service is based on the MuseStorm Engagement Platform and targets marketing professionals who increasingly rely on widgets and social applications as the basis of their outreach campaigns. 

When was the company established?
2005

What is your business model?
This isn’t a state secret.  Like everyone else in the business, we have a rate card and on it is three things:

• A fee to initiate the MuseStorm service.  Unlike a lot of other providers in the space, we don’t charge for professional services.  Instead, we focus on empowering the companies we work with to produce their own widgets using the MuseStorm Widget Studio, which is a core part of our techology platform
• A monthly maintenance charge for hosting of your widget or application (social, mobile) and Total Analytics
• A CPM based on the number of impressions we deliver of your widget or application (social, mobile).  Delivery is handled by our platform using a module called Intelligent Delivery

Unique to MuseStorm is our campaign-based pricing model which makes it possible for companies to have peace of mind when it comes to budgets, even when the viral-marketing campaign exceeds planned objectives.  If your budget is $20,000 per month, we’ll translate that into impressions and guarantee that your buy with us will stay within your budget parameters. 

Total capital raised to date?
We have raised over $1.5 million in seed financing from Elron, a public company based in Israel, and individual investors.

Where is MuseStorm in terms of financing?
We are currently raising our Series A financing which is expected to fund operations through late 2009 to early 2010.

What are your competitive advantages?
MuseStorm is the Professional Way to Widget.  We are the only company in the category to provide a complete platform (the MuseStorm Engagement Platform) targeting the needs of professionals (agencies, brand marketers, entertainment companies) when it comes to widget production, management, analytics, and delivery.

• Reach: Multiple formats, any distribution channel
• Engagement: Two-way interaction (e.g. announcement, comment moderation)
• Accountability: Detailed reporting on all touchpoints
• Convenience + Control: Complete production environment
• Proven: Trusted by leading blue-chip marketers

How many consumers are using MuseStorm?
Sorry, as a private company that isn’t something we are prepared to discuss at this time.

Do customers pay per widget install?
No.  Some of our competitors and partners are pursuing a pay-per-install model.  MuseStorm focuses on solving the thorny problem of how to produce, manage, analyze, and deliver widgets and social applications in a world where media is increasingly fragmented and where consumers attention and engagement cannot be taken for granted.  We find that getting the widget or social application installed is not all that difficult.  What’s hard is producing the widget so that the content can remain dynamic - to ensure accountability and to maximize engagement..

How many people work at MuseStorm?
Sorry, as a private company that isn’t something we are prepared to discuss at this time.

What is MuseStorm?
MuseStorm is a hosted-service targeting agencies, brand marketers, and entertainment companies with a need to produce, manage, analyze, and deliver widgets and social applications into social networks and viral environments and for download onto mobile phones.  At the heart of the service is the MuseStorm Engagement Platform which handles all of the heavy lifting involved in producing widgets and applications in five (5) different form factors, as needed to maximize reach to consumers based on where they spend their time while online:

• Flash
• Social Apps (both Facebook and OpenSocial
• Mobile
• Start Page
• Desktop

Part of the platform is the MuseStorm Widget Studio, which handles production of the widget into the various form factors needed, we provide the technology for Intelligent Delivery into viral- and paid-distribution networks.  A Total Analytics module provides accountability and insight into how widgets are performing, so companies can maximize the viral velocity of their campaigns and also the shelf-life or durability of a particular widget.

How does the MuseStorm Engagement Platform work?

To get started, companies initiate service with us and use the MuseStorm Widget Studio to create their own widgets and applications (social, mobile).  The MuseStorm Engagement Platform handles delivery of the widget to viral distribution points using technology built into the platform called Intelligent Delivery.  Total Analytics are provided so customers can see how their widget or application is performing is real time and make changes on the fly.  Typically we find that the widgets and applications perform best when both the content and programming (code) remains dynamic, changing as often as 1x per week. 

The architecture of the platform is modular and it is built to meet or exceed enterprise-standards when it comes to reliability and scalability:

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How does someone get MuseStorm widgets?
Our widgets and social applications are promoted by our client companies on their own websites, through their partners and affiliates, through paid distribution (e.g.working with us to place the widget as a rich-media advertising unit on targeted websites), and through widget distribution points like Gigya, which is one of our strategic partners.

Of course, we always recommend that the companies who work with us optimize the widget or application for viral transmission.  There are multiple ways to do this within our platform including:

• Email “Tell A Friend” capability a dynamic component available for drag and drop within the MuseStorm Widget Studio
• Share this Widget a dynamic component available for drag and drop within the MuseStorm Widget Studio

Why did you chose to get started with a web-application for iPhone versus waiting* to develop native applications for the iPhone
Great question.

We’re always guided by what our customers are asking for and right now they want a simple and easy on ramp to develop and deliver web applications to the 13 million iPhone users worldwide.  So that’s where we chose to get started.  As our customer’s needs change and evolve, we’ll of course look at whether it make sense to evolve the MuseStorm Engagement Platform to support development of native iPhone applications.

Other mobile platforms of interest to our customers and therefore on our radar for future integration into the MuseStorm Engagement Platform include:  Widsets, Google’s Android, and Yahoo’s Mobile Widgets.  However, currently we do not support these mobile platforms.  People ask us about BlackBerry, which next to iPhone has the second-largest installed base of smart phones on a worldwide basis.  With Yahoo Mobile Widgets we’ll also be able to support consumers with a BlackBerry smart phone. 

*Download-able applications for the iPhone are coming sometime in June 08 for the first wave of developers admitted into Apple’s developer program.  MuseStorm expects to develop support for native iPhone applications sometime in Q3 2008. 

What is the technology behind MuseStorm
We take a platform-based approach to allow companies to produce widgets and applications (social, mobile) to focus more of their time and attention on the creative aspects of building social- and viral-marketing campaigns.  The links below will take you to the services section of this website, where we discuss our technology in more detail.

• MuseStorm Engagement Platform
• MuseStorm Widget Studio
• MuseStorm Total Analytics
• MuseStorm Intelligent Delivery

What types of widgets do you support?
Our technology is – by design - cross platform.  In fact, we pioneered the concept of widgets that morph into social applications and are the first in the industry to support all 5 types of widgets across a single platform. 

We don’t discuss unannounced products.  We can tell you that our product development plans are shaped by what our customers are asking for and right now mobile is very much on our customer’s radar.  Mobile platforms of interest to our customers and therefore on our radar for future integration into the MuseStorm Engagement Platform include:  iPhone, Widsets, Google’s Android, and Yahoo’s Mobile Widgets.  However, currently we do not support these mobile platforms. 

Who are your primary competitors?
Today, MuseStorm is the only company in the widget space providing all the technology and services needed to produce, manage, analyze, and deliver widgets and applications in all 5 formats of importance to marketers.  Our solution is truly The professional way to widget™.  Other companies in the space include ClearSpring, Gigya, Sprout, and WidgetBox— all of which take a very different approach to the market. 

Our competition - some of which are also our partners - provide free solutions targeting consumers and freelance developers. To the extent the competition offers a premium or professional option, often there is a requirement that you work through their professional services group to develop the widget.  Meaning you’ll also have to go back through their professional services group to make changes to the widget.  Analytics are limited to data on distribution such as impressions and page views. No analytics on how consumers are interacting with the widget or application are provided.

Also, the widget you get won’t be a true Facebook application, one that takes advantage of friends notification through the mini-feed, as needed to support viral adoption.  Instead most of our competitors either don’t support closed-environments like Facebook or - to the extent that they do support Facebook - they do so in a limited way.  For example, one of our competitors says it offers widgets and social applications for Facebook but the application you get does not come with a canvas page, does not take advantage of the Friends functionality built into Facebook, and when installed their is no notification of your friends via the mini feed.  To our mind, this is not a true Facebook application but a “wanna be application”. 

Who is your target audience

We target agencies, brand marketers, and entertainment companies.  In other words, professionals who rely on widgets and applications to expand their reach into social networks and viral environments.