Mailchimp Presents

Read the campaign story

Mailchimp Presents arrived in June 2019 as an entertainment destination for entrepreneurs and small-business audiences. Launch coverage described films, series and podcasts rather than a library of software demonstrations. Mailchimp Studios developed the programme with outside production partners, including Pineapple Street Media, Pop Up Magazine and Scout Productions. The offering combined original work with licensed material, so the brand was not the sole author of every story it distributed.

Work & Co designed and developed the viewing portal alongside Mailchimp’s marketing, design and development teams. Its announcement describes the importance of fitting the new experience into the existing product ecosystem. That distinction matters: editorial production and platform construction were separate contributions. The reviewed pages establish the launch and publishing model, but not a causal improvement in customer loyalty, email activity or commercial acquisition.

Editorial interpretation: the interesting move was to buy permission to be part of an entrepreneur’s leisure time. A person can recognise uncertainty, ambition or loneliness without currently shopping for marketing software. Entertainment therefore creates a broader entrance to the brand than a feature comparison. However, the story still needs a clear audience premise; a miscellaneous streaming catalogue would have little reason to belong to Mailchimp.

Editorial interpretation: ownership changes the operational brief. A sponsor can stop buying placements, while a publisher must maintain discovery, accessibility, rights and a coherent editorial standard. The durable asset is not simply a pile of videos. It is a predictable relationship between audience expectations and what appears next. Teams borrowing the idea should budget for commissioning decisions and ongoing maintenance before celebrating their first polished film.

Commission a shared tension, not a disguised testimonial

Define the recurring situation your audience recognises before choosing subjects. A bookkeeping service might explore first-time employers learning to delegate, without making every ending a product endorsement. Ask whether a viewer who never buys would still find the story worthwhile. That test protects editorial usefulness while leaving the commercial sponsor visible and accountable. It also gives commissioners a firmer basis for declining attractive but irrelevant pitches.

Design the next viewing decision

A portal must help people decide what to watch next without making them study the brand’s organisation chart. Group work around audience questions or situations, supply accurate descriptions and publish accessible transcripts. A compact, well-curated shelf can outperform a sprawling archive operationally because it is easier to maintain and easier for a new visitor to understand. Content volume alone is not a quality measure.

Measure attention separately from sales intent

Track voluntary return visits, completion and direct recommendations before treating viewers as leads. Then use a consented research sample to examine brand association and consideration against a comparable unexposed group. A high viewing count may reflect entertainment quality or paid distribution rather than software preference. Keeping these questions separate helps prevent a successful programme being misrepresented as a proven acquisition engine.

A small test for another brief

Proposed adaptation: commission three short audio conversations about one recurring small-business dilemma, supported by a simple, openly accessible listening page.

Compare episode completion, voluntary return listening and correct sponsor association. Ask what practical idea listeners used, then assess consideration separately. Set the pilot’s success thresholds before promotion begins.

Stop expansion if stories require intrusive disclosure, permissions are unclear or listeners consistently mistake the programme for independent journalism.

• Recruit compensated adult contributors with clear release terms and no obligation to praise the sponsor.
• Publish transcripts, topic descriptions and an explicit sponsorship disclosure beside each episode.
• Invite an optional two-week follow-up survey without requiring registration to listen.