Go Ask Alice Why Tech Start-Ups Are Spending Big on Hype Videos
A Mad Hatter and a giant rabbit sit around a table discussing an A.I. start-up. This is normal behavior around the Bay Area these days.
On a Monday afternoon in an Oakland, Calif., warehouse, actors dressed as Alice and the Mad Hatter and a man wearing a giant rabbit head sat around a table on a black-and-white checkered floor.
The Mad Hatter lifted a silver teapot and said in a high-pitched voice, “What is our A.I. search strategy?” A director called cut and told the actor to look straight into the camera lens in the next take.
Like many things in the Bay Area these days, the surrealist scene on a bustling set of about 20 film crew members was funded by an artificial intelligence start-up. Daydream, an A.I. marketing services company, orchestrated the $80,000 video shoot to announce a $15 million funding round in a social media post.
San Francisco’s young A.I. companies have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars for film crews and camera equipment to make highly produced hype videos for social media. Fueled by a venture capital funding frenzy, founders are aiming for memorable — maybe even viral — videos to help recruit talent and simply get attention in an increasingly crowded field.
And many of these A.I. start-ups are embracing traditional video production, rather than doing it on the cheap with A.I., because they don’t want them to look unprofessional.
“Everyone can build start-ups very quickly now, so in a way, it’s more competitive and the fight to be noticed is much higher,” said Thenuka Karunaratne, founder and chief executive of Daydream.
