Maintaining brand consistency across all the various social media channels is a difficult challenge and even more so on mobile. Founded by a team of social media veterans, Slate helps social media enterprise teams reconstruct the content creation process, incorporating a set of brand assets directly onto mobile. Social teams can build, design, and post content within seconds all from their mobile phones while staying on-brand. Slate has built traction in sports with clients like the Houston Rockets, Lakers, and Golden State Warriors and is expanding its customer base to other verticals.
AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and Chief Growth Officer Will Brooke to learn more about the platform and its future plans.
Tell us about the product or service that Slate offers.
Slate is a completely customizable content creation platform for enterprise social media teams. The content creation platform allows social media content creators to seamlessly overlay their brand’s custom fonts, graphics, frames, colors, animations onto content from their phones. This helps drive brand consistency, speed up workflows, and monetize social.
What inspired the start of Slate?
The idea for Slate really clicked for us when our team recognized this problem from two sides simultaneously. Our cofounder Eric was experiencing this issue firsthand while overseeing digital for NFL International and at the same time Michael, Yury, and I were speaking to companies about creating branded content while working on a different product and heard this pain point over and over. We joined forces to solve this problem and build Slate.
How is Slate different?
Slate gives brands full control over their mobile content creation experience. Other apps are filled with stock templates, fonts, and graphics that are unnecessary and off-brand for enterprises. This lets social teams create in the ways they are used to (mobile-first, social-first) with only the creative they need. It saves social teams time when creating content and gives them the peace of mind that all their content is on-brand.
What market does Slate target and how big is it?
We target enterprise companies who care about social content. Our key markets are sports, entertainment, media, and brands.
What’s your business model?
Slate is an enterprise SaaS platform, licensing access to the platform to clients.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
We were luckier than most when it comes to the impact of COVID-19. We were already a remote company and did not have much overhead. As a company focused in sports and live events, of course, things really slowed down initially. But we quickly realized that during COVID, Slate could be very beneficial to our customers and potential customers in new ways that we weren’t focused on as much pre-Covid.
Social and digital became more important than ever for brands and teams. Sponsorship deals that were in-person activations now needed to be executed on social/digital and Slate was the perfect tool to help with these new challenges.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We have gained the most traction in the sports industry, but are quickly expanding into other industries in media, beauty, fashion, retail, gaming, and more. These teams have used Slate to create an even wider range of content, ranging from showcasing new product lines and brand collaborations, to influencer content.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Diversification! We’re very interested in expanding Slate outside of the U.S. to international markets, in part due to the better international response to COVID-19. We’re also increasingly working with brands outside the sports industry. In particular consumer brands who have increasingly relied on social media during COVID to reach new audiences.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Ichiran!
