Lote Tuqiri’s Marketing Agency HooZu Launches Video Production Unit

Sydney-based influencer marketing agency HooZu, co-founded by former NRL and rugby union star Lote Tuquiri, has announced the launch of its own video production unit to meet the growing demand for video content in social media campaigns.

Since the soft launch of HooZu Productions earlier this year, it has developed 14 pieces of video content for clients.

The most recent campaign for the premiere of King Arthur: Legends of the Sword saw the team shoot a one-minute video of 12 AFL and NRL legends that HooZu engaged with to attend the Sydney and Melbourne screenings, which was then shared across their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter channels.

Mark Graham, head of content ad HooZu, said the new offering is a natural progression of the agency’s business model.

“Helping brands formulate compelling creative for social that resonates with the target audience is one of the key things that separates us from competitors,” he said.

“Adding video production to our suite of services means we can apply our social media expertise to the production of video content, giving us more control over the end-to-end creative process.

“Consumers engage with advertising differently with the rise of social media and brand advocacy. You now need to ensure branding is integrated into great story telling. The job of branded content is to be inadvertently on message, yet still entertaining enough to be shared amongst your target audience.

“When you crack the right content balance, utilising influencers to star in and also distribute and amplify the video content drives much more brand awareness, engagement and views.”

Since launching, the start-up has paid out more than half a million dollars to its growing stable of influencers, and big brands such as Village Roadshow, Woolworths, Billabong, 7-Eleven, EA Games, Australian Rugby Union and Jacob’s Creek have been lining up to use its services.

HooZu’s approach is powered by data, using a mix of social media metrics, influencer audience analytics and target market insights when creating targeted influencer campaigns.

This helps HooZu discover and assess the most relevant influencer personalities for each campaign – including influencers who are already talking about the brand – and finding them from the whole of the social web, rather than a single database.

HooZu is was co-founded by former former NRL and rugby union star Lote Tuquiri (pictured above, centre), who saw the influence his teammates were getting through their individual social media channels.

He was on a bus with his teammates in his last year of playing professionally, and when all the boys compared their social media followings, he realised that they collectively had an audience reach that was comparative to any domestic TV network.

He discussed this with his serial entrepreneur friend Nathan Ruff (pictured above, left), the pair first meeting at their children’s day care centre.

Ruff then brought on board Justin Golledge (pictured above, right), who applied his experience in digital media planning and buying to redefine how influencer marketing campaigns should be created, implemented and reported on.

“The beauty of our approach is that we don’t put the onus solely on influencers,” Golledge said.

“Yes, they are very important, but so is the quality and relevancy of their followers.

“We then specialise in doing all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes when implementing influencer campaigns.”

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