Original Content Platform ‘Mailchimp Presents’ Launches

Mailchimp has launched Mailchimp Presents, a new entertainment platform aimed at the company’s millions of small business customers.

Work & Co designed and developed the portal, which will house an ever-growing catalog of original content aimed at entrepreneurs and small business owners. It starts with 50 pieces of original content; dozens more will be added over the next six months.

“Mailchimp Presents allows us to connect with existing customers in a fresh way while revealing to new customers — in an entertaining format — our rich insights about the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship,” said Mark DiCristina, Head of Brand and Mailchimp Studios. “But in order to build a new streaming content experience from scratch, we required two critical things: that it would look as great as it functions; and that it would fit seamlessly into our existing ecosystem of products. Both made Work & Co the ideal digital partner to bring Mailchimp Presents to life.”

Mailchimp’s new digital experience is:

• Free to consume, and has no ads, but the content isn’t promotional.
• To produce the content, Mailchimp’s internal team struck up creative partnerships with production companies like Los Angeles-based Scout Productions and Pineapple Street Media, and award-winning directors and producers like Big Boi and Jay Duplass.
• Creating a range of content types, from a podcast series called “Going Through It,” that interviews Hillary Clinton, Soledad O’Brien and other women about defining moments in their lives to “Wi-Finders,” a docu-series about people in Tokyo, Buenos Aires and other cities who’ll work from any location with a wireless connection.

This is the latest in an ongoing relationship with Atlanta-based Mailchimp that Work & Co has had for the past two years, focusing on web and mobile experiences.

Work & Co’s role in building Mailchimp Presents included information architecture; product design and prototyping; user testing; development and quality assurance. The technology piece included a JavaScript single page application, with React/CSS component development, and data modeling for integration with Contentful.

“We partnered closely with Mailchimp’s marketing, design and development teams from concept through launch,” said Steve Kuhn, Group Director of Product Management. “Forming one holistic team is the key to building great digital product experiences — and in this case enabled us to create and launch the product in just six months.”

Read more about it at Fast Company, Variety, and the Drum.