By Julia Knope
Some Ryerson startups gain coverage through commercials or advertising, while others reach out to Maroon 5.
JamCam is a mobile app that allows users to film 15 second videos while a song from their music library plays.
Maroon 5 partnered with Jam Cam for the creation of a fan video of their new song “Sugar.” After the partnership, fans from all around the world recorded themselves lip-syncing to “Sugar” and posted it publicly on YouTube with the tag “#SugarJams.” From all of the submissions, Maroon 5 chose the best clips for the creation of the fan video.
“They primarily chose videos with the most views,” said Sam Scofy, co-creator of JamCam.
Scofy and his partner Matt Loszak already knew the managers of Maroon 5 and knew that the band was looking for ways to market their new single.
“[Maroon 5] was really, really happy with how the campaign turned out,” Scofy said.
Not only was the band happy, but JamCam appreciated the startup exposure.
“It definitely helped with getting the word out,” Scofy said. “We have done some cool partnerships in the past, but this was the biggest one.”
Loszak was the one who thought of the idea for JamCam.
The idea sparked when he travelled to Australia and wanted to record footage with a song playing in the background.
“I wanted to shoot a video while keeping the music playing from my iPhone, because it matched the moment so perfectly. Unfortunately, the built-in camera app prevents this behaviour,” Loszak said. “JamCam was born out of this frustration.”
After they created JamCam, they searched for funding at the Digital Media Zone (DMZ), which invested in their company and organized events to help publicize the app.
JamCam has partnered with a range of celebrities; from South Korea’s PSY, to the broadway show Rocky. In the future, Scofy and Loszak say they hope to partner with companies like Sound Cloud and YouTube in the hopes of growing their business.
“One day we hope to create a partnership with one of those big media companies, but hopefully we can become a significant name on our own,” Scofy said.
Leave a Reply