The 2015 Wistia Rap-Up

2015 was a year of rapid change here at Wistia! As we’ve added a bunch of people to our team (we grew from 27 to 56 people over the course of this year), we’ve had the opportunity to get to know some amazing new people inside and outside of our walls and to work on lots of exciting new projects. 85,902 video marketers (a.k.a. all of you!) uploaded over 4 million videos to Wistia over the course of 2015, receiving 1,099,259,978 plays. That’s a lot of videos!

Per Wistia tradition, we recorded a video rap-up of the year … 

Past Recaps: 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

We also wanted to share some of the things we’ve been working on and sharing throughout the year, in case you missed anything!

January

• The new Wistia Status Page launched to keep customers updated on the status of our systems.
• We introduced some new keyboard shortcuts to the Wistia app.
• Chris and Trevor shared their lighting philosophy in the Lighting on the Fly guide and a live video AMA.

February

• Emily joined the team.
• We threw a Friday the 13th party in our Cambridge office.
• Meryl wrote about fostering better internal communication with video.
• The Wistia camera cart made it easy for more members of the team to shoot video spontaneously.
• Wistia’s BetaPugs beta tester program launched!

March

• Bobby and Lauren joined the team.
• Two schools, Loomis Chaffee and Concord Academy, shared their video strategies.
• Animoto’s Tom and Stevie shared some inspiring video production tips in their AMA.
• We announced a fully native Google Analytics integration with Wistia.

April

• Anders, Camille, Kelsey, and Leo joined the team.
• We launched our new Learning Hub and Library and wrote about [why we made the changes][25].
• We interviewed Sarah Green of Harvard Business Review… about how to conduct better interviews.
• Things got kinda silly when we talked to Dollar Shave Club and MaryBeth Makara of ImprovBoston about using humor in branded content.

May

• Kevin and Ron joined the team.
• Timeline Actions, including email collectors, calls-to-action, and Annotation Links, launched, along with improved video analytics.
• Adam Lisagor of Sandwich Video shared the creative process behind his iconic product videos.
• We launched a guide to hiring an in-house video producer.
• The second annual WistiaFest brought 300 video marketers to Cambridge!

June

• Gordie, Jonah, and Karla joined the team.
• Multilingual captions, a new Trends page, and new video quality settings launched.
• We made a video about choosing a video backdrop.
• MailChimp shared their branding insights in a live video AMA in the community.

July

• Abby, Andrew, and Neil joined the team.
• We made some data-driven conclusions about increasing your video play rate.
• We collaborated with our HubSpot neighbors on a guide to video and social media.
• We traveled to Seattle to learn and hang out with the Mozzers at MozCon.
• We released a new album of free background music tracks by the ever-talented Dan Mills.

August

• Jenny joined the team.
• We celebrated our Enterprise plan launch with an all-hands-on-deck, single-shot parade video.
• We launched some improved tools for managing your video library.
• Our friend Julian Moiwai of ZVRS shared some crucial suggestions for making your video content more accessible.
• Meryl wrote about using B-roll to level up your video production.
• The month without a social media manager necessitated some scrappy collaboration.

September

• Erika, Margot, Ryan, and Tom joined the team.
• We hung out with HubSpot at INBOUND in Boston and traveled to the West Coast for Dreamforce.
• Chris and Trevor documented our process for shooting videos of laptop screens.
• Our new login page launched.
• Andrew wrote about how to incorporate video in your user onboarding.
• Chris shared Wistia’s company values and how they were developed over time.

October

• Aaron, Anthony, Jay, and Mike joined the team.
• Chris wrote about how Wistia ditched a “flat” approach and opted for structure.
• Our Non Sequitur Fridays series moved to a new, separate location.
• ThoughtWorks shared their tips for recruiting with video.
• We hosted our second-ever company-wide hackathon, The Hackening, and built everything from a bathroom speaker system to an office phone booth.

November

• Alicia, Dave, Luis, and Naike joined the team.
• We launched our guide to video and marketing automation.
• We talked marketing automation and shooting video solo in the first #WistiaChat conversations on Twitter.
• Ezra explored how to incorporate video data in your overall marketing.
• Video SEO got simpler and more effective with the launch of the new Wistia standard embed.

December

• We got familiar with how Zendesk, Wipster, and Litmus use video to build relationships.
• We chatted with Unbounce about their latest educational video series.
• We hosted our first live video #WistiaChat hangout, featuring Daniel Loeschen, Enget Dang, Jessica Webb, Steven Howe, and Bart Buerman as guests.

See you in 2016!