Woo, an ITV-backed media brand founded by former LADbible CMO Stephen Mai, and aimed at becoming the “defining Gen Z media business”, has closed two years after launch.
Woo was billed as “an antidote to the toxic news cycle” offering “shows, editorial and products designed to make you feel good”. Its content categories were: wellness, culture, joy, fashion, beauty, sex and relationships, music, film and TV, travel, and fitness.
Its content appeared on its website at planetwoo.itv.com, on social media and on ITV Hub, the broadcaster’s on-demand platform which has since rebranded to ITVX.
Woo’s primary revenue sources were through its video content and its e-commerce marketplace, which sold products including clothing.
Woo was funded and owned by ITV through its Studio 55 investment arm as the broadcaster sought to support business ideas that it believed could help improve its reach with 16 to 35-year-olds.
Mai’s stated aim at launch was to reach 45m people in Woo’s first month, including through its content being hosted on the on-demand platform ITV Hub (now ITVX), and to hit 12m website visits within a year, gaining a social media following “in the hundreds of millions” in the process.
Announcing “the end of the wooniverse” on LinkedIn, Mai revealed that the website had peaked at one million website users per month and five million monthly video views, but said it did “reach hundreds of millions on social.”
Mai, formerly chief marketing officer at Ladbible Group, added: “Building Woo has been one of the highlights of my career. We’ve achieved milestones I once thought impossible, launching an award-winning media brand and e-commerce platform against the backdrop of tough economic conditions and a shifting marketplace.
“We saw major e-commerce platforms shutter, the advertising and retail market face challenges not seen since the financial crises, perhaps my ambition to evolve the commercial model for a financially sustainable media brand never really stood a chance.
“Building a fast moving ambitious start up within a legacy media business was a nice challenge. Doing it post pandemic with the hiring crisis, covid interruptions and a shift in work place culture defiantly taught me some lessons. Making it happen on a time frame of 6 months (media brand) and a year (marketplace) is wild on reflection.”
He continued: “Media still needs to figure out how to work in landscape of creators and dwindling advertising revenues. I look forward to see how this space evolves.”
Woo’s LinkedIn page lists the company as employing “11-50” staff, with 49 individuals listed on the platform as “linked” with the company. Its website lists 33 employees, including a leadership team of five, an editorial assistant, four social staff, four in video, one in design and four in marketing plus others in e-commerce and operations.
