ITV announced that it will back up three successful media and entertainment businesses from the Studio 55 programme: Live Tech Games, Metavision and Woo. Announced last Autumn, Studio 55 Ventures is a brand new collaboration with the strategy and innovation firm Founders Intelligence, which seeks to invest in new business ideas that are unique, solve identifiable consumer needs and which are aimed at materially enhancing ITV’s reach amongst 16–34-year-olds.
Live Tech Games is pioneering a new wave of mobile entertainment, creating live, player-vs-player, short-form games and transforming them into incredibly rewarding nationwide experiences directly from a mobile phone. The company is developing simple but exhilarating games that are designed to bring the public together virtually in short ten-minute bursts of adrenaline that enrich, exhilarate and enthrall players.
Metavision is an agency and studio bringing entertainment IP and brands to the Metaverse - the emerging virtual spaces driving a fundamental shift in how we engage with others and consume content online. Metavision will lead the expansion of ITV’s IP and brand partners into Metaverse platforms, as well as driving the group’s long term strategy around the convergence of gaming and entertainment in these spaces.
Lastly, Woo is a well-being driven media platform, lifestyle brand and marketplace. It reimagines wellness for Generation Z, making solutions for mental health and wellbeing relatable, aspirational and culturally relevant. Woo comes to life through a digital led content proposition alongside a marketplace of curated consumer products across categories such as supplements, apparel, tech and beauty.
Each of the successful brands applied through the scheme and was given an intense programme of training and mentoring from ITV Executives and Founders Intelligence, and access to ITV’s network of strategic assets and contacts. This culminated in a pitch for long-term investment to ITV CEO, Dame Carolyn McCall, alongside top UK entrepreneurs Graham Cooke (founder and CEO of Qubit, the Goldman Sachs-backed AI personalization tool) and Brent Hoberman (CBE and co-founder of lastminute.com, made.com and Founders Forum, the parent organisation of Founders Intelligence).
“When we launched Studio 55 Ventures we set out to find business propositions that could increase our engagement with 16-34 year olds by leveraging ITV’s globally recognized IP and our unparalleled commercial audiences. I’m thrilled that we’re able to bring the ambitious entrepreneurs behind Live Tech Games, Metavision and Woo into the ITV fold,” said Dan Colton, Group Strategy and Transformation Director at ITV.