Mailchimp Is Making Original Content Now, Because Why Not?

If you hear “Mailchimp” and instantly think of emails, you’re not alone. But as of today, the company best known for sending billions of business missives is no longer only an email marketing service. Now, with new venture Mailchimp Presents, it’s also content production hub and streaming service — or, a self-described “digital business entertainment platform.”

Mailchimp Presents launched today with more than 50 pieces of content produced by Mailchimp. That content — produced with partners like VICE, Pineapple Street Media, Scout Productions (Netflix’s Queer Eye), and Caviar (Nymphomaniac) — includes original scripted and unscripted shortform series, films, and podcasts.

All Mailchimp Presents originals are designed to both entertain and inspire the world’s small businesses and entrepreneurs. Dozens more pieces of content are due to be added in the latter half of this year, some original and some licensed.

In a statement, the company described Mailchimp Presents, which is free to watch, as a “major investment,” but didn’t reveal how much it’s taken to get Presents off the ground. It did reveal that in addition to partnering with the above folks, it hired a brand-new content production team and is working with directors Jason Woliner (What We Do in the Shadows), Hrishikesh Hirway (Everything Sucks!), writer Samin Nosrat (Salt Fat Acid Heat), actor Jay Duplass (Prospect), and actor/composer Big Boi (Someone Great).

As for where Mailchimp’s getting the dough to make that major investment…it brought in $600 million in revenue last year and recently told TechCrunch (amidst promoting its other fresh venture, a new marketing platform) that it’s due to bring in $700 million this year. Those revenues come from 11 million active customers, who send more than one billion emails each and every day. Mailchimp also facilitates more than 1.25 million ecommerce orders per day through marketing campaigns sent through its platform, the company says.

Here’s more info on what exactly Mailchimp Presents is offering, with official loglines:

Available Now

• Unlikely Business Lessons
  : Unscripted series uncovering valuable business lessons from remarkably unexpected people.
• Trade Show Show: Scripted mockumentary, directed by showrunner Jason Woliner, about a trade show and the characters and businesses that attend it.

Original Content Coming Soon

• WERRRK!: 12-episode business makeover show from the creators and producers of Queer Eye. Three business experts (the WERRRK Force) work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get them to the next level.
• Outer Monologues: Animated series, co-produced with Pop-Up Magazine, featuring public figures (Jay Duplass, Molly Bingham) who share what was really going on during moments in their lives when they seemed stoic and put together.
• Second Act: Unscripted series, co-produced by VICE, profiling people who switched careers to become entrepreneurs. Features Deborah and Mary Jones of Jones BBQ, who were on the third season of Queer Eye.
• Lifecycle of a Business: 6-episode This American Life-style podcast featuring businesses at different stages in the business lifecycle.

Licensed Content Coming Soon

• 73 Cows: A farmer in the UK gives up his beef herd to pursue organic vegan farming. Winner of the 2019 BAFTA for Best British Short.
• The Exceptionally Extraordinary Emporium: A short documentary about the family-owned Louisiana fabric store that serves as ground zero for Mardi Gras costume designers.
• Crown Candy: Short documentary that offers an artful look into a 100-year-old candy store that plans to stay put in its rapidly changing North St. Louis neighborhood.
• Hands on a Hardbody: A cult classic feature documentary that follows 24 contestants while they compete in an endurance/sleep deprivation contest to win a brand new Nissan Hardbody truck.
• Bacon and God’s Wrath: Short documentary about a 90-year-old Jewish woman who, after undergoing a crisis of faith which has led her to reject many of the tenets of her religion, is preparing to cook and eat bacon for the first time.

You can check out Mailchimp Presents at its landing page here.