Hopskoch Wants to Be Photoshop for Marketers, Launches With Hollywood Vet Craig Singer as CEO (Exclusive)

Hopskoch empowers brands and ad agencies to collaborate on campaigns for a connected generation

Hopskoch, a transmedia marketing platform that enables brands and ad agencies to collaborate online, will launch this weekend with a focus on Hollywood, the company told TheWrap.

Founders Sunil Madhu and Marty Monaco also have brought on Craig Singer, a former digital executive at Disney, as CEO. 

Singer (left), an award-winning filmmaker, created an online, collaborative storytelling process that served as the foundation for startups FanLib and My2Centences. Disney later bought both of them, and Singer went on to develop various original series for the company.

Madhu, whose background is in network security, founded Hopskoch with Monaco, his former co-worker and friend, sensing an opportunity to help companies advertise more effectively online. He said in his initial research and conversations with advertising agencies, he often heard that workflow was too fragmented.

With Hopskoch, agencies and brands can log-in, create a campaign and invite other people to look at the campaign or work on it with them. “We’d like to be what Photoshop was for creatives — that single place where marketers can effectively create interactive storytelling and marketing,” Madhu told TheWrap.

Hopskoch  also makes it easily to publish a campaign across social networks, apps and websites.

“Whether you’re a fan or brand or audience member, there’s this homogenized new world, particularly with respect to branded entertainment,” Singer told TheWrap. “This uniquely addresses some of those demands. Its very inclusive and very malleable.”

The company launches with a trio of partnerships — one with MYTUPELO Entertainment for the launch of “Pitch-Me!,” a new online production studio, one with “Ollie  Mongo,” a comic from “Rugrats” co-creator Arlene Klasky and a partnership with the Creative Coalition, a charity arm of the arts and entertainment industry.

“We wanted it to be eclectic and diversified,” Singer said. “We have a children’s property, a traditional reality TV production company and then creative coalition.”

Hopskoch, which has spent the past couple years working with brands and perfecting the platform, will soon sign on additional partners and is exploring a new funding round. Though its initial focus is on Hollywood, it will also work with other industries.

With Singer joining as CEO, Madhu will transition into a role as chairman while Monaco remains COO.

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