REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Firework, the short-form video platform designed to bring a shoppable, livestream video experience to any website, announced a new partnership with Albertsons Companies (NYSE: ACI). The food and drug giant is the first US grocer to utilize the Firework platform to transform its digital offerings, bringing online shoppers a community-oriented experience led by shoppable, short-form and livestream video.
“This partnership is an important step in Albertsons Companies digital transformation journey to redefine customer engagement in the grocery retail space. This isn’t just about creating new ways to feature our products. This is about bringing delight and inspiration to digital shopping to make online experiences as fun as discovering new products in our stores,” said Chris Rupp, Chief Customer and Digital Officer at Albertsons Companies, one of the largest food and drug retailers in the country. “With Firework, we found the first platform capable of digitally recreating the sense of freshness, discovery and community that you previously could only find within our stores, all using the video and livestream formats that our digital shoppers love most.”
Firework enables its customers to easily create, host and curate immersive short-form and livestream video on any site on the open web, effectively allowing any retailer, direct-to-consumer brand, media publisher or business of any size, to own, engage and monetize a vibrant community around short-form video. Swipeable, shoppable interactivity enables consumers to engage directly with brand and product videos, and on-site hosting provides businesses with direct access to consumer data and monetization opportunities of their shoppable video content. Firework also gives retailers the opportunity to sell “digital shelf space” to brands they carry in the form of video ad placement, providing additional sources of revenue.
In an ecosystem with more than 1 billion monthly active users, Firework has built a short video and livestream platform that will revolutionize and connect the entire open web. Aiming to bring the customer back from the walled gardens of social networks, this decentralized, “Web 3.0” approach gives brands autonomy and control over TikTok-like, immersive video-based experiences. By connecting retailers, consumer packaged goods companies, D2C brands, publishers, and media buying agencies, Firework is creating an entirely new ecosystem of fully linked media buying, led by Jeff Lucas, former Global Head of Ad Sales for Verizon Media, Snapchat, and Viacom.
The end-to-end implementation will be a multi-fold initiative, consisting of three distinct phases.
In this first phase, Albertsons Cos. will use Firework to deploy short video content and cooking experiences on the various banner websites. The partnership will expand offerings and experiences in 2022.
“We’re inspired by Albertsons’ dedication to being at the forefront of grocery retail customer experience, charting the path toward a new gold standard of online shopping and brand engagement,” said Jason Holland, President of Global Business at Firework. “By hosting its own swipeable, shoppable video content to meet its customers where they are, Albertsons will lead the industry in preference-driven digital experience, turning customers into entertainment fans.”
“The Firework platform gives brands the power to build a human connection with their audiences—within their own domain and on their own terms, using the most in-demand, modern and effective video formats,” said Vincent Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Firework. “Firework is redefining the future of video-first Web 3.0 with distributed, decentralized hosting, and is here to enable every business to reclaim ownership of its brand, its community and the opportunities therein.”
About Albertsons Companies
Albertsons Companies is a leading food and drug retailer that operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia with more than 20 well-known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market. The Company is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood.
About Firework
Firework is the world’s leading immersive “shoppertainment” platform with shoppable video, live streaming commerce and monetization capabilities powering over 600 direct-to-consumer brands, retailers and media publishers worldwide. Pandemic-accelerated, Firework has experienced 10x year-over-year growth, bringing TikTok-like interactive video experiences, all by adding just one line of HTML code to their own website. Firework enables its customers to create and host native, shoppable video content for engaging product discovery, seamless shopping experiences and ultimately, a deeper emotional connection with consumers. The company is backed by IDG Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GSR Ventures, with over $100 million in capital raised to date. To learn more, please visit firework.tv.
