• by Colin Kirkland , October 2, 2024

In hiring Charlie Ungashick as its new CMO, Vimeo is shifting its identity. Once a YouTube competitor, the video-hosting platform is moving away from consumer video in order to focus more concretely on the intersection of business video and artificial intelligence.

Ungashick, who has held the role of Vimeo’s interim CMO since the beginning of the year, has a history rooted in business-centric tech, having previously been the CMO at human-resources software provider Workhuman, as well as software-testing company Applause. Most recently, the executive was CMO of Validity, an email optimization and CRM data company.

Philip Moyer, Vimeo’s recently appointed CEO, said recently that Ungashick's experience building and scaling marketing organizations is ideal for accelerating Vimeo’s growth, with the hope that the company can become the world’s largest private video distribution platform.

At Vimeo, Ungashick will oversee the brand's comprehensive marketing efforts across the consumer and commercial channels as the company integrates AI capabilities that it says will prioritize delivering “value for businesses, creators and video professionals.”

This description outlines what Ungashick calls “a bold new course” “across other verticals,” which builds on Vimeo’s recent launch of AI-powered tools, like a recap-video generator and language translation that is able to imitate the original speaker's voice.

According to a report from TheWall Street Journal, Vimeo is repositioning its platform as a place where organizations can create more videos -- “for employee training or company updates” – faster and cheaper using its evolving suite of AI-powered tools.

Ungashick told the Journal that he will be re-evaluating how Vimeo spends its advertising budget, while preparing a marketing push in international markets like Brazil and Japan, where the company has already been growing organically.

In the most recent quarter, Vimeo sales increased 2% year-over-year, and it saw growth of 55% in its enterprise business, the company reported in August.