Barbora Nevosádová of Orbitian Media tells us about the world’s largest collection of original VR footage for your virtual reality projects.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Orbitian Media.
Barbora Nevosádová: I co-founded the company with my husband. We started with creating web portals, and then we proceeded to develop a travel planner. We wanted to give travelers a preview of their desired destinations, so we hired a traveler who filmed 360° videos of the most visited places around the world. This side project was basically just for fun at first, but then we were approached by several companies who wanted to license our videos. Long story short, nowadays, our company focuses mostly on 360° video production.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Barbora Nevosádová: I love learning new things. When we started our company, I knew little about the travel industry and web development, but I quickly learned what I needed to know. The same goes for 360° videos. The ability to learn things quickly was instrumental during my whole career, and it is also in our company’s DNA, which helped us survive during difficult times.
How does Orbitian Media market its product/services online?
Barbora Nevosádová: In the first few years, we did not even have a website where we would showcase our 360° videos. Then Covid-19 came, and we realized we had to redevelop our activities and approach things differently.
We created a new brand Orbitian Media and built a new website around it. We have also focused more on our YouTube channel and other channels offering VR videos.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Barbora Nevosádová: We use the Insta 360 Pro 2 camera to film the videos. For online marketing, we use standard tools such as Google Workspace, Slack, etc.
What is your hiring policy/process, and how do you retain your employees?
Barbora Nevosádová: We decided to film 360° videos. We needed to hire a cameraperson who would travel to 50 destinations all around the world in one year and shoot the videos. For many people, this was a dream job (even though it is much harder than it may seem).
We had over 400 applicants for this one post. We prioritized filming experience over professional travelers, and finally, we chose a nature documentary filmmaker, which turned out to be an excellent choice. We have been working together for over 6 years now.
Usually, our hiring process is less exciting, but we always try to select people who love traveling and are willing to learn new things.
How are you funding your growth?
Barbora Nevosádová: Before the Covid pandemic, most of our revenue came from our online travel planner Sygic Travel and so we could support 360° video production using these funds. During the pandemic, the roles have changed, and we needed the revenue from licensing 360° videos to be able to support the travel planner. We hope that both businesses will be viable on their own this year, and we are planning to invest more into making new videos.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Barbora Nevosádová: Our competitor is anybody with a 360° camera who can tell a great story. However, we have probably the biggest catalog of 360° travel videos in the world, and we are going to add even more videos in the upcoming months. We also try to focus on destinations that are more difficult to visit for an average traveler; for example, we have recently filmed in the Republic of Congo.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Barbora Nevosádová: When we started filming 360° travel videos, we wanted people to see the destination before they decided to visit it. It did not occur to us at that time that the videos could open the world to another group – older people who are not able to travel anymore but still love seeing new places.
We cooperate with several companies that provide virtual reality in care homes. Their clients enjoy our videos very much as they can finally see a city they have dreamt about visiting for a long time.
Your final thoughts?
Barbora Nevosádová: If you are itching to travel again after the forced Covid break, look at our 360° videos to know what to look forward to.
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