Hark empowers users to listen to and share sound clips from its archives of over 750K sound bites, ranging from quotes to sound effects. What was your inspiration behind launching the site?
My co-founding partner, Fouad ElNaggar, and I were discussing the movie ‘War Games’ and how many sound bites are in that movie when we decided to do a Google search to find those sound bites on the web so we could use them as ringtones. In spite of our technical knowledge we came up empty. Audio clips were nowhere to be found! Hence, an idea was hatched.
Hark doubled its 2011 site visits in the first half of 2012. What do you attribute to this significant growth?
We can attribute this significant growth to SEO. As our SEO efforts increased more and more people who were searching for their favorite sound bites, came to our site through search engines.
A Google search for quotes like, “Did you just eat sofa pizza?” (The Hangover) “Ask him on a mandate” (I Love You, Man) or “One of us had to die” (The Departed) all rank Hark within the top 5 search results. Tell us a little about Hark’s SEO, and particularly how a studio might leverage this in promoting a new film release.
Our SEO strategy is very important to us, especially with regards to how we promote new titles from the movie studios. The fact is that people already know and love this content, and are out there searching for content related to entertainment more than 40B times a month. All we did was produce a high quality site, with great images, sounds and meta data, and open it up, and the searches were able to find us. It’s simple but it works – Google, Bing and others recognize that if make something that people want, it’s in their interest to show it first.
Hark recently partnered with Sports Byline to bring more than 17,000 hours of interviews and show clips to the Hark platform. What was the inspiration behind the partnership? What was the user response?
We love sports and understand the power behind the sound bites athletes produce. Working with Sports Byline USA is an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. We’re always looking to expand our library into new areas, and our visitors are constantly searching for sports-related clips. Now, we’re able to provide them with exactly what they’re looking for, and hopefully attract a whole new audience to Hark.
As a staple to many inside jokes, quotes boast a strong social currency and are, by nature, very shareable. Even press outlets leverage Hark, for example, CNN Money’s recent article about the iPhone 5 (http://bit.ly/Pf4J9j). What’s the most unusual or surprising place you’ve seen (heard) a Hark quote?
I’ve seen Hark sound bites in a number of interesting and unusual places, but perhaps the most interesting usage recently came from the media. A small newspaper in Philadelphia used a Hark sound bite in a police blotter story, in which the offending criminal was poked fun at by the newspaper through the use of the sound bite. It was truly hilarious.
Pretend Hark launched its own awards show. Which quotes, speakers or sound effects would win for the following categories?
This is a very subjective question as the answer depends upon the individual. From my perspective as co-founder and CEO of Hark.com, I’d choose the following sound bites:
- Most Inspirational: “That they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom,” Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
- Best Alliteration: Arnold Swarzenegger
- Funniest One-Liner: “The leads are weak,” from Glengary Glen Ross (very subjective and somewhat of an inside joke).
- Most Easily Taken Out of Context: “I can see Russia from my house,” Tina Fey pretending to be Sarah Palin. This sound bite has been mistakenly attributed to Palin.
- Most Memorable: “Insufficient Funds,” Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream Speech.
- Most Popular/Users’ Choice: “4-year old calls 911 for help with math homework.”
Trends continue to migrate toward users’ “second screen.” How is Hark and its database optimized for mobile?
Sound bites are primed for mobile consumption by users. Unlike video, sound bites are concise, have a short load time, and can be listened to on any device. All of these attributes are important to people on the go. Our mobile optimized site easily allows people to listen to their favorite sound bites anywhere.
With so many significant speeches and debates, election season seems like a particularly exciting time for Hark. Any highlights so far? What other big, quotable occasions are on your radar for the rest of 2012 and into 2013?
The election season so far has provided Hark.com with a wealth of sound bites, from Todd Akin to Clint Eastwood talking to a chair at the Republican National Convention to President Obama accepting the Democratic nomination. We are currently offering our users and the media an opportunity to sign up for Hark.com’s Political Sound Bite of the Day, which is generating some uptick. And we have plans to provide an exclusive sound board/info graphic to Mashable.com following each of the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential debates. In terms of other, quotable occasions, we follow trends and the calendar.
Any other new developments you’d like to share?
Hark is continually innovating new solutions for our customers and users. In 2013 we will begin a new core focus regarding mobile sounds and notifications. That news, however, is under wraps until next year.
Follow Hark @HarkDotCom
Follow us @Buzzmedia