No billboard needed: This Seattle startup scored World Cup airtime with a scrappy cardboard sign

When a startup town turns into a soccer town attracting worldwide attention, it’s a great opportunity to test your guerrilla marketing skills.

Seattle’s Yoodli leaned into that theory on Thursday by getting its name and web address on Fox Sports’ live broadcast of FIFA World Cup festivities from Pier 62 on the waterfront.

The company, which launched out of the former AI2 Incubator in 2021, develops AI-powered software that allows users to simulate and practice real-world conversations. Yoodli has been at AI House all week on nearby Pier 70, and the team said grabbing free TV ad time was a “Hail Mary move” — especially in an era when AI company billboards are such a thing.

In a description of events relayed to GeekWire via email, the effort started with Yoodli’s new growth marketing manager Connor Wright scrolling Instagram earlier that morning to catch up on World Cup updates. He saw that Fox was live-streaming from Pier 62.

A scrappy startup lightbulb went off.

Communications and content leader Sage Ke’alohilani Quiamno said she quickly ripped up a monitor box — because the startup is getting a new office soon — and wrote “Yoodli.ai” on the front and “USA” on the back.

Marketing intern Luis Quiroz ran down Alaskan Way with Wright to get inside Fox’s Pier 62 makeshift studio space and hold up the sign just over the shoulder of soccer commentator Alexi Lalas.

“When you’re standing outside with a piece of cardboard and a Fox broadcast camera sweeps by, you seize the moment,” Quiamno said. “Connor held the sign without hesitation while I directed him via phone from the office.”

Yoodli has been watching World Cup action daily from the lunchroom at AI House, and Quiamno said the energy downtown has been something else, especially in anticipation of Friday’s noon match between the U.S. and Australia at Seattle Stadium (Lumen Field).

“It’s the kind of vibe Seattle rarely gets: the waterfront is packed, everyone’s in a good mood, and there’s this collective feeling that the city is on the global stage,” she said.

Yoodli was co-founded by Esha Joshi and Varun Puri and is ranked No. 22 on the GeekWire 200 index of the Pacific Northwest’s top startups. The company currently has about 80 employees.

“We’re growing but still small enough to pull off a guerrilla PR stunt,” Quiamno said.

And apparently it worked. Yoodli says it saw an increase in website traffic and demo inquiries following the broadcast.

“Proof that a handmade sign and a little World Cup energy go a long way,” Quiamno added.