Sprokk mashes up the best of social media

Justin Casale-Savage and Tony Moras have the body language and easy laughter reminiscent of laid-back SoCal surfers, but there’s more to this duo than meets the eye.

Sprokk it · Sprokk’s bold orange and blue logo is meant to encourage people to say what’s on their minds. The new app allows users to send their friends up to 17 seconds of audio with a photograph. – Courtesy of Tony Moras

Despite their easy-going attitude, Casale-Savage and Moras are two 28-year-old Southern California entrepreneurs on a mission to transform the way people communicate through their new social networking app, Sprokk.

“We want people to reconnect in a genuine and authentic manner,” Moras said. “Voice captures inflection and tone. Snapchat, Instagram and the other things out there right now don’t do that.”

This new app gets its catchy moniker from the Dutch language and literally translated, it means “speak.” Sprokk encourages voice-sharing by allowing folks to record up to 17 seconds of audio, paired with a photograph. Users can tag friends on posts or respond to other posts with a voice recording of their own. Though Facebook users are constrained to only “liking” and commenting on content, Sprokkers can hit “boo,” “LOL” or “fancy” to show their appreciation or distaste for voice recordings.

Exploring Sprokks’ posts reveals that users have been using the app to upload everything from serious to candid to comedic moments of life.

Though Sprokk is a fledgling company with a much smaller user base than Twitter or Instagram, this startup is growing with the help of its young staff. They currently employ several USC students who, as interns, serve as campus ambassadors.

These ambassadors, along with the rest of the team, apply unconventional marketing techniques to promote their brand.

In order to bolster the company’s likeability, one ambassador suggested that Sprokk deliver Sprinkles cupcakes along with Sprokk promotional items to sorority houses. That suggestion was quickly turned into reality.

“We’ve allowed the [students] to come up with the ideas,” Moras said.

Perhaps it is this youth-based marketing approach that will lead Sprokk to its success.

“We’re the old guys. We give the [students] the opportunity and freedom to do what they want with our product,” Casale-Savage playfully chimed in.

Aside from Moras and Casale-Savage, the company is run by Matthew Sanger and Kevin Ritter, all of whom exercise a sunny management style. Ambassadors and employees wear what they want to work and network with college students through social events.

“Working for the Sprokk team is really rewarding. The guys are young, funny and super easy to talk to,” said Layla Aberi, a  campus ambassador for Sprokk. “They have a clear business idea and want to hire people who share their enthusiasm.”

According to Aberi, Sprokk doles out significant creative powers to its current employees.

“I brought a large version of the Sprokk logo to Las Vegas and had a ton of people wear it [on their head] so everyone was curious what that head was all about,” Aberi said. “It definitely sparked people’s curiosity.”

Another on-campus promotional strategy by the Sprokk team was the hosting of a competition to see which sorority house can get the most downloads. The $1,000 prize money for this year went to Delta Gamma, which will donate the prize to its charity of choice, Service for Sight.

“We want to talk directly to people. It’s different from what the bigger companies do. We’re all about the grassroots,” Casale-Savage said.

In addition, Moras and Casale-Savage credit Tinder, FourSquare and other innovative web firms as inspiration for their creativity.

Though Sprokk still hasn’t achieved household-name status, one can’t help but love the product’s purpose.

“It’s a new form of communication, so it’s going to have to get over a few hurdles,” Casale-Savage said. “We want you to live out loud.”