Zannel Gets Knocked Up

Mobile video is one of those things that will be a massive market, when the right service finally finds the right population — mobile-savvy users, with decent phones and data plans, and a reliable way to monetize the service. Startup Zannel is working on the recipe, and is using — what else — movie promotions to do it.

On Wednesday the company will announce a partnership with Universal and a promotion for the film Knocked Up, which will include a branded channel and a contest for users to upload videos of themselves dancing. The idea for the dancing videos is a little tired, but scoring a big media partner is always a good idea.

Zannel, which raised $6 million last year from U.S. Venture partners and Palomar Ventures, already does branded content for Warner Bros. and its Oceans 13. Other startups like MyWaves have a similar mobile video service and are working on mobile marketing, ads, and promotions too.

Jackson took a liking to Zannel recently, cause it’s pretty easy to use. Click on the “pass it on” feature on the web to send video clips to your and your friend’s cell phones. Now all these services need are users who ready and willing to watch them.