Movie and TV Marketers Find New Place to Pitch: Zoom Videoconferencing Backgrounds

For Hollywood marketers, Zoom backgrounds have become the new billboards.

With millions of people working from home — and using the ubiquitous Zoom app for meetings and presentations — a slew of TV networks and movie studios have latched on to the trend of supplying images of their franchises formatted for Zoom’s virtual background feature. The idea? To turn WFH fans into brand ambassadors.

Zoom, which has been scrambling to respond to different security and privacy issues amid the surge, provides instructions on how to use virtual backgrounds at this link. The company says there are no size restrictions for virtual backgrounds but it recommends cropping the image to match the aspect ratio of your camera before uploading it.

Here’s a list of officially sanctioned videoconferencing backgrounds from studios and networks, ranging from “Toy Story” to “Trolls World Tour,” “Game of Thrones” to “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and “Schitt’s Creek” to “American Idol”:

HBO: Find backgrounds for “Game of Thrones,” “Westworld,” “Euphoria,” “Insecure,” “Succession” and more at this link.

Pixar: The Disney-owned animation studio has released backgrounds for favorites including “Toy Story,” “Up,” “Finding Nemo” and “Inside Out,” as well as “Cars” and “The Incredibles.”

“Trolls World Tour”: Background images featuring characters from the animated sequel, which is available early in digital release starting April 10 in the U.S.

ABC: The network released backgrounds for “American Idol,” “Modern Family,” “The Connors” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”

“Top Gun: Maverick”: Paramount pushed the movie to December, but you can download backgrounds here.

“A Quiet Place 2”: Set the mood with this background for the sequel to John Krasinski and Emily Blunt’s thriller.

“Schitt’s Creek”: The virtual backgrounds for the comedy, which airs its series finale this week after six seasons, here and at this link.

CBS: Find backgrounds for shows including “NCIS,” “Survivor,” “Young Sheldon” and “Mom” along with CBS All Access shows “Star Trek: Picard,” “The Good Fight,” “StarTrek Discovery” and “Why Women Kill.”

Starz: Backgrounds for “American Gods,” “Outlander” and “Vida” are here.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race”: Backgrounds for “all of your werk from home” here.

“The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run”: Take a trip to The Lost City of Atlantic City with this virtual background.