Zoom Backgrounds Become Brand Opportunities

One of Zoom's most distinctive features is its green screen-style 'virtual background', which replaces the user's actual background with an image. Brands have jumped on this by offering their own selections of visuals. US home decor retailer West Elm is providing a series of images drawn from its Front + Main decor inspiration blog, while American paint brand Behr has developed a suite of stylish room designs, titled Behr Your Background.

Over on Twitter, Airbnb's global head of social Holly Clarke suggested brands might want to sponsor her Zoom backgrounds. She was joking, but judging from the replies, the idea might actually gain traction. And for those less dedicated to their work, there's also the option to hack Zoom backgrounds and skip those conference calls completely, by adding a still image or looped video of themselves instead.