It may not be a hypnotic video of chains being manufactured or the soothing scene of a scythe taking the heads off thousands of flowers in a single sweep, but a Victoria business has created its own livestream that’s attracting an international audience.
Lug a Rug, no longer able to let people tour its facility and see how rugs are cleaned, has created a virtual backstage pass to the cleaning process.
The company offers a livestream on its website that shows the wet room at its Beta Street facility where workers methodically clean rugs all day long.
While it might sound a little dull, Luv a Rug owner Stephen {Dusty} Roberts says the livestream packs them in — virtually, at least — every day.
He doesn’t know how many viewers he gets in a day, but said a recent analytics report showed a lot of people are watching from the U.S. and the U.K. He has been warned the company will soon need to beef up its server to handle the traffic.
Roberts said as a veteran of the rug-cleaning business, he knows many people are skeptical, having had bad experiences with other firms. Offering behind-the-scenes tours was a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack.
“We lost that with COVID,” he said. “But this [video] has been incredibly successful. This is how we show people we are the real deal, and we are getting attention from around the world.”
The livestream is available during business hours, but he has also posted a 27-minute video detailing how the company cleans rugs that have been soiled by things like pet urine.
Even that gets a lot of attention, said Roberts, and has meant a real boost for the business.
“It’s a valuable tool for us,” he said. “It’s worth it, people are watching.”
Roberts said they can’t tell customers exactly when their rugs might appear on screen, but they can give a general idea.
> Watch the livestream at luvarug.com/real
