Live streaming can really work to bring customers closer to your brand or event drawing them into your community and helping to build trust and loyalty. Live streaming and social media seem to go hand in hand as they both offer brands the chance to get close to their customers online in real-time. And indeed video live streaming has created quite a buzz in social this year with Meerkat making news at SXSW followed by Twitter buying Periscope. Now there’s even talk of these social apps transforming the US Presidential election campaigns.
In this two part blog, we look at some of the key uses of live streaming and how to make it work for your business and then focus on how to get the most from Periscope.
Live events and product launches
Events are a good place to start when thinking about live streaming, and an effective way to create an online buzz in real-time. When live streaming, your brand can also interact with those watching at home via social media during the event to build relationships with a wider audience. These video streams can be edited and used afterwards to maximise the lifespan of your content and continue to engage your customers.
Live streaming transformed the catwalk shows of #LFW, once the preserve of the fashion elite with Burberry taking the lead. It’s now commonplace, but back in 2013, TopShop also shook things up by livestreaming its catwalk show, reaching more than two million people from more 100 countries. They offered a tailored experience for consumers and made it easy to buy products; customers could click on clothes in a variety of colourways as they strutted down the catwalk. According to the brand, several ranges sold out within in an hour.
Brands can also sponsor live streaming to associate themselves with relevant artists or prestige events, such as HP and Professor Green’s #BendTheRules tour. Another takeaway here is offering exclusive content in exchange for social interaction; in this campaign fans could access an exclusive video but only after sharing the microsite.
Live streaming product launches can also give your audience an insight into your business and build trust. Offering exclusive access to influencers could help to increase your reach and brand awareness via social media. Social apps such as Meerkat or Periscope, can also create that extra buzz as the video will vanish soon after the first streaming. Use this to your brand’s advantage and maximise the ‘fear of missing out”.
Audience first
As with any technique in our series, from 3D to timelapse, if you do not understand your audience, your campaign will not deliver ROI. A campaign, we worked on with partner agencies JWT and Jack London for Trident chewing gum, really maximised the power of audience research.
Why does chewing gum appeal to the target demographic, 18-24 year olds? It turned out they felt that chewing gum was just “pointless fun”. The campaign ran with this idea on a dedicated website, where visitors could play a variety of ‘pointless games’. One game involved the audience suggesting what a coop of chickens should do next. We managed the live streaming, and used three remote control cameras and four fixed head cameras, which fed back to a vision mixing and encoding system, streaming the video for three weeks. By focusing on the audience first, live streaming helped this brand bring its key selling point to life.
In the example above the audience leads the action by voting on what’s happening in real-time. Coca Cola also led with audience interaction in an innovative live streaming campaign designed to dominate the social media conversation at the Superbowl a few years ago. They live streamed two polar bears supporting opposing sides which reacted to viewers’ comments and events of the Superbowl. Rather than bombarding people with unwanted brand chatter, it listened into existing social media conversations in order to build relationships and engage.
Create some noise
With real-time marketing, live streaming offers that extra frisson for the audience of knowing that things are happening right now. This excitement can create noise for brands. Take this unusual campaign for IKEA, which was launched earlier this year. This quirky Swedish brand set up a live streaming site to allow couples to marry and share their event live with family and friends. The novelty factor helped to attract PR for the brand and direct people to their catalogue for wedding pieces.
Competitions
Competitions can also be an engaging way to encourage audience interaction in real-time. We created a very tongue in cheek live streamed video for Hobgoblin beers. The ‘Wheel of Misfortune’ was a presenter-led ‘wheel of fortune’ style game show – even equipped with its own gunge tank. By encouraging brand advocates to share with their friends on social media, the brand extended its reach and raised awareness.
XBox 360 wanted to create an online buzz with the launch of Forza Motorsport 4 via a competition with a Forza car as a prize. We were called on by agency, Jack London, to live stream the game and allowed people to watch online and vote for their favourite.
Brand love
Live streaming can also help to create stunts to reinforce or reposition your brand proposition. Chevrolet wanted to remind people about their prowess in terms of tech and products, but also surprise people to rethink the brand identity.
The automotive brand’s #BestDayEver campaign set out to achieve this. They partnered with YouTube, vloggers, and online comedy network, Jash, to live stream a day of events and surprises. Streamed on April Fools’ Day, this campaign acts like a marketing stunt or prank and the live element brings audiences at home closer to the action. The association of their brand with fun, surprises and popular celebrities and influencers helped them reach new audiences.
Social live streaming
Social apps, such as Periscope and Meerkat, could be particularly useful for Q & As, behind-the-scenes content, or product announcements. Red Bull was quick to use Meerkat to share qualifiers for its Double Pipe snowboard competition whilst GE set up Q & As with scientists. These are both good examples for other businesses, as they are putting their brand identity first on this new channel.
Like shortform video, social live streaming can help to show and reinforce a brand’s personality. It is also a particularly good way to demonstrate transparency as consumers can see your business in real-time for themselves.
We hope that these campaigns will inspire you to think about how live streaming could help your brand. Why set up a Q & A with a member of your team or an influencer in your market for starters?
Want to find out how to use social live streaming app, Periscope? We’ve got a blog coming up for you soon…If you would like to discuss live streaming and digital campaigns further, give us a call or email today.