Increasing Interest is Clear

When surveyed, consumers admit they’d much rather watch a company’s video than read a blog post. Another 82% said they’d prefer that video to be a live streaming video than a social post. Almost half said they’d be open to paying for an on-demand live streaming event. The numbers are clear that live streaming is hot. It’s hot because it personalizes your brand and humanizes it at the same time.

Live Video Streaming Events

Live streaming allows people across the country and even abroad to learn more about your brand or company. Someone on the other side of the world may not be able to afford the trip to an event marketing or pop-up you’re hosting, but they can watch a live stream and see what you’re all about.

Reaching a wider audience is one benefit to live videos, but there are others. One of the biggest right now is that people are worried about the coronavirus. People around the world are staying home, working remotely, and avoiding large crowds.

Major events are being canceled. The NBA has canceled games. College basketball tournaments are being held privately and not allowing fans into the venue. SXSW and E3 2020 are no longer being held. The International Olympic Committee is talking about barring spectators from this summer’s Olympics. Spectators are also being barred from events like Formula One’s Grand Prix in Bahrain and FIFA games.

Spectators may not be advisable at an event you’re hosting, but live streaming ensures the show or event goes on. Your fans still get to participate, they just do it from a safe location and help avoid contracting or spreading this concerning virus. Live video streaming is also useful in engaging people who may not be able to afford to take time off work or school to attend a show or marketing event or don’t like large crowds. It’s not as hard to set up as you’d think, and you’re certain to draw a larger audience than ever before.

Considerations When Organizing Live Video Streaming

Your very first step is to pick the right location. You need a room or venue where sound won’t cause issues with your audio feed, a big room that echos may not be ideal. A hotel meeting room where you can hear people in hallways or closing doors in nearby rooms is also not ideal. A quiet room or studio with sound-proof paneling and space for the equipment may be better. It depends a lot on how many people are going to be involved in the live stream.  You also want the space to fit your brand – from the physical space to décor to lighting – it’s important to work with a company that understands all aspects of creating the right atmosphere for your live streaming event.

Once the venue is arranged, start drawing interest. Make posts or emails engaging and clear. A spontaneous live streaming event may not draw the audience you desire, so make sure people have some time to plan to clear their schedule to attend your video stream.

Arrange your staff. You need to determine in advance how many speakers are needed. How many people are needed to run cameras, adjust audio, and monitor the feed to make sure it’s streaming correctly. You don’t want to leave these roles to people who are not experts. It may save money to have your employees help out, but they may not have the expertise that’s needed to organize a memorable live streaming event. You need to invest the money to call in the pros.

Test everything in advance. Test, test, and test again! You need to make sure the audio feed works. You need time to play around with camera angles and lighting. People need to clearly hear and see your speaker. If you don’t test it multiple times right up to the moment when you go live, errors could keep your video stream from reaching people around the world. This comes back to having the pros. Glitches can happen, but a pro will know what to do to fix it and get you back on the air. If minutes or hours pass and you’re still having issues, your viewers will move on.

Streaming videos already accounts for 66% of all internet traffic and that number is climbing. Facebook accounts for 60% of that live video viewing. Since Facebook launched video streaming in 2015, searches for “Facebook Live Stream” have increased by well over 300%.

Live video streaming plays an increased role in today’s experiential marketing activations. Whether you need to host an entirely streamed event or simply want to increase your audience by streaming an in-person even, Factory 360 can help from planning to execution of your live video streaming needs. Call us today to learn more.