Live streaming is a diamond in the making. It has been around for many years, but ever since the pandemic hit in 2019, there’s been a surge of popularity and demand for this medium. And that’s because of how sustainable it is in the face of unpredictable happenings!
Just this year, 85% of the population aged 18-44 in the United States were reported to have watched a live stream on YouTube alone. The online live streaming industry has grown by 99% from last year and continues to show potential with an expected value of 184.27 billion USD by 2027.
Some industries that have had a head start in taking advantage of this booming growth are the e-commerce and gaming industries. Will your brand be the next to take a step into this rapidly growing market? Let’s take a look at the benefits live streaming can add to your current marketing strategy.
#1 Diversify your customer's online experience
Your audience is spoiled for choice online! The internet is saturated with tons of information, so how can you stand out from everyone else? To gain an edge over your competitors, you need to introduce fresh executions in your strategy. Live streaming allows you to do that by creating a controlled environment for endless creative possibilities.
You can design their experiences based on their personas, habits, likes and dislikes. The scripted layout of your live stream can include a creative mix of competitions, games, sharings, sales and more! These moments can transcend geographical barriers, which means you can bring your well-thought designed experiences to reach wider audiences.
#2 Forge deeper relationships with your audience
As everything is happening live, real-time interactions with your audience carry more significance. It’s best to acknowledge your audience as and when they send a comment or respond to you as this can create a sense of community among your fans. Simply responding to them and letting them know that their thoughts and opinions matter can build bridges that are often hard to establish through online connections.
Live streams convert private moments into social watch parties. Take YouTube for example, 79% of its audience says that they are able to create deeper connections when watching videos with other people, regardless whether they’re next to them in the living room or halfway across the globe.
#3 Create a sense of urgency
Live streams can be an engaging way to showcase limited time-only products, services and deals. It is a great platform to get your audience excited and create an urgency to jump into action with you. It was also reported that at least one in five people discover new products and brands through this medium!
But videos don’t necessarily have to be live to create this immediacy. Pre-recorded live streams can also simulate this effect. “With me” videos on YouTube where vloggers film themselves doing day-to-day activities to create a sense of real companionship, have achieved over two billion views worldwide in 2020 alone. Other variations of these pre-recorded videos are “Clean with me”, “Decorate with me” and “Study with me”.
Since these types of live streams are often based on special occasions and holidays, you have to be really creative in planning various themes and activities related to these dates to stand out from your competitors! This is the best way to amp up your live stream efforts and do something really different to set your holiday episodes apart from your typical ones.
#4 Cut cost, maximise efficiency
Live streams used to be reserved only for big scale events and required expensive equipment, lights and manpower. Now, they can be done on a smaller scale; anytime and anywhere, making live streams more affordable without compromising quality. Apart from our mobile phones having better quality cameras these days, almost anyone can host a live stream or tune in to one, with 5G network providing a hundred times faster speed than the best 4G networks available.
The bigger question is, can everyone produce engaging enough content to sustain viewership for more than five minutes? Now that’s when experienced creative agencies like Superminted come in to ensure the content pushed out through your live streaming videos are relevant, interesting and entertaining enough for your audience to keep watching.
The size of your live stream set-up depends on the tone and nature of the episode you are planning to do. Smaller set-ups with one or two hosts in a cosy space and a few cameras can create a more intimate session that facilitates deeper conversations and sharings with the community.
If you are looking to hold your very own The Ellen DeGeneres Show, that can be done too! You only need to cash out a little more for bigger set-ups like this. Having two to four hosts and guests on an elaborate set (or against a green screen); as well as shooting with multiple cameras can make a huge difference to your live streams. These are ideal for hyping up audiences for product launches, special events and large scale premieres!
Kyra is a Content Producer & Designer at Superminted. As a digital native, she understands the ins and outs of what’s hot (and what’s not) on the internet. She also enjoys conceptualising trendy content that resonates with the audience to stay on top of the marketing game. From static to moving visuals, she’s got you covered
