Formally popularised by gamers through platforms like Twitch, live streaming is no longer focused just on gamers sitting in their rooms with a can of Red Bull.
Live streaming has become big business, with many of these streamers banking big sponsorship deals and converting their rooms into big budget recording studios. In fact, the format has become so popular that almost a third of internet users watch streaming content daily. Be it shopping, watching gamers and even shopping. It’s a straight-to-viewer form of digital advertising that can yield huge conversions. Investing in live streaming as part of your marketing strategy can tap into new audiences, increasing sales conversion. Let’s discuss how different types of live streams can be applied to deliver results.
The rise of live shopping
Securing sales traditionally was all about which brand can splash the most cash at TV adverts and visuals, or who can leverage their brand reputation to secure sales volume. Of course, these principles are still factors – consumers still invest in brands that they have emotional connections and trust with. A successful campaign no longer solely relies on how the brand speaks to the consumer, it’s also about how trusted people speak for the brand.
Thats where the rise of live shopping comes in. More traditional means could take a brand 5-7 touch points before a customer converts to a sale. The impulsive and quick nature of live shopping however, could streamline that down to 1. So it’s no wonder that with the changes in communicative technology that brands have found new channels to achieve the same results.
Take makeup brand, Plouise, as an example. Tapping into the beauty market in 2018, Plouise became innovators in social media advertising, using affiliates and live streaming to grow brand equity. 8 years later, they’re one of the leading eyeshadow primer brands worldwide, thanks to their use of live TikTok shop events, with one of their live shopping events securing a whopping $2.7 million worth of sales in just 14 hours. In fact, TikTok highlight the importance of live streaming, suggesting conversion rates on this format are 8% higher on average than their regular short form content (in the world of conversion thats big numbers, trust us).
If your brand is in retail, utilising live shopping features on social media is a great way to speak directly with your audience, showcase and promote current and new products and – most importantly – get sales. TikTok is one of the most used platforms for this type of sales marketing, with brands going live to offer limited time pricing on a range of products, adding a ‘can’t miss’ feeling to customers who want to save on their purchases.
Marketing a new product live
Modern consumers want to know new product announcements now, not later. Live stream launch events can generate a lot of hype around your new product. It’s a space where customers can interact with the stream by commenting and talking with people who are equally just as excited about the product. The excitement live streams can generate can increase conversion levels by a minimum of 6%.
And it’s not even consumables that can be launched in this way. Musicians often use streaming platforms to announce new albums or tours. Some businesses even utilise live streaming to announce company and product changes to their internal teams – an effective way to reach global teams and, through recordings, have the media available for references and followup.
But why does a strategy matter?
It would take a stroke of luck to create engaging live streaming marketing content without a solid plan preceding it – planning can take months in some cases. One of the most crucial factors in creating an engaging live stream, is ensuring your messaging is right. Looking back in a time before live streaming, product launches were done on the main stage. Let’s look at Steve Jobs – he didn’t stir up hysteria for the original iPhone launch by saying the first thing that came to his head. His iconic speech, discussing the combining of 3 products in to 1, will no doubt have gone through multiple rewrites, utilising research and copywriters and – more importantly – strategy. It’s a great example of how writing something that an important message needs to also resonate with the audience, so preparation is key.
It’s important that your messaging understands your audience and gives them something new. Whilst the likes of Apple have seen unanimous success with live streams, the recent stream for the iPhone 17 saw reduced viewership of 24% vs that of the iPhone 16 stream. Why? With information being shared (and often leaked!) in a way like never before, users were already talking about the iPhone 17 weeks before, meaning the hype had already dissipated (not that it slowed down the sales!).
When you go live without a strategy
As far as the big brands go, Microsoft has had a fairly rough ride with a scattered streaming strategy. The 2013 live stream of the Xbox One console has been cited as one of the main reasons for the brands decline. The stream focused on selling points that didn’t resonate with the core audience, boosted by a failed live demo. With an unfocused strategy, Sony was able to hold their own live stream, announcing an product offering that countered all the issue’s that Microsoft users were experiencing. Microsoft had to control brand damage for a whole generation of products after the fiasco.
Getting live streaming right with Kensa.
As you can see, even the big brands who implement live streaming marketing aren’t impervious to a few issues (some more costly than others!). The good news though, if you’re looking to dip into the world of direct communication through live streaming, we can help. Through our team, we can combine strategy, creative and video services to support any live streaming projects. We can ensure that the strategy aligns with your overall objectives and develop scripts and onscreen graphics to support message delivery.
Our video team have experience in supporting live streaming across the world, with the expertise to handle all of the technical setup and pre-launch testing. We also have use of our own in-house studio, so if you don’t have the ideal location secured for your stream, you can make use of our purpose built space. Complete with professional lighting, sound proofing and all the kit you need, we’ve got it covered. Want to get started with a live streaming project? Tell us about it here and we’ll be in touch.
