Every year, Edelman is invited to attend Twitter’s annual Further Faster event. The event is purely for creative agencies and acts as a stage to showcase their latest work and share their vision for the future of creative work on the platform.
This year’s event was all around The Art of Video. We moved through VR>Live>Brand>360 as a story that came full circle to show Twitter as the home of live video innovation and as a result, the forefront of the latest news.
The venue was filled with brilliant tech & game installations: the VR project demo, 360 touchscreens showing best in class branded 360, the Twitter Studio and even a human sized Twitter monopoly (that’s right!). Award-winning broadcaster Alex Pettitt also hosted a live Periscope studio, interviewing three agency guests all night long – I was honoured to be one of these guests as an early adopter of Periscope.
Here are two key learnings about the power of livestreaming:
1. BRANDS DON’T INFLUENCE PEOPLE, PEOPLE DO
Alex and I discussed how I have been using the platform personally for years as a livestreamer (“CityScoper”) and in my role at Edelman. We also talked about the importance of strategically collaborating with the right influencer to help tell a brand’s story in an authentic way.
It was fascinating to share our views on current trends around the platform and offer a glimpse of what the future might hold. Here’s a snapshot of our live chat…
2. INFLUENCE IN REAL TIME
The session got me thinking the role video plays in consumers’ everyday lives. Livestreaming is undoubtedly making it easier, quicker (and cheaper) for brands to share their stories among influencers and consumers, but the true power of live is that it’s real. And we know this is what people are expecting and demanding from their brands.
Whether it’s Twitter’s Periscope, YouTube or Facebook Live, live content garners much more engagement than video alone. It’s the rawness of the medium and the fact that it allows the audience to have a two-way conversation rather than a one-way flow of information that initially drew me to livestreaming.
SO, WHAT CAN BRANDS LEARN?
By inviting their audience to be active participants in their story, the earned brand story not only gets told but is then also demonstrated and experienced.
This interactivity is the reason more brands and agencies are expanding traditional influencer marketing models to align with strategies live streaming personalities are already activating. Therefore, there is a need for earned centric ideas with the power to live anywhere, including in real time.
Lastly, live streaming apps transcend traditional ‘influence’ that is predominant on other channels by placing an emphasis on the content itself and the story it’s telling. By going ‘live’ with quality content that is relevant and draws people in, you can easily get the eyes of the whole world on your message.