As more and more video comes online, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for advertisers to capture a viewer’s attention in any meaningful way. One way to break through the impending video clutter is to create an event-like experience with live content, which we is something we are now starting to see a number of brands experiment with. One of the companies specialising in helping brands distribute their live content online is Traction Labs. Last month Scott Young, the company’s president and COO, explained at New Video Frontiers how his company creates live streams across multiple social platforms and where the value is for brands. Below he also discusses the Traction Labs offering and provides some examples of work carried out for brands.
Could you provide some background on the Traction Labs offering?
We’re a full service live streaming platform designed to instantly build digital audiences for live stream video through a multi-tiered process. First we help our clients create live content or work with their pre-existing branded content, product launch or live event sponsorship. Then we authenticate across all their owned and affiliated social channels and our platform simultaneously broadcasts their stream across platforms in real time.
We extend the reach of their live content by streaming directly into native video and instream video placements across the web in addition to social influencer channels. We analyze and optimize viewership through measuring data across social and web placements within a unified dashboard. To build audiences most effectively we typically work with our clients to activate pre-promotion, live stream amplification, and re-broadcasting to underexposed audience segments.
What type of campaigns and the types of live content brands are creating?
We are starting to see brands think of live content in terms of a marketing strategy. The types of programs we see the most fall into 4 categories and I think the easiest way to convey what brands are doing is to take a look at the examples:
Live events (product releases, B2B conferences, Music events) are very popular of course:
Then lve branded content is one area which is also growing (you can see this example from McDonald’s on Facebook).
The gaming industry has been one of the most advanced when it comes to live streaming, so companies in the space have been quick to see the value of the live opportunity:
Finally, branded product or personality streams (of the ‘Ask Me Anything’ variety) are also popular:
https://youtu.be/3e1jq_SEMrQ?t=7m37s
The categories that have shown the strongest adoption of live content to date are, automotive, gaming, fashion, and enterprise technology. As brands continue to see success in generating live digital audiences, it should be interested what types of creative concepts evolve.
Is it difficult to maintain a high level of quality with live content? Aren’t there brand safety risks with live content?
Professionally produced live events can be carefully curated, filtered and monitored to safeguard brand sensitive output. Typically, live content enables social interaction with real times comments. This can be concerning for some brands, however they have the controls to filter this in the same way they can filter comments on their own facebook page.
Is 360 video scaling and for what types of content?
Now that 360 video formats are available on both YouTube and Facebook, we have seen an increased interest from brands in leveraging this format moving toward 2017 as branded content initiatives.
As a result we have optimized our distribution channels to support this format and are currently running programs to amplify viewership. A logical next step will be to live stream in 360. We are in the process of preparing our distribution network to support this format.
