I am a storytelling and comedy nerd, a marketer and a comic improviser.
I know how important preparing and letting go can be. The future of streaming video success belongs to leaders who embrace conversing, being human and letting go.
That means being willing to experiment and improvise as needed. Brand control is an illusion. Brand managers who embrace preparation, trust, empower others and then playfully ditch “the script” as needed will inherit the video streaming earth.
What streaming video does best is to let brand managers drop the corporate veil, connect human to human and allow users to participate in brand storytelling in ways that enrich the customer experience.
How are companies using streaming video to their advantage? New ways to use streaming are popping up all the time. Here are a few of the most popular applications:
Q&As and conversations with your audience
Experian uses live video for chatting about credit, debt, student loans and ways to manage and improve scores, using the hashtag #creditchat.
Customer support and Q&As
AWeber has been holding office hours to answer user questions.
Special announcements and product introductions
Nissan streamed the launch of its 2016 Maxima at the New York auto show. Frito-Lay’s Doritos used it in combination with other platforms to support the launch of the Doritos Roulette product. At the Consumer Electronics Show, General Motors became the first auto brand to livestream on Facebook when it rolled out the Chevy Volt EV.
Interviews and influencer outreach
Marketers forNestlé’s Drumstick held a sponsored event to reach out to Periscope pioneers to create their own content and promote it with sponsored tweets.
Blogger hosted/partner-hosted streams
SAP teamed up with key social media player Brian Fanzo and others for 25 hours of Blabs over five days leading up to the Super Bowl (Feb. 1-5). Each day a new SAP partner was the focus. SAP was in the background, telling its story through the lens of its partners, Fanzo says.
Live events
Those have included presentations, talks, conferences, press conferences, performances, concerts, tours and demos. GE used drones equipped with Periscope to give guided tours through remote facilities as part of #Droneweek. Taco Bell used it to hold a fun mock press conference.
Red Bull and Mountain Dew have also used it for events. U2 and Spotify have used it to stream live musical performances, including a Dunkin Donuts summer music effort across seven platforms, including Periscope and Spotify.
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Backstage pass and behind-the-scenes glimpses
The marketing team for the Madden video games series used live video to get behind-the-scenes coverage of players and share it with fans. “The Tonight Show” used Facebook Live to show behind-the-scenes footage of the show.
Target has used it to give fans sneak peeks of its design partnerships and promote fashion week. DKNY has also used it for similar behind-the-scenes glimpses, and Marc Jacobs used it to preview its 2016 line.
How successful brands get results (and how you can, too)
1. Have a plan, but don’t “produce.”
Streaming is not about produced video, and it’s not the place for polished webinars. Brand managers shouldn’t fear being imperfect. Ask your followers questions, listen, and then have them talk to you. People want to see who you really are.
There is currency in that very real, human, two-way exchange. (There will always be a market for produced, polished brand videos.) People have questions, and they don’t want to wait until your video teams have produced the heck out of something so much that it feels overdue and over-scripted.
Have a strategy, and then be able to throw away that strategy if it doesn’t fit, advises Fanzo, who was an early video streaming adopter.
“In one example, I was giving a tour behind the scenes with the goal to make the streaming a ‘backstage pass’ event, when several viewers started asking questions about my new Samsung phone,” he says. “So I switched gears, and we started talking about technology, because that is where participants wanted to go.”
2. Be willing to take risks and trust others.
The investment in people and ideas is more important than the technology, so invest in and empower your best internal and external brand ambassadors and storytellers.
Fanzo says the top brand using live streaming today is Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It features 10-minute Q&A sessions with ring girls before matches and uses streaming for behind the scenes weigh-ins. The key to its huge success is that the CEO of UFC is willing to collaborate and try lots of new things. You don’t have to do it alone-invite others to help expand the reach of your brand into their networks. That requires trusting people.
Marketers for brands such as Verge and Mashable have succeeded in live streaming because they let external bloggers drive their Periscopes each week, Fanzo says. Every brand can do so, regardless of size.
He adds that live streaming is the great equalizer for small brands: “It makes it easier to tell your story and to give access to your brand in a whole new way that is much more participatory.”
3. Let your audience know you care.
Tell your audience how much you value them in your streaming, and use these conversations to make your content better. Use live streaming to connect before you sell; that says to your audience, “We care about you.”
“That connection makes your audience believe you,” Fanzo says.
A big part of the beauty with live-streaming engagement is discovering what people want and using that to sharpen content marketing strategy. Brand managers who pay attention can design content around questions raised during the streams.
4. Demonstrate business value for your audiences and biggest fans.
Use streaming to create conversations, give customers important information, and highlight fans, partners, employees, and new technologies (and share the spotlight). Sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses is yet another way to thank your biggest fans and enable them to help share your brand story.
When done well, these approaches have generated returns for brands in the areas of publicity, engagement, downloads, lead generation and influencer marketing.
5. When you let go, have fun!
A sense of humor matters, especially when things don’t go according to plan. Schedule video events that are pure fun, as Taco Bell did with its mock press conference.
It’s also important for brand managers to recognize the need for spontaneity when the plan isn’t working and you have to ditch the script. Plan, adjust, let go and have fun in the moment-that’s the real, human and conversational aspect of video.
I’ve done several Blabs in the past eight months; my guests and I improvised marketing ideas based on user suggestions offered in real time. We had no idea how things would turn out, but we generated some viable ideas and had a lot of fun.
Nothing is perfect. Your brand isn’t, and customers don’t expect that. What they want is human.
Here’s to happy returns
Short-run and longer-term returns matter, of course, but part of live-streaming video’s opportunity lies in allowing brand managers to try new things.
Agile brand managers have a plan and know when to ditch it, just like a finely tuned improv team.
Prepare, and then let go. I can’t think of a better, more human way to galvanize your champions, widen your reach, inform new content ideas and find new ways to create valuable experiences that do not require a huge investment in technology or production.
Streaming video is a powerful tool in the marketing toolbox. Are you ready? Your audiences are.
Kathy Klotz-Guest is a speaker, story strategist and creative facilitator, and the founder of Keeping it Human. She also runs The Keeping it Human-Improvised Marketing Show podcast. A version of this article originally appeared on Convince & Convert. Her book on creating kick-ass marketing content using the power of improvisation (“Stop Boring Me!”) comes out July 2016.(Image via)
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