Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Video Trends & Studies on
If you’ve heard the term “blockchain” tossed around, chances are it’s been in the context of Bitcoin. Blockchain — a digital ledger that publicly records transactions — is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but it could also be a silver bullet for the entertainment industry by being used for blockchain DRM (digital rights management).
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Tips & Tutorials on
For brands and retail marketers, live online video can be a powerful hook to grab—and keep—customers’ attention to boost brand marketing efforts. According to industry experts, a prerecorded online video will hold consumers’ attention for about two minutes, but live streaming video can keep audiences engaged for 20 minutes or even longer. The trick is to make those live streams must-see experiences or viewers won’t tune in, let alone stick around to make a purchase.
So what can marketers do to ensure live video events will draw and delight target audiences and, ultimately, help drive revenue? In a recent webcast, Fritz Brumder, CEO and founder of Brandlive, a live interactive video platform for brands and retailers, and Stacy Nawrocki, director of product marketing for IBM Watson Media, offered some savvy advice for marketers large and small.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
Viewers worldwide are cancelling their cable TV packages and turning to online broadcasts at a steady rate. In the U.S. alone, nearly 25 million households lacked cable by the end of 2015. More than 1 million American households are expected to cut the cord this year, and they will be joined by millions more households across the globe.
But it’s not just weekday sitcoms, made-for-TV movies and daily news that are migrating online. Sports fans are clamoring to stream their favorite teams—and that’s where Footters, which launched this month, sees an opportunity.
Based in Spain, Footters is an online streaming company providing a platform for federated soccer clubs—the semi-professional and even professional players who are part of clubs worldwide that aren’t popular enough to merit the blanket television coverage given to the English Premier League or La Liga, Spain’s top professional soccer association. These minor league clubs might not be powerful enough to ink their own television deals, but they have a large, largely underserved audience. With an estimated 24 million clubs comprising 270 million players around the world, Footters’ potential reach is enormous.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
Video moves people. The human brain absorbs video with much less work than it takes to process text. As a result, we’d rather watch than read, and we end up sharing videos more than almost any other type of content on the internet. Leading organizations are recognizing this, and they’re expanding their use of video as a tool for driving better business outcomes.
The streaming video success stories infographic below illustrates eight great results that organizations are achieving using streaming video. Click on the infographic and it will open in PDF format, with each result linking to a two-minute video that explains how it was achieved. Which result is most relevant to your goals?
For the fastest path to results, tell us the type of impact you need from streaming video, and we can coach you on the best practices most relevant to delivering it.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
Point your camera at a religious service, touch the “Go Live” button, and your stream could reach dozens or even thousands of people in places you’ve never heard of. You can’t be sure what effect it might have on your audience.
Maybe you’re a rabbi sitting in front of a webcam in your office, about to play guitar and chat online with visitors to your weekly online-only synagogue. Or maybe you’re behind a camera that will sweep across 4,000 parishioners in a megachurch and send the service out to 50,000 viewers around the world.
Both these examples are among the roughly one thousand religious organizations that share their services on Ustream.tv each week. Whether the audience is vast or small, each producer wants to offer a high-quality, reliable video stream that is a gift for viewers to receive.
We asked experienced producers who stream religious services to share with us the top tips that make their work successful and rewarding. Read on to get their advice. And get started free with IBM Watson Media to stream your own religious service.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
Nothing conveys emotion like live video. You watch it and feel it in the same moment. This SolarCity use case video explores why live video plays such an important role at SolarCity: it’s the vehicle for executive-led town halls, interactive trainings and webinars that bring together 15,000 employees across many locations and departments.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
“If you haven’t seen jousting before, picture your worst nightmare come true,” says Luke Campbell, chief operating officer at Epicentre.tv, which is streaming the first World Jousting Championship this weekend on IBM’s live streaming platform. “It’s two guys running on horseback, down a tilt line, 60 kilometers an hour (about 40 miles an hour) using wooden lances with metal tips to knock each other off. It’s insane, actually. You have to witness it to believe it.”
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Tips & Tutorials on
Just about every minute of every day, there’s a live stream event taking place somewhere in the world — on social media platforms, corporate networks, and entertainment company apps. From the recent solar eclipse to the Mayweather-McGregor fight to the MTV Video Music Awards, online users are showing a healthy appetite for seeking out live video events to watch.
Of course, every event needs an audience — and given the effort that goes into a live streaming event, video planners want to ensure that, at start time, there’s a large and highly engaged audience. Social media can be used to whip up enthusiasm before the event, encourage discussion during the live stream, and continue the conversation after it ends.
If you are looking for some additional advice for marketing your video content, or creating marketing videos, also be sure to check out our on-demand 9 Mistakes to Avoid in Your Video Marketing Strategy seminar.
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Customer Stories on
Tour de Office, an Australian nonprofit, is encouraging office-bound workers to get more active while raising money for charity — and streaming video plays a key role.
“The growing knowledge economy is putting more people behind desks for longer periods of time,” says Tudor Marsden-Huggins, an avid cyclist and founder of Employment Office, a recruitment agency based in Australia. “Research shows that sitting for more than four hours per day greatly increases your risk of chronic disease.”
In 2011, Marsden-Huggins launched Tour de Office, a week-long relay event to raise awareness of those health risks. The events are part friendly athletic competition, part fundraising challenge. Participating companies compete for a charity of their choice, and Tour de Office live streams the action online to maximize donations. (See how a live stream solution like this quickly scales.)
Written by Stacy Nawrocki in Tips & Tutorials on
An expert in North Korea agreed to an on-camera interview with the BBC in March but a few seconds in, everything went pear-shaped.
First the man’s young daughter walked in and he gently tried to coax her out during the interview. Then his eight-month-old son strolled in on a squeaky walker. Finally, the man’s wife frantically tried to herd both children out of the room.
The clip went viral, to the point where Robert E. Kelly, the so-called “BBC Dad,” felt compelled to give a press conference explaining himself.
Most glitches during a live stream don’t rise to that level of comedic gold, with a lot of them related to delivery issues that could be corrected for through scaling as mentioned in this Scaling Video Delivery to Reach Massive Audiences white paper. Very often, though, unexpected problems during live streams leave the impression that the presentation is unprofessional. But presenters can salvage such moments by taking some cues from the world of improv comedy.