It feels like live streaming has come out of nowhere and has suddenly become the top digital marketing tool of 2019. But is it a technology service or a marketing tool and who should be responsible for managing it?
Busy marketing managers are watching with interest as competitors dip their toes in the potentially brilliant yet daunting field of live video streaming, wondering how they are going to get their heads around it. Stressed IT managers are busy keeping firewalls up and hoping the marketing team haven’t heard about it yet.
And then the day comes. The Managing Director announces that she wants to live stream the next product launch. Marketing look at IT, waiting for them to take the lead. IT wait for the onslaught of potential brand risks to be listed by marketing. But there is silence, until the MD says “great, let’s do this”.
It feeels like every business activity has risks for the IT team these day, and done incorrectly, live streaming certainly falls into this category. But does that mean it should be led by the IT team? Twitter and others have noted live video streaming as the number one digital marketing tool of 2019. Does that mean it should always be led by the marketing team?
A service that works technically well is never going to excite your audience or prompt them to buy your product or service. A live stream should reflect your brand, engage your audience and tell a story. The technical aspects are a given and marketing need to be clear with the team from the outset what the objectives are. If you need to build a new webpage, video player, give external providers access to your social media channels, your IT team need to know this and be involved in the process from the early planning stages.
A successful live stream brings quicker results and reaches furhter than any other other platform. Careful and inclusive planning will ensure you deliver a seamless service. If that’s not possible, appoint a professional live stream provider and ask them to project manage the entire process. Make sure to pick a company with plenty of experience of live streaming events, freeing you up to concentrate on the event itself. Let me know how you go!