You know, I’ve spent my entire 20+ year career in advertising creating 30 second TV commercials. It was what I was conditioned to do. It’s what the industry was conditioned to do. But when was the last time you watched a commercial? I know I DVR just about everything I watch. That means those commercials in between breaks are a blur. That also means if I’m doing it, so is everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, we still produce 30 second commercials for the brands we represent, but over the years, I’ve learned in order to widen an audience, and capture as many eyeballs as possible, you need to learn a new trick.
Hey livestreaming, nice to meet you. Livestreaming isn’t a new “thing” but we realized it hasn’t been used very effectively.
A few keys to live streaming are:
1. BE creative
2. Make sure you’re streaming on the proper channel
3. Make sure you follow rule #1
For example, for our client, Eegee’s, we had two interns place rubber bands around a watermelon to find out just how many bands it would take for it to explode (343, to be exact) and livestreamed it on their Facebook page (their customers are rabid followers there) and it hit home.
For the Arizona Lottery, we helped the Humane Society get the word out that there were puppies and kittens up for adoption by holding a “Puppy Pick” in conjunction with the Lottery’s Pick game. Streamed it live, helped get those puppies and kittens adopted, and actually got the media to cover it (bonus!).
And to get the attention of a new business prospect for ourselves, we held the Mother of all livestreamed events, #JonathanCallScott, a 24-hour streamed event that featured one of our copywriters who would not leave his Airbnb, (one of our offices), until Jonathan called Scott. Jonathan did indeed call Scott in the 24th hour.
These sound like fun and games, but there was a lot of serious discussion about “where” to livestream them. After all, you can livestream all you want, but if your intended audience doesn’t see it, you might as well have produced a 30 second TV commercial, and we all know how that goes.
So in the end, it all comes back to the thinking at the end. Be creative, make sure you’re streaming on the proper channel, and follow rule #1.
