Author- Mr. Puneet Sharma, Brand Strategist and social media strategist

Digital marketing has emerged as a formidable challenger to traditional mediums globally and India is at forefront of tapping the impact of this disruption. Indian companies are leveraging the potential of Digital tools and platforms to share their message across the target audience. The most common form of marketing is SEO and SMO on Google, Facebook and their allied platforms.

Making a content viral has become the benchmark for success on these platforms and youtubers reviews of products or services have turned into a reference point for potential purchasers before settling on a choice. Though, various studies are indicating the trend that traditional digital platforms are facing incumbency as they deliver a non-interactive mode for audience to consume content; the contemporary generation is found to be seeking more dynamic mediums where they can also be involved in content creation and not just as a passive audience.

Live Video Streaming Platforms such as BIGO LIVE have thus emerged as a panacea for the both content creators and consumers as they empower them via a platform that makes digital interaction interactive and engrossing. Platforms such as BIGO LIVE have spawned a fresh talent pool of influencers who showcase their talents and have been able to amass their own fanbase. This presents an excellent opportunity for brands to collaborate with these emerging artistes via the platform to create exciting campaigns with out of the box ideas that enables them to reach out to their consumers in an innovative manner.

The live video platform can be integrated within main marketing campaign and can be leveraged to stimulate interest of the masses on ground level. Some positive qualitative outcomes of these campaigns are:

1. Transparency: A live video stream allow a brand to gain trust of the audience as impromptu and unedited live videos are more realistic when compared a normal video upload on traditional platforms. A live video review of a product or service creates a sense of authenticity for the audience and allows brands to position themselves as transparent in approach and open to feedback.

 

1. Interaction with Brand Ambassadors – Live streaming is a perfect medium for celebrity and KOL brand ambassadors to interact with their fanbase. Live Streaming also removes resource limitations since only a smart phone and data is needed; they can come online and instantly connect with their audience at any time of day. This adaptability enables the brands to reach out directly to a global audience where they are able to ask questions relating to the product or service and receive an instant answer. This is a win-win situation for both target audience and brand with instant gratification.

 

 

1. Trust is a two way street – During live streaming, brands not only can interact with their intended interest group but can build trust among the user group. The genuine question and answer will help brands understand customers requirement and offer either immediate resolution  or gather information for innovation purposes.  Brands who wish to gain unfiltered reviews from their target group can utilise this channel.

 

1. Announcements/Launch : A top management personal can use this platform for both internal or external announcements thus sharing the new updates on real time basis. Similarly, a brand can use their designated live streamers to propagate the news about their new offerings via these platforms by choosing to share the announcement with few and creating a chain of event or video logs about the news, thus making it viral among the selective audience or masses.

 

1. Campaigns: Brands can create video campaigns and ask users to participate in the same in the form of talent hunt, best review, behind the scenes footage, webinars, quiz contest or anything else which may suffice the brands objective. The hashtags associated with these campaigns can become viral when they are simultaneously shared on various other platforms thus enabling a wider reach without relying on mass media platform for its content to be consumed by many.

 

Brands can use video streaming platforms to measure the impact of their campaigns by using whole set of social media app bouquet, thus generating the numbers that they may need to call their campaign a success. The number of impressions, shares, likes etc can be mapped to see the impact it has had on the minds of target audience. They can groom their own set of influencers on this platform who can very well act as brand ambassadors and help take the brands to the next level.

Platforms such as BIGO Live provide a never seen before opportunity for brands to engage with the masses.  Their rapid rise combined with extensive user adoption will see video streaming platforms emerging as the mainstay of digital campaigns in the future. The evolution of these platform presents an infinite scope of creativity and is only limited to the imagination of the brands and streamers. The live video streaming platforms are thus the truly democratic and empowering mediums that have the power to revolutionize the entire marketing domain and alter the way we communicate over social and digital medium.