Five ways to rethink your live experience

Considerations for an ever-changing environment

With every project, there is always an urge to personalise and humanise the messaging so that it resonates not only at a business level, but also at an emotional one. Fundamentally, we believe this is why brand experience marketing is so powerful: a faith in and focus on the positive and the personal.

As more and more global events and experiences are cancelled or postponed, and travel and congregation bans come into effect, we want to share how we believe marketers can rethink and rework their plans.

Enhance the stream

Even at times where large person-to-person live events are not an option, brands still need to connect with their key audiences – whether they’re businesses, consumers, or both. The easiest way to communicate is by livestream or video content: sending audiences the content they would have watched live to their computer screen, TV or mobile device.

Careful thought must be given to how to make this content more engaging. Can you take viewers behind the scenes at your organisation to see how things are done? Can you demonstrate the importance of the messaging – and, indeed, your audiences – with a small yet modular streaming studio? Is this better as a live stream, or as pre-recorded content?

A good example is Bentley’s response (in collaboration with Set Creative) to the sudden cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show, where they were planning to launch the Bentley Mulliner Bacalar. The company reacted incredibly fast to create a launch film that took their audience behind the scenes to their headquarters, alongside two smaller launch events for media and customers.

Think about the individual

By this we mean think about how your audience is consuming the content. Are they watching from their desk at work, or from home? On a phone, a laptop or a TV? How could you make these experiences more engaging?

Could you send them personalised kits to make the viewing experience way more fun? From simple touches like popcorn, cheese plates and balloons, through to bespoke viewing kits or even moments of surprise and delight, we’d suggest treating each audience as individuals, with specific creative approaches targeted to them.

Make it more playful

We know how much live audiences enjoy being engaged with, rather than talked at: this applies to a live stream. Can you send audiences messaging or storytelling elements (props) in advance that become an interactive part of the presentation? Could you build props that respond to specific moments in the live stream (surprise and delight)? Using phone/tablet/laptop cams, can you invite the audience to participate in discussions and Q&As? Do you include live chat functionality or voting elements? Can you utilise second screens to make the experience even more interactive?

Wall Street Journal, CEO Council 2019

Faster, smarter, shorter

When you remove the networking, you can make the core messaging of your events a lot more efficient, taking up less of your audience’s precious time. Aim to clarify the core messaging elements for each event and design and build simpler, interactive content that can get your messages across quickly, accurately – and very measurably. And give those with the time the opportunity to dive deeper via linked video content.

Think:

• Interactive PDFs with embedded video and links to further information
• One-page executive summaries
• “5 in 5” – Five key points. Takes no longer than five minutes to read.