Seeing is believing: Brands bet on live videos to lure customers
When smartphone maker Motorola Mobility India launched its fifth-generation Moto G5 in India on April 4, the event was live streamed on YouTube and Facebook, where it received 37,000 and 210,000 views, respectively.
Motorola’s parent Lenovo Mobile Business Group (MBG) says most of its product launches are webcast live on social media.
“A live event video is the first actual asset that officially goes out as launch communication,” said Rachna Lather, marketing head of Lenovo MBG and Motorola Mobility India, adding, “We believe that through live video streaming, our consumers get information about the product, its specifications and the offers to be availed of in real time.”
Motorola isn’t the only one. The Indian units of automobile giants like Hyundai Motor Co and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc, US home-sharing giant Airbnb Inc, beauty brand Avon Products Inc, and home-grown fashion e-tailer Myntra have adopted the same strategy.
Essentially, a live video allows a brand or an individual to stream video content using either a smartphone or desktop in real time. Experts say live videos are growing in popularity because they are immersive and engaging, giving consumers a frontrow experience. Unlike a mass media channel like television, the communication is not one-sided.
“While traditional launch mediums usually result in a unidirectional flow of information, live video format helped us build positive digital chatter among our target audience by encouraging interesting conversations around our products,” said a spokesperson for Avon India.
The beauty products maker recently unveiled its new range of colour cosmetics called ‘Avon True’ through Facebook Live, which was viewed by more than 100,000 viewers.
Apart from product launches and live webcasting of on-ground campaigns, another big use case of live video for brands is getting celebrity endorsers to interact with consumers. Avon India, for instance, received more than 2,000 interactions within a span of one hour during the Avon True launch in which consumers asked questions and sought tips from the brand ambassador, Bollywood actor Aditi Rao Hydari.
Saurabh Doshi, head of media partnerships at Facebook India, says the chance to talk to someone influential attracts viewers.
Live videos are also becoming a staple tool for movie studios to launch trailers as well as execute marketing promotions.
Viacom18 Motion Pictures, which distributed and marketed American action movie xXx: Return of Xander Cage, featuring Hollywood actor Vin Diesel and Bollywood’s Deepika Padukone, live webcast the premiere on Facebook and YouTube. Viewers got a chance to interact with the stars.
Live video is also a cost-effective tool through which brands can easily map the engagement primarily through views, likes, shares and comments. Although the cost of a live video is one-tenth that of a digital video campaign, it attracts ten times more views and eight times more comments than a pre-recorded video, said Manu Bhadane, associate vice president-video strategy, WATConsult, the social media agency of Dentsu Aegis Network.