Live Streaming

As the social media landscape evolved, live streaming has become an increasingly popular tool for users. Following COVID, live streaming has become a big pillar of entertainment industry with overall viewership increasing 20% from 2019 to 2020 (). Live streaming has disrupted the status quo of the in-person audience experience, providing many advantages for artists, brands, and audiences from both a creative and financial perspective. Its impact has been seen across marketing efforts, performance quality, and audience engagement both in-person and online. The live streaming era seems to be here to stay, so how can we all benefit from its impact?

Platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, which saw on average of 75% increase in viewership following 2020, have proven beneficial for larger artists who have a pre-existing follower-base.  Artists can interact with their fans in real-time and curate a more personalized exchange with their audience. This has been a strong tactic for artists to market upcoming projects, tokenize viewership, and incentivize participation from users.

On platforms like TikTok, live streaming has been more optimal for smaller artists and creators, as they are seeing that 77% of users are interested in seeing branded lives from creators. As a UGC-based platform, it is easy for creators to simply begin their livestream with minimal regulatory constraints or preparation. Creators can broadcast their stream right from the palm of their hand and expand their reach to various audiences within the FYP (“For You Page”).

Brands have also paved their own lane in the livestreaming space. Most notably, Apple took on a partnership role with the Verzuz music battle live streaming series, giving the growing platform a home. This drove traffic to their app and increased the quality of the livestream overall. Additionally, Cîroc joined in on this partnership as a sponsor and began to strategically place their bottles and branding on the set of the livestreams, increasing their product visibility.

There is a unique opportunity for brands to thrive in this space. Reach out to me if you have a client interested in learning more about livestreams and content creators!