Loud and unexpected talking in my living room piqued my curiosity, prompting me to check where the noise was coming from. After a closer inspection, I only saw my mum on her phone, watching a live video of people in Taiwan showcasing jade sculptures and jewellery.
After a few moments, she asks me “how do I buy this?”, and despite being an avid shopper of the online retail sphere, I had no clue. It appeared to be a live stream auction on Facebook with thousands of viewers bidding through the comments section.
Surging in popularity, many brands are tapping into live streams as a tool to:
-Promote brand transparency
-Increase sales
-Engage with viewers in real time
Many brands and consumers find live streams attractive. For brands, it’s easily live streamed from a mobile device. And because of its unedited, real-time nature consumers find it very attractive. The trend is more prevalent in China, with large retailers reassuring consumers about their product quality and services.
Influencer Eve Zhang was invited by Taobao (Chinese online retail giant) in 2016, to host a live stream, generating 410,000 unique views and 3 million USD in revenue within two hours. Live video streams also accounted for over 66% of all internet traffic in 2016, and is forecasted to rise to 82% in 2020 according to Cisco.
Due to the growing nature of the live-stream market, this has many implications for digital marketers:
- Brands should integrate live streaming in their digital strategies
- Transparency and authenticity should be expressed when live-streaming to build trust with viewers
- Live-streams can be a powerful sales tool
- Influencer-collaborations are key to increase reach to new audiences
With increasing demand for transparency, do you believe live video should be integrated into every brand’s digital strategy?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
And until then I’ll see you in the next bLAWg post!
“The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.”
bLAWg 
In my hometown, many of the local shops uses live streaming on facebook as a way to promote their products. I do think that cooperating bidding features into it is really impressive! Moreover, these live streaming should be scripted, in a way that it is not unprepared and abstract to its point.
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Hi Winona, I completely agree with you that preparation is important, however I do also think viewers just enjoy watching authentic unscripted content at the same time (as it could also come off more casual and friendly). I feel they could both (scripted and unscripted) be used depending on the context or situation!
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I’ve never really heard of live streaming being used by brands before. I’ve mainly just seen it among influencers and celebrities. It sounds like it’s extremely successful and extremely cost effective compared to a traditional ad campaign, so I think if a brand has the resources for it they should definitely do it! But only sparingly so it’s not spam/loses its efficacy.
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Hi Katrina! I think the increase in mobile phone usage/accessibility/wifi/data definitely helped with the attraction of live streams, but I’ve also noticed it isn’t as popular here as opposed to our international counterparts. I feel it should be trialed more by local brands, especially at major events (e.g. the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Launch Party at Melbourne Central (earlier this month).
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