Creating Unique Stories with Live Streams

Over the past few weeks we've discovered and come to love two of the newest apps on the block: Periscope and Meerkat. Integrated into Twitter's always-on social media platform they provide a new way to reach your audience and bring stories to life.

Meerkat and Periscope, what are they?

There's been a major uptake in video as mobile data has sped up and contract costs fallen. Couple this with the imaging and video capability in our pocket, it seems natural once we're uploading 6 second Vines and similarly long Instagram videos of what's happened to us, we would start to crave a means to share what's happening right now.

Enter the live-streaming apps Periscope and Meerkat. Integrated with Twitter (and Periscope is even owned by Twitter), they allow anyone to share exactly what's going on around them. But these aren't passive platforms: each app allows the audience to interact via comments or hearts (their equivalent of a like) to contribute to the unfolding events and even influence their outcome.

Definitely sounds new, but how does it help?

From a very general perspective, we humans seek to tell, share, and experience stories. From detailed descriptions of world events to a funny anecdote, stories are vessels of information and entertainment.

These apps allow you to do exactly that, and with the added excitement, anticipation, and suspense of a live broadcast. Anything live is always open to unpredictability, mistakes, or ad-libbing, but it's the interactivity we're interested by.

Some of the most effective campaigns involve stories that don't simply engage but encourage interaction and sharing. By allowing the audience to tune in, share an opinion or tell the host what to do, it makes it their own. In this way, live-streams can be a very powerful tool in creating unique experience for viewers.

And what do we think?

Creating memorable or unique experiences for viewers is a clear benefit for them to tune in and could easily build the interest and excitement behind a product, upcoming event, or service. Some immediate applications are of a product launch presentation, behind-the-scenes on a film set, or sharing from an exclusive position at a fashion show. In this way and more besides, brands can tease, reveal, follow up, or simply share what's happening in a really engaging way as well as making waves by capitalising on the current novelty of the approach.

As Periscope describe in their launch blog post: "A picture may be worth a thousand words, but live video can take you someplace and show you around."

More information and helpful reading:

Check out the apps on their respective websites - periscope.tv and meerkat.co - and let us know your own ideas in the comments.