Tag: Meerkat

Facebook Rolling Out Live-Streaming For Everyone

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
After testing its live-streaming feature within celebrity Pages for about 4 months, Facebook finally started rolling out its answer to Meerkat and Periscope to all users last Thursday. Named Live Video, the new feature is now available to a small number of iOS users in the United States, with plans to expand to Android and more users soon. Users will be given the option to save a recording of their broadcasts on their timelines when it’s over.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook’s vast user base could give this new livestreaming feature a leg up and capture a large number of Facebook users who haven’t been previously exposed to live-streaming. It will provide brands with a new channel to connect with fans in real time, as well as opportunities for sponsoring social influencers or broadcasting branded events, such as what Guess recently did with AOL’s little-known live-streaming app Kanvas. Its capability to automatically save a live broadcast to a timeline should also help brands easily create some lasting video content from their live-streaming efforts.

 

Source: Digiday

How Brands Are Increasingly Utilizing Live-Streaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Mobile-first live-streaming platforms are on a hot streak of late. As SXSW-breakout Meerkat and Twitter-owned Periscope continue to duke it out for the top spot, formidable newcomers launched by Facebook and Samsung also look to capitalize on the live-streaming craze.

Unsurprisingly. some early-adopting brands have already started experimenting with this rising platform. For example, Coach and Taco Bell used Periscope for live announcements of new products and special offers. To better engage with fans in real time, Nissan and Target offered fans exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage, while Benefit Cosmetics hosted live Q&A sessions about their products. Meanwhile, brands like JCPenney are using it to host celebrity “takeover” sessions to appeal to a larger fanbase on social media.

What Brands Should Do
As the examples mentioned above demonstrate, there are a variety of ways that brands can utilize the live-streaming platform to connect with today’s mobile-first consumers. Producing live content may be a bit trickier for brands due to its “high-stakes” nature, so it is crucial that brands and agencies have a live-stream strategy in place and carefully choose the right ways to engage with a live audience.

To learn more about how your brand can utilize live-streaming to reach a wider audience, read our recent Fast Forward feature on live-streaming.

Source: Digiday

Meerkat Debuts Original Content With Al Roker-Fronted Cooking Series

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Meerkat, the popular live-streaming app that broke out at this year’s SXSW, has been consciously diversifying its content offering, partnering up with cable channels like CMT and Discovery for exclusive behind-the-scene looks. Now, it is ready to venture into and encourage original content with a three-part cooking series starring well-known TV personality Al Roker, a noted early Meerkat adopter.

What Brands Should Do
Already, several brands in various industries, including entertainment, sports, and automobile, have been eagerly experimenting with live-streaming on Meerkat and Periscope to reach today’s mobile-first, instant gratification-seeking consumers. Earlier last month, Nestlé became the first brand to run a paid campaign on Periscope, hiring social influencers to promote its Drumstick ice cream cone in their live streams. As the platform continues to grow and add more brand-friendly features, brands of all types would be wise to start to develop livestreaming strategies and explore the nascent platform.

 

Source: The Verge

Meerkat Adds Support For HD Live Streaming From GoPro Cameras

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Meerkat continues to break new ground as it announced a GoPro integration on Thursday. Built with GoPro’s open-source software, this new feature allows Meerkat users on iOS devices to easily live stream HD footage from their GoPro 3 cameras when connected to the same wireless network.

What Brands Should Do
The new feature came on the heels of Meerkat’s recent addition of brand-friendly “Cameo” feature (read our in-depth Fast Forward analysis on this here), and both present great opportunity for Millennial-focused brands to connect with their audience on mobile devices. The integration with GoPro cameras brings high-quality footage to Meerkat, making live-streaming a more appealing content platform for media owners and brands. Brands, especially those in travel or outdoor categories, could benefit greatly from this integration by making good use of the flexibility and high-definition footage that GoPro cameras provide in outdoor shooting.

 

Source: AdWeek

Fast Forward: How You Can Leverage Live-Streaming To Reach A Wider Audience

Posted on by Lab Team

Your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

  • New features from Meerkat make live-streaming collaborative and more interactive
  • Brands can sponsor others’ streams or have celebs “Cameo” in their own stream to increase reach
  • Storage option makes evergreen content possible

What Meerkat Announced
Meerkat has announced a new update that brings several interesting new features to its apps. Besides Facebook log-in and a cloud-based streaming storage, the highlight of the update comes as a new “Cameo” feature that allows live-stream hosts to invite another Meerkat user to take over their stream for up to one minute.

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What Brands That Produce Video Content Need To Do
Brands that produce monetizable content and brands that produce video for content marketing can capitalize on this change. The new features change the type of content suitable for Meerkat in a big way. Meerkat is now making it easy for brands to get involved in streams with a wide reach as a Cameo, e.g., by buying time on an influencer’s stream. Also, brands can leverage a Cameo from a celebrity to reach a bigger audience, spice up their live streams and generate buzz, as that celeb brings their audience with them, either live or for evergreen content.

Several marketers have already begun using the new feature, including The Weather Channel, TMZ, Fox, CW, Mastercard, and YouTube star Michelle Phan. Even scripted and serialized content are possible on Meerkat now and the long term storage options will create opportunities to build an audience over time.

Market Impact
Locked in a tight race with Periscope, Meerkat has been actively branching out to new territories to differentiate itself from its Twitter-owned rival. In recent weeks, it has expanded to Android, as well as forging partnerships with cable networks like Discovery and CMT to diversify its content. This update shows Meerkat’s continued efforts in differentiation, and it looks like it is ahead of Periscope, for now at least.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

 

Images courtesy of Meerkat

Meerkat Teams Up With Discovery Channel To Live Stream Shark Week

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: TechCrunch

Earlier last week, Meerkat launched an embeddable player to allow live streams to be embedded into and viewed on other digital services. The live-streaming app is now making the push with a new partnership with the Discovery Channel, which will be the first content brand to use the player for its annual viral event Shark Week.

As part of the deal, Meerkat will help push out the Shark Week content provided by the Discovery Channel to the users,via a @SharkWeek account, and the embedded player will be used to add behind-the-scenes content on the channel’s DLive web portal.

This is not the first time Meerkat has worked with media owners to provide mobile streaming platform in exchange to exclusive live content—it teamed up with CMT Music Award to broadcast part of the show just two weeks ago. As an alternative digital outlet, Meerkat promises a new second screen experience to engage with today’s mobile-first consumers, and we expect to see more media owners to collaborate with it.

 

Meerkat’s Makes TV Debut At The CMT Music Award

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: AdWeek

Live-streaming app and SXSW breakout Meerkat teamed up with cable channel CMT and Mountain Dew to give users a front-seat view of country duo Florida Georgia Line’s performance during the CMT Music Awards aired this Wednesday. A live, exclusive angle of a TV event with a brand sponsor is a first for Meerkat, who has been eagerly conquering new grounds to stay ahead of its better-funded, Twitter-owned archrival Periscope.

 

Head image taken from meerkatapp.co

Meerkat Looks To Capture Android Users Before Periscope

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Engadget

The saga of Meerkat v.s. Periscope continues as Meerkat launched a public beta test for its Android app last Thursday, looking to conquer the ecosystem before Periscope lands. Yet, with no specific launch date in sight for Meerkat, in addition to Twitter’s confirmation that Periscope is coming to Android “soon,” the race to capture Android users is still too early to call at this point. Yet this remains crucial in their ongoing fight to expand the scope of mobile live streaming.

 

Head image taken from meerkatapp.co

TechWreck: Madonna’s “Ghosttown” Video Premiere On Meerkat

Posted on by Lab Team

When it comes to trying out emerging media platforms, Madonna, or rather, her team, has been quite bullish. Back in February, Madonna debuted the music video for her single “Living for Love” on the Discover tab of Snapchat, making her the first mainstream artist to premiere a full video on Snapchat. Last month, she also teamed up with Grindr to promote her new album with fan competitions and sweepstakes on the app. So it seems only natural that her new music video for “Ghosttown” was scheduled to debut on one of the hottest platform right now—live-streaming app Meerkat.

Since Monday, Madonna’s Meerkat page counted down the hours and minutes until the feed went live. Yet, the video premiere never happened—at 10 a.m. PT this Tuesday, fans that tuned in on Meerkat were greeted with either a blank or 500 error page. Outrage ensued. Later, Meerkat CEO Ben Rubin denied any “scalability issues”, and a new stream went live for the video at 10 a.m. the next day.

Nevertheless, the incident does provide an important reminder for high-profile early adopters: new platforms might be popular and shiny, but they probably still have a few kinks to work out. While mobile live streaming offers exciting new possibilities, live broadcasts are inherently less forgiving towards technical glitches. This, however, shouldn’t stop brands and celebrities to stop experimenting with new services. After all, all media platforms have to start somewhere, and only early adopters get to share the newcomer buzz and enjoy the first-mover advantage.

By The Numbers: The Meerkat-Periscope Live-Streaming Race

Posted on by Lab Team

Video is an excellent medium for advertising, especially with the added bonus of immediacy in live broadcasts. So it’s no surprise that some brands are already trying out the two breakout live-streaming apps, Meerkat and Periscope.

Meerkat is the success story out of this year’s SXSW festival. After its debut on the website Product Hunt in early March, the live-streaming app quickly found popularity on Twitter, reportedly amassing over 500,000 users.

tweets-with-links-to-live-streams-meerkat-and-periscope_chartbuilder

Not to be outdone, Twitter first cut off its support for Meerkat integration and launched its own live-streaming app Periscope last week, which built on Meerkat’s SXSW buzz to quickly surpass it in popularity, as shown in the chart above, detailing tweets with links to each service in the past week.

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 11.08.58 AM

Many expect Periscope to win over Meerkat, given its affiliation with Twitter. But this chart seems to indicate that it is not a zero-sum game. After the initial spike subsided, Periscope has fallen back to around the same level as Meerkat, albeit logging a few thousand more tweets per day than Meerkat consistently. Periscope may be winning at this point, but if Meerkat can find a way to leverage its ties with Hollywood celebrities and not let Twitter won them over,  it might just still have a shot at this live-streaming duel.

 

Charts courtesy of Quartz, with data from Topsy