What you can learn from 6 extraordinary Live Videos that went viral

Live video is not a new idea. It’s been there for a long time - in TV though! It has exploded in the Internet arena only recently. That too in a more accessible fashion for the common man. Live Videos are not just videos streamed live anymore, these are avenues of real-time interaction between businesses and their customers.

While some businesses are nailing it, some still need a bit of catching up to do. No matter how it’s going for you, there is always a chance to get better by learning from other’s successes.

I’ve compiled together a list of brands and businesses who are killing it with live videos. An in-depth analysis has been done for each example so that you have tons of strategies to take away.

1. Ferrari SF-70H launch

This year, Ferrari unveiled its latest car Ferrari SF-70H by going live on Facebook. Ferrari has taken an extraordinarily unique approach while revealing their latest Ferrari model live on Facebook. They created a suspense in Facebook with a series of two back to back live videos. The first video begins with the countdown of 60 minutes. The timer ticks down finally to the next video live streamed at their website.

The second live video unveils the Ferrari SF-70H with some personnel surrounding the car. The music was accompanied by a series of roving shots of the car. The famous racers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen carried out the showdown run at the team’s private test track at Fiorano. The campaign took off really well with half a million views.

Takeaway

• Send Traffic to your website: What Ferrari did was a master stroke of leveraging the trends of the time. As Facebook is pushing live video heavily, they used it to promote their livestream video in their own website. They drove tens of thousands of traffic from Facebook directly to their website for free. At a time where FB Ad clicks to external link costing a lot of money, this was a neat little trick which you can also use!
• Leverage FOMO if possible: FOMO (Fear of missing out) is the biggest weapon one can leverage using a live video. Ferrari did exactly that. Though they just put up a countdown clock in the live video, a countdown coming from Ferrari’s official page pushes people more to know what is waiting on the other side.

2. Grazia UK and Facebook collaboration

Grazia is a women’s international weekly fashion magazine based in UK. Grazia’s Live Video is probably the best example of how print media can make use of Facebook’s live streaming feature. They promised to create a special feature which will be created by their readers themselves.

They decided to host an event in Facebook Headquarters where all their readers could come and pose questions, cast votes and feature ideas. Some of them even got to write a bylined piece for the magazine.

Whatever happened was later re-purposed into print media.

So how did Grazia pull off such amazing engagement levels?

Grazia UK editor Natasha Pearlman says that they promoted the event by notifying via the Grazia app. There were mini trailers aired about the event on Facebook. The event was aired for 5 days in Facebook live. There was also an exit live debate on empowering women entrepreneurship and small business. It was filmed before an audience and streamed to people watching in Facebook live.

With this move, Grazia unified their users in multiple platforms (Social, website, print, mobile) under one common roof.

Takeaway

• Make the customer the hero of your story: This act has allowed Grazia UK to humanize their brand. Besides, many viewers got interested when Grazia UK gave an open opportunity to write a bylined article for their issue. With this live video, Grazia have given their audience a whole new perspective of content curation right before their eyes. This could be one of the best practices of a publisher leveraging a live video.By taking the audience’s input as a part of the community issue, Grazia have expressed their customer loyalty which deepened the relationship with the audience.
• Longer videos can give greater engagement: As mentioned before, each video session lasted an average of 51 minute long. Natasha Pearlman (Grazia UK editor) believed that longer videos tend to perform better. This is because they give more time for word of mouth.
• Humanise your brand:Live video has given businesses an opportunity to humanise with the brand. You can use live video to better understand your audience needs and necessities. We all have come from the time where ads were the only medium to convince the audience. But now, live video has become the face of the brand to personally approach every individual and give them what they need.

3. Tastemade

Another unique example is Tastemade’s live video, which earned 3 million views. Here is the video.

Being a popular culinary brand, people expected them to show a delicious recipe. But, Tastemade had other plans. Tastemade tested their luck with a miniature cooking live video. According to Tastemade, this concept was suggested by one of their Japanese partners. As it turns out, miniature cooking is already popular in Japan. It is a part of their pop culture known as “kawaii”- meaning cuteness.

The video took a positive turn making around 3.7 million views which contributed a lot to their brand image thereafter.

After that, Tastemade have come up with many other tiny kitchen recipes.

People like the idea of big hands painfully making tiny (but real) food over a small flame. Viewers loved the miniature cooking concept so much that they even requested for the sale of miniature cooking sets.

Tastemade’s unique miniature cooking live video not only attracted millions of viewers in the internet but also inspired miniature artists. Shay Aaron, an Israeli set and costume designer, launched an Etsy shop of pint-sized food models. He made mini replicas of fruit pies and roast beef, for the consumers to wear the designs. Aaron, a "miniaturist," has turned the likes of pancakes, avocado, and ice cream cones into cufflinks, necklaces, and earrings.

Tastemade has taken “less is more” to a whole new level!

Takeaway

From a budding startup started in 2012, Tastemade now boasts of having 200 million+ monthly users. Here is what we can learn from them.

• Surprise your Audience: Tastemade took a bold approach by trying out something different from the usual. If it weren’t for Tastemade, this interesting miniature food art from Japan would have been hidden from the world. Tastemade has taken a bold move by integrating the idea of miniature cooking with their niche and bringing it in front of the world.
• Keep innovating: Whenever you decide to make your live video, try to explore a “unique element” within your industry. If your idea hits the mark, you will still be recognised as a thought leaders in your niche, just like Tastemade.
• Leverage on the Trend: When Tastemade’s miniature live video went popular, they did not stop with that. They leveraged the trend and built their brand around it. The whole strategy has worked so well that when people speak of miniature cooking, Tastemade is what comes to their mind. The long list of miniature recipes and the sale of Tastemade’s kitchen is proof enough.
• Balance the visuals with the audio: Another reason why Tastemade’s video became an instant hit is because of the way they have implemented it. They have balanced the ratio of the visuals and voice perfectly, engaging the audience throughout the video. Even if the video is played without the sound, the video still seems interesting.

4. General Electric (GE)

GE went live on Periscope with the help of drones. This campaign allowed viewers to view their facility industry and get a drone’s eye view of some of the company’s least accessible facilities. The live video gave glimpses of jet engines, locomotives, wind turbines and industrial machinery which are made and tested to extremes. The entire episode had a commentary from GE scientists and technologists showing off the industry’s expertise. Here is the video.

The campaign was held for 5 days with 5 different infrastructures shot through one reengineered drone. The campaign ended with the revelation of the “Light Grid” which illuminated the inner city park.

Takeaway

• Show Transparency: Live videos showing “behind the scenes” action are gaining a lot of traction nowadays. This is because behind the scenes video gives an aura of transparency that builds trust.
• Show expertise: Showing expertise and projecting it is an efficient way to look like thought leader in your niche. That is exactly what GE did. They showed off their cool machinery and sophisticated manufacturing facility to look advanced and top notch.

5. Chevrolet Bolt EV

In January 2016, Chevrolet launched the new electric car Bolt-EV at CES 2016 event live on facebook . General Motors livestreamed Mary Barra’s (CEO of GM) keynote speech claiming that they were the first automaker brand to use the recently launched Facebook live feature to show the audience. The video also streamed the first look of the Chevy Bolt EV. Overall, the live video lasted for 25 minutes. Their second video was a 360 degree inside look of the car. The live event was received well with half a million views across the world.

360 degree view of the car

Takeaway

• Product announcements can be best done with live videos: Live videos create an excitement while revealing a latest product update. A blog article or any other media cannot give the first hand experience of that of a live video. In order to make the most of the event, you need to instil some curiosity about the live event even prior to the live streaming.
• Commenting and responding to the audience is as important as streaming the live video: Chevrolet made sure that they responded to the audience’s comments real time during the live streaming to keep their audience engaged.It is required that you allot a separate person to answer to the comments while live streaming the event. This makes them feel attended and part of the experience.

6. Buzzfeed and LADBible

Another popular trending example of live video is Buzzfeed’s watermelon video. This video generated 800,000 views at the time of streaming which lasted for 45 minute! Here is the video:

When Buzzfeed streamed this video, people got hooked to it unknowingly.

The video lasted for 45 minutes when the 687th rubber band finally exploded the watermelon.

The buzz created by this insane experiment was so intense that it stood third in the most trending hashtags in Twitter during that time.

LADBible, one of the top Facebook video publishers live streamed four ice-cream lollipops melting in a battle to see which one would last the longest. This clip pulled in over 6.3 million total views since streaming in July 2016.

Takeaway

• Think out of the box, but be relevant: Don’t do a crazy live video just because it worked for these media companies - unless of course you are competing with them! Imagine a hardcore tech company trying to blow up a pineapple, it just wouldn’t cut it! While these videos definitely incite curiosity, it’s craziness doesn’t tarnish the brand image because these brands are known for outrageous stuff! Think of outlandish videos that is relevant to your industry.
• Create Suspense: In both videos, people are forced to watch till the end out of sheer curiosity. Now imagine, if people don’t mind waiting for a stupid outcome, what if you come up with a really good suspense?

Creating Live Videos is humongous potential for your business at this point of time. If you can leverage the secret sauce that has been revealed in this article, there is a huge chance of your video going viral!

Do you have any additional points that can help in Live Videos? Let us know in the comment!