What is it about live industry events?

They’re addictive, and sometimes unforgettable. They can drive huge results for our brands, and are always somehow completely exhausting. 

But we love them. 

Some elements of events are irreplaceable in a digital form: The energy of a crowd; the satisfaction of our wanderlust; the immersion of being on location. 

That’s why, when Brightcove announced that we wouldn’t be gathering at the Encore Boston Harbor for PLAY 2020 due to the pandemic, I was disappointed. I’d spoken at PLAY in previous years and had been looking forward to emceeing fireside chat interviews and moderating panel discussions this year. I was ready to learn from each of the speakers, meet attendees, and to ride the unspoken thrill of all that could go wrong in a live experience. 

When it was cancelled, I’d expected the same fate for so many events in 2020: a virtual seminar experience. 

I was so wrong. And I wanted the chance to explain why I’m so excited about what the Brightcove team did instead. 

[A full disclaimer that Brightcove is a client – more on that below – but this post was my idea. I have a reputation for calling out the marketing industry’s bad behavior, earning me the nickname “unapologetic marketing truth-teller,” but I believe in celebrating our high points and proud moments. PLAY TV is undeniably one of them. Carry on.] 

Here are three lessons all teams can takeaway from Brightcove’s new, Netflix-like, binge-worthy streaming experience, PLAY TV , which launched this week:

1. Change begets change

When is the right time to take a risk? There’s no easy answer, but times of immense change create the best environment for further change. Looking at the pandemic through this lens, it’s a phenomenal time to go big. 

“We were originally thinking this would be a pivot. It was actually a total transformation,” said Brightcove CMO Sara Larsen, when we chatted via Zoom to talk about the experience of bringing PLAY TV to life. 

“Unlike a live conference, it requires totally different content formats more akin to a TV, broadcast, or entertainment experience. When you program a live event, there’s a playbook for that content. There was no playbook for this.” 

Of course there’s no playbook. This is not a conference, it’s a totally new streaming service. It’s got live scheduled elements, oodles of on-demand video, and it’s all available right now on mobile, TV, or the web. It lives on well beyond the 1-2 days of a conference, too, with new content planned.  

This is no virtual event. It’s an entire buffet.  

This shift meant that goals must of course change as well. Sara revealed that even with a turnaround time of less than 60 days, the team immediately crushed their original signup goals before launch. 

Without the physical barrier to entry – literally, the need for hotels or flights, companies could send 5-10 team members rather than the traditional 1-2. (The price point likely helped here as well. FREE is a very compelling offer!) It’s a lesson in going big and changing what we know to be the status quo. If not now, then when? 

2. Play to your strengths

Brightcove is running PLAY TV on its own product, Brightcove Beacon™, their new SaaS-based, OTT platform. Talk about drinking your own champagne… what better way to demo a product then to immerse users in it? 

“New products succeed not because of the features and functionality they offer but because of the experiences they enable.” – Clayton M. Christensen, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

“This was a company-wide effort to ensure our own technology could reach new audiences at scale, no matter how they wanted to watch this content – apps, web, mobile and smart TVs,” Sara told me. 

The strength of this platform is how well it aligns with the modern consumption habits of video viewers today – our proclivity for binging, our short attention spans, our desire for content on-demand. 

“While some of the same content could translate from the original on-site plan, the format had to be different,” she explained. 

The team constructed a true Netflix experience, including series with multiple episodes, original content in specific channels, all delivered in a way that allows the viewer to navigate across themes. 

3. Remember what matters

What makes this streaming experience really work is that it celebrates one the most fundamental parts of any live event: the content itself. 

“In a streaming experience, the convenience is there. It’s all about the content,”  Sara pointed out. 

I asked her how they decided what content would make the cut for PLAY TV: “We looked at what type of content was most relevant to our audience in the past at earlier PLAY events. We knew that they wanted thought leadership content, inspirational stories and keynotes from people that can help them think differently. Just as important were specific how-to series with content that is both practical and actionable. Finally, we knew customer content and stories are critical.” 

I had the opportunity to interview Brightcove’s Chief Product Officer, Charles Chu (live on PLAY TV now) and a variety of Brightcove customers (coming soon.) Personally, I can attest that our conversations will be helpful to peers navigating the world of video, as they get to the heart of our industry’s accelerated adoption of digital transformation – it’s people! I had the opportunity to interview remarkable people at the center of the shift to digital, and to tell their amazing stories.

Brightcove’s team stepped up with creativity and resilience in a time of wild uncertainty to bring PLAY TV to life. They did it of course to firstly protect the health and safety of all involved with the event, but it’s also a testament to the power of adaptation. In my opinion, they’ve raised the bar for all teams to reimagine conferences as we knew them. 

Those who adapt, thrive

This a weird new normal, I’ll admit. We’re living in a time when the Met Opera can be live-streamed, globally (also, by the way, a Brightcove experience.) But just as change begets change in-market, it must do so within ourselves as well.  

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” – Charles Darwin

This is a creative and bold statement from Brightcove on what an industry conference can be. 

Will this become the new battleground as conferences are put on hold and the world of business content goes full Netflix? Though I will miss in-person events for a while, if this shift forces all teams to raise the bar YoY on high-quality content, delivered through digital experiences that are uber-convenient, count me in. 

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Year over year we continue to see an increase in video usage within marketing campaigns, in fact according to eMarketer 87% of Marketers worldwide use video as a marketing tool, this is up 6% from 2018.  However, most companies are still manually managing their video data, rather than connecting to their marketing automation platforms. 

Why should you Automate?

When using an online video platform, like Brightcove, if you are not connecting it to your Marketing Automation Platform every email that drives to a video landing page, you will manually need to pull the data and then tie it all together to get a sense of exactly who is watching.

Since video is proven to be the most engaging and effective form of communication, ensuring that you capture all the engagement details around who is watching what video is vital to the success of your marketing campaigns. Brightcove uses our own analytics and tracking tools to tie the metrics of our video campaigns, into our Marketing Automation Platform which then feeds that information into Salesforce. These connections mean that we can track viewer activity without gating any of our video content, helping improve our users experience and driving more leads to sales. In addition, being able to see the increased visibility into our video engagement metrics, helps our creative team learn what types of videos are most effective, so they can help optimize existing content and improve future content creation for optimal campaign conversions.  

Connecting to your Marketing Automation Platform, you can capitalize even more on the power of video. When your stack works together seamlessly, your sales team gets leads that they can follow up with—or your leads can enter an automated nurture track (yes, more automation!). So my question is, have you connected Brightcove to your Marketing Automation Platform? If not, there is still time! We have out of the box integrations with the top Marketing Automation including Salesforce Pardot . 

See how Brightcove Campaign can connect to video marketing automation platforms and take your marketing campaigns to the next level.

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Stories do more than just entertain, they inspire and educate people on topics that demand constant conversation. For Soledad O’Brien, renowned journalist and host of Matter of Fact, the ability to find these stories and share them with people around the world is incredibly important for solving important issues and inspiring change. 

Although Soledad is often the one asking the questions, we decided to put her in the “hot seat” for a virtual discussion on the importance of video and how it helps to drive storytelling through an easily shareable visual experience.

Soledad, how do you feel video has impacted the way we receive information? 

Video not only serves as an authentic, personable form of communication, it also makes telling stories easier. You can share a video with the click of a button, making sure everyone gets to see it, even if your audience is halfway across the world.

Why do you believe video-driven storytelling is an important way to get information across? 

Generally information and data are often hard to understand at face value, video gives people the opportunity to use that information to build a story that is just as entertaining as it is educational.

And why do you think it is important for video experts to share their stories and ideas?

The video industry is filled with creative and knowledgeable experts that truly enjoy sharing experiences and ideas with those who are looking to tell better stories and reach more audiences. 

Lastly, where do you see the future of video going in 2020 and beyond? 

As technology quickly evolves and the ability to create and share video content becomes more accessible to everyone, the use of video will become limitless. Content creators will be able to produce videos from anywhere and stream their best work to viewers across the globe on every device.

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In mid-March we had a major decision to make – should we host our PLAY 2020 physical event at the Encore Boston Harbor resort, scheduled for May 18? It would be our 12th annual event celebrating video innovation, and it was unclear if we should cancel or reschedule. A few high tech companies were cancelling or moving their early spring events, but what was May going to look like? As CMO, I ultimately had to make the call. Despite intense interest and strong registration for the PLAY 2020 event, I couldn’t imagine putting customers, prospects, sponsors, and employees at risk for an event. There must be another way. 

As the pandemic reality settled in, we quickly realized video is vital, now more than ever. We were fielding calls from our customers and people from across the industry about how video could help companies and people connect in new ways. In this moment, we recognized that PLAY was needed, now more than ever. We looked internally at what video capabilities we had to reach audiences at scale – and realized that Brightcove Beacon™, our new Saas based OTT platform to reach people on apps, web, and smart TVs, was the answer. 

So, we decided to launch PLAY TV, a new streaming service dedicated to the topic of video – how to use it, how to be successful, and how to achieve results. This required our marketing team to think differently – this wasn’t a typical virtual event– it was a new streaming service. What would the audience expect from a streaming service about video?  How can we design a compelling content experience? What does content production look like in a virtual world? What topics are most relevant, right now? What are the new measures of success? And, how can we accomplish this as a virtual team in less than 60 days?

As we designed the new PLAY TV experience, we knew our audience at our physical PLAY conference expects thought leadership, technical know-how, and most importantly peer-to-peer video practitioner exchanges. So, we designed  PLAY TV as a place where you can hear from people managing change, using video, and looking at new ways to achieve success in our evolving world. This information is brought forward in a live and on-demand video format with a high quality user experience across web, mobile devices, and TVs.  

And, PLAY TV will live beyond just a one time event, and be a resource to anyone working to develop a video strategy within their organization. Content will be updated on an on-going basis to help anyone in the video industry be successful.  

The past 60 days have been a whirlwind of creativity, resulting in the launch of PLAY TV today. And it demonstrates how people and companies can truly evolve, innovate, adapt, and execute quickly in times of great change. I’m deeply grateful to the Brightcove team including our talented engineers who built this incredible new service, our creative marketers who developed and delivered a brand new content strategy, and most importantly our customers and partners who helped make this possible. You are my heroes. I’m so proud to stand with you as we launch PLAY TV. And, I look forward to the innovation that will continue in our journey ahead. 

For those who are serious about video, I welcome you to enjoy PLAY TV, and appreciate your feedback.

With gratitude, 

Sara Larsen

CMO Brightcove 

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Target’s increased focus on building its ecommerce business has been paying off. The big-box retailer, which used to rank No. 11 in the US in terms of ecommerce sales, has now surpassed three competitors to become No. 8. eMarketer’s latest ranking of the nation’s top retailers by online sales shows strong growth for Target’s ecommerce business, while that of QVC and HSN owner Qurate Retail Group will decline.

This year, Target’s ecommerce business will jump 24.0% to $8.34 billion. That means its share of the total US ecommerce market will grow to 1.2%, up from 1.1% in 2019.

“At a time when brick-and-mortar stores are struggling to keep up with the fast-changing retail landscape, Target seems to have hit the bullseye,” eMarketer forecasting analyst Cindy Liu said. “Store renovations and expanding same-day fulfillment options, such as in-store pickup, drive-up and delivery with Shipt, are paying off. Target has found a way to use its stores to fulfill online orders while keeping up with customer demands for convenience and speed.”

Target’s growth in share comes at the expense of competitors. In 2020, Target will inch past Costco, which will generate $8.33 billion in ecommerce sales. Macy’s and Qurate Retail Group will both see their shares of the total US ecommerce market decline this year. Macy’s share will drop to 1.1% from 1.2% in 2019, even though its online business continues to grow. Qurate, however, will see its online sales decline for the second year in a row, dropping its ecommerce share to 1.0% from 1.2% last year. As a result, Qurate will drop off the top 10 list for the first time.

“The softening apparel market is adding pressure to both Qurate and Macy’s, whose main product lines are made up of apparel and fashion,” Liu said. “As these two retailers struggle to meet the demands of consumers and fail to pull in new shoppers, we will see other retailers capitalize on their share declines this year.”

Other retailers on the top 10 list are also losing share. eBay and Apple will both see their shares of the US ecommerce market drop slightly in 2020. Meanwhile, Amazon’s share will grow to 38.7%, up from 37.3% in 2019.

This year, Amazon will capture 4.6% of total retail sales (online and offline) in the US.

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The need for a strong, scalable and nimble business continuity plan is clearly evident today. Situations arise where last-minute cancellations have a drastic impact on businesses. But there is an alternative to cancellation: Innovative companies are leveraging video in their business continuity plans for both external and internal communications. This not only accommodates consumers’ immediate needs, it also fosters brand loyalty and builds new virtual communities as a result. 

Here are some powerful examples of video use cases across industries that enhance external communications within a business continuity framework:

Event companies: Adopting a video strategy means supplementing offline offerings with online content by live streaming conference tracks, publishing video on websites and social media and/or making recordings of events available on-demand soon after they happen. The Brightcove video platform can scale to live stream some of the biggest events in the world, including sports, political elections, and industry conferences. 

Online retailers: With foot traffic declining, online eCommerce orders have seen unprecedented surges of up to 300% in a week , with some retailers unable to cope with demand . Retailers need to create immersive online experiences to display their products, like Hugo Boss’s live-streamed fashion show. The time is now for brands to evolve their eCommerce strategy to include video, as well as cart checkout and delivery options. 

Lifestyle and wellness brands: Lululemon in China opted to stream training classes directly to consumers who have little choice but to work out indoors because of gym closures. Online fitness brands like Alomoves and Peloton could experience a spike in subscriptions and video streaming traffic as more users choose to train at home.

Government agencies: In any breaking news scenario, communication is central to a government’s strategy. It is absolutely critical to connect with the public both offline and online and to deliver updates directly to devices. As government agencies roll out their digital transformation programs, expanding communication channels with citizens should be part of their core strategy. And any communication that includes a video element can be especially engaging and effective. 

Education: When conditions prompt school closures and disrupt lesson plans, video e-learning can make a difference. Most schools are not prepared to implement a remote study option, but the beauty of technology in 2020 is that educational institutions can quickly adopt video streaming as a continuity plan. The once highly manual process of uploading slideware with no live commentary can now be replaced with lecturers uploading and publishing their lessons in video format with just a few clicks, then streaming them across various devices and browsers. The advances in streaming technologies make it easy for schools to serve remote students and minimize disruption to regular classes. Whether live-streamed or on-demand, video can be an effective contingency plan to make sure students can stay current with their coursework.

Faith-based organizations: These organizations have mostly relied on the physical attendance of their members but now face a challenge. With worshippers avoiding crowded environments, faith-based groups are exploring new ways to share their message and promote their events, sermons, and services – all of which can be video streamed to worshippers in their homes or on their mobile devices. 

During any unexpected situation, brands and organizations need a business continuity plan that includes engaging and informing their customers and employees through offline and online channels.

In an effort to support our business community and help you avoid business disruptions, Brightcove is now offering 50 free hours of HD Live for 90 days. If you’d like to learn more about this offer, visit our page here .

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