• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, March 2, 2016

Live-streaming video provides a way to interact with consumers in real time and use that data to fuel other types of media campaigns -- but barriers like budget and available staff and resources still stand in the way.

Budgets allocated for live and pre-recorded video are set to either stay on par with 2015, or increase by 24% for prerecorded and 25% for live streaming in 2016, according to Brandlive. The marketing firm studied brand and retail executives and their agency partners to help establish an industry benchmark for the use of live-streaming video. Some 208 people responded to the survey, conducted in December 2015 and January 2016.

The study found the top-five perceived benefits as being a way to interact with the audience, bring a human element to digital marketing, provide content that can be viewed or reused later, provide real-time feedback from audiences, and a way to show the product's story presented by experts.

The study points to real-time audience feedback and keywords, which companies can use to support campaigns from search to display and social. The real-time feedback can help companies learn what customers and potential customers want from the brand or retailer.

Survey respondents represent an even mix of small companies with annual revenue less than $5 million, medium from $5 million to $100 million, and large companies or more than $100 million. Only a third of respondents said their company has an in-house video production team.

The survey data points to a variety of opportunities for different types of agencies to help support their brand and retail clients.  More than half of the respondents said they plan to use outside agency help to support their live-streaming video events in the future. 

One-third of those said they plan to use a video production company, and one-fifth said they plan to use their live video platform vendor’s production services. Ten percent said they plan to use a digital marketing agency, and even fewer would use a PR firm.