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Coming To Your Phone: Professional Live Video Production

You can now have a professional video production company in the palm of your hand. 

That’s the word from a company called Socialive, which just launched Socialive Studio, a cloud-based live-video software platform designed for customers to create, manage and distribute videos across a variety of social media channels and websites.

Socialive customers already include Celebrity Cruise Lines, Marriott and MGM Resorts.

According to the company, an easy-to-use interface enables brands to produce professional quality live video broadcasts on the go -- on a laptop or a mobile device -- and distribute them to any of their desired channels.

David Moricca, Socialive CEO, says that over the last two or three years, live video has been revolutionized by the emergence of Facebook Live. Live video has already been shown to work really well in marketing travel in particular, he adds. However, the point of friction has been to efficiently create video content particularly for social or digital platforms first. 

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What Socialive Studio does, said Moricca, is put power in the hands of story tellers and content creators to quickly make video that’s brand-appropriate and then distribute it wherever they want. 

He says heavily produced content is being “tuned out,” while more natural and organic content drives engagement. Moricca claims live video drives up to 15 times more engagement than more traditional formats.

While Socialive has been around for a while, the new product offers features not available in previous versions, like the ability to have broadcasters in remote locations with minimal lag time in switching locations. Also, it’s now easy to upload graphics such as calls to action (save $300 if you book now), or even have a split-screen presentation. Also possible are interactive polling and social media-style comments, which can easily be overlaid on the screen. 

“Travel has been a shining area for live video,” says Moricca, noting that Socialive works with 14 industries, with travel and hospitality’s participation among the highest. 

The nature of travel and hospitality is such that video can tell a story that words or static images can’t, he says. “We know video works to move the needle in terms of conversions. The question has been, how do we make it easier to create quality video?”

Historically, live video production has been done by professional production teams, he says, but now it’s doable by marketing or ecommerce teams -- although, of course, it can also be deployed by professionals as well if a company is more comfortable with that. 

Socialive licenses its technology, usually for unlimited use. Its account team is good at getting clients started and providing information on best practices, he notes.

As an example, he points to MGM Resorts, which used live video for the opening of the MGM Springfield in Massachusetts. A series of broadcasts across two or three days showcased different experiences at the property: culinary, music, etc. Moricca says this strategy created tremendous momentum for the opening. 

And Marriott has used live video to engage with potential food and beverage associates. Its Master of the Craft video, used to attract culinary talent, was produced totally in-house.

Aside from social media, says Moricca, Socialive Studio offers brands a tremendous opportunity to broadcast more video content on their own websites as well as through large communities and marketplaces like Expedia and TripAdvisor. 

Imagine a scenario where trip curators on TripAdvisor or Expedia can use live video to drive consumers back to a destination or other travel product, he says. 

The fact that all this can now be done on a phone will change marketing dramatically,  adds Moricca.  

His conclusion: “We have moved past the experimental phase for live video, where people are thinking of using it and are now more open to the possibility. But we’re still at the beginning.”

1 comment about "Coming To Your Phone: Professional Live Video Production".
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  1. Joe Forte from D-MAK Productions, November 26, 2018 at 3:04 p.m.

    This is really interesting! It seems as technology becomes smarter, even the most creative jobs will go to the robots. I run a video production company called D-MAK Productions (https://dmakproductions.com/video-production-company) based in Phoenix and I am already seeing the shift towards smarter platforms and applications. There's was a piece of hardware that this reminded me of called the Mevo which can allow you to do multi-cam live streams with one camera device. Pretty incredible stuff. It's safe to say that the future is here!

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