Are You Not (Quar)Entertained?

The Rise Of COVID19 Fueled Live Streaming And How To Take Advantage Of What’s Next

An abridged version of this appeared in ADWEEK.

Here at dotdotdash, we have been sharing a detailed technical POV approach to livestream and virtual events with clients, partners and friends, and in prep for that, I went deep into what the livestream ecosystem has become during lockdown. I thought it would be interesting for some of you to see what I found in that exploration...

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The Rise of Live During Quarantine

In a recent 24 hour period, I went from seeing a Russian accordion player named MOZG888VADIM play everything from traditional Russian ballads to Lady Gaga for over fourteen hundred of us, to encountering a suntanning lizard while 10,389 people warmed up with it, to having Travis Scott bring 12.3 million into a virtual Astroworld fantasy landscape in one of the largest communal musical events in history. 

And I never had to leave my couch.

If there is one thing that our collective quarantined existence has done for the media, marketing, and experience worlds, it has been that it brought the Rise of Live to platform scale and awareness. 

Though the ad industry has turned dramatically towards experience in recent years, COVID19 restrictions answered back with a firm not in my backyard. We have had to pivot quickly to think how we can create deeper connections with people when we cannot engage them in person (answer, no it is not another fucking Zoom webinar). And for me, there is nothing that has caught my attention more than the swell of creativity on live streaming platforms. The entire category is booming with 45% growth in March and April alone. Year over year the sector is up 99%.  

Live formats have been around for awhile; Twitch video game streamers have gotten it for years, influencers who wanted to show us yet another beauty regimen dabbled and poorly lit and audio unbalanced interviews have plagued the webinar-powered business world for a while. But nothing prepared us for what happened when we could not leave the house, we finally started to get creative...and it got interesting. 

Remember when YouTube democratized video for all of us in 2006? Making it simple, digestible, usable, streamable? That there are 4.7 million videos viewed every single minute on YouTube shows the seismic shift they created. That same energy is happening around going LIVE. Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Vimeo and more than 30 other platforms made launching into a live scene as simple as pressing a button to your friends and followers, and this was all here pre-coronavirus. Yet since the pandemic struck Facebook has seen live viewings increase by 50%, Instagram by 70% and Twitch is seeing new channel creation up 33%, a high for the platform. And while we have seen some hiccups occur with the greater amounts of attention that live streaming is getting, we are witnessing a paradigm shift akin to the rise of social media and we all need to be paying attention. 

Having watched hundreds of live shows/streams over the last bunch of weeks, they start to fall into a few categories:

The Microclass

We all know the paradigm of the MasterClass— Neil Gaiman (or some other bold faced name) breaks out his process and craft over a 5 hour, multi-episodic learning adventure. Yet we are seeing a new construct take form, the live, often participatory Microclass. Interesting and talented people showing us how they work on specific tasks, how they create and how they flex in ways that make you feel, ‘hey, I can play along too!’ Whether it is making ravioli, being taken on a sound bath journey, making miniature sculptures or upleveling your fitness game, this is the latest and opportune trend to connect with an open and enthusiastic audience. The more detailed and specific you get the more audiences stick around. The opportunity for a cadenced and direct information drop is large and creates a real connection for a thirsty public who wants to learn more and try their hand at it. The positive response for giving this away feels ripe for creators, makers and brands to drive engagement and heightened likability.  And get ready for this modality to take us into Livestream commerce, it is a natural fit. In March’20, Louis Vitton used a ‘How Best To Style Your Bag’ segment on Asian platform Little Red Book to launch their summer handbag line.

@MassimoBottura - 3 Michelin starred chef and owner of Osteria Francescana, one of the top 5 restaurants in the world

@FrankPrisinzano - Chef and owner of Supper, Lil’Frankie’s and Frank

@AlisonERoman - NYT Best Selling Cookbook Author and Columnist

@HClubLA - A membership space for creators and diverse thinkers 

@BeGoldy - Beth Gold, Rumble Instructor doing live zoom workouts online for her studio or for donation 

r/TheArtistStudio | Reddit

CNotBusch | Twitch

The Dance Party / Listening Party

The first time I tuned in to D-Nice’s IGLive Club Quarantine DJ set, in early March 2020, there were 352 people listening and dancing along with me. Fast forward 2 weeks and there were over 100,000+ partying along with us. In spinning classic hip hop, house, R&B and soul he had unearthed a communal need to move, relax and release all of the tension we had been holding in our bodies and minds, but something bigger was happening. Not only were we taking a respite from the news and the panic, but we were celebrating a common love of music, dance and expression, traits that are felt around the world and that which make us human. 

Additionally, as much as we were telling our friends to join us at “the Club,” we felt equalized as our comments to D-Nice were being sent alongside those of Mariah Carey, Michelle Obama, Oprah and Mark Zuckerberg. It revealed to us that collective experience can be participatory, live and intimate, even with 107,000 other people. This is a paradigm shift that we should pay attention to, there is no VIP room, there is no difference between us and the blue checked influencer, emotionally, we all feel that we are invited behind the velvet rope.  

Along with D-Nice, a whole host of others were DJing, teaching guitar lessons, doing couch performances, giving guided meditations and many other creative and calming activities to connect us to our artistic side. Fans, creators and aspiring talent can also get closer and much more personal with the people they look up to and learn from.

@Diddy - Producer Entrepreneur

@JLo - Actress & Singer

@DNice - DJ & Photographer

@BBrightVC - Vachirawit Chiva-aree, Thai actor and model

@Diplo | DillonFrancis on Twitter - DJ/Musicians

@lizzobeeating - Singer and guided meditation instructor

u/gemnj4 | Reddit - Taiwanese Musician

@johnLegend - Musician

MOZG888VADIM | Twitch accordion plater

@JamesBayMusic - English Singer/Songwriter

The Big Event 

After watching the Jill Scott x Erykah Badu song for song Verzuz experience or the The Memorial Day Weekend Beenie Man x Bounty Killer Soundclash on IGLive, the first thing I thought was ‘this is content I would happily pay for.’ During Jill x Erykah, myself, Spike Lee and 731,000 others spent 3 hours watching two soul icons share love, respect and stories about what inspires them to do what they do. It was pure joy. Beenie x Bounty had me doing the butterfly in my apartment virtually with Rihanna, Idris Elba 500,000 fans and a surprise visit from the Jamaican police. I could not get enough.

With wider audience attention, rising media consumption and celebrity involvement, it was inevitable that the live stream would start to go BIG. Takeshi 69’s first live stream after getting out of jail just broke Instagram’s record with 2MM simultaneous viewers and People + Platforms + Star Power bring eyeballs, brand interest and the cultural moments that get us talking. We have gone from 0 to 60 in a very short period of time.

Some serious credit is due to music creators, especially the Hip Hop community for creating the paradigm and pushing the envelope of what our social platforms can (and can’t) handle. We have also seen a big spike in alternative platform use, especially in the gaming industry, for live streamed events which portends a dramatic shift in how we view ourselves in relation to our avatars in the coming years. 

For me it started, as all things do, with Cardi B. Her selfie monologues drew me and hundreds of thousands other people into her stories. But when she had Uncle Bernie on, it became destination viewing. I started to seek out platform based, large audience experiences. Next up in the journey was the DJ Premier/RZA Verzuz battle. As a lifelong Hip Hop fan, it was one of the most authentic and fun 2 hours I have spent during the pandemic. And we started to see some of the tech challenges as Instagram may not have been prepared for the enormous crowd that came to watch, but the authenticity and appreciation that these two superstar creators brought to the event was infectious. Canadian Rapper/Singer Tory Lanez’ Quarantine Radio was my next stop and I was not prepared for what took place. Over 200,000+ watching what ended up being a live, pulled from the fans, talent show mixed with an internet strip club and wrapped up in a shock jock party routine that kept me engaged for almost 3 hours on the first night. One could start to see how the medium was evolving into entertainment before our eyes -- raw, messy, drunk and infectious. Perhaps it was a bit too much so as Instagram banned the show for a few weeks after 5 nights running because of unexpected nudity from the showcased twerk-a-thon. 

And finally, I downloaded Fortnite and learned some basic dance commands to be able to participate with 12.3 Million other avatars in the largest concert ever to take place on a video gaming platform as Travis Scott brilliantly lit up the screen, larger than virtual life, for a mini-set to the adoration of players everywhere and in such graphic vibrancy that it changed my opinion of why millions spend their days engaged in these constructed worlds. 

But these large events have not been without hiccups. Massive Attack apologized to their fans when Block by Blockwest, a music festival set in Minecraft was overloaded and broke down. The Global Citizens’ Together At Home event was plagued by poor pacing and shoddy audio performances and recently the Teddy Riley v. Babyface Verzuz battle was awash in technical difficulties that ended up cancelling the first event and the second could only be seen on Instagram through a browser vs the app, showing how half a million people all trying to view, comment and like a live experience can overwhelm modern mobile code. But these will all get worked out, this is a beginning. A beginning of something very big and game changing.

@DJPremier | @RZA 

@IAmCardiB | @BernieSanders

@ToryLanez

@MissJillScott | @ErykahBadu

@Babyface | @TeddyRiley1

Massive Attack | Facebook

Travis Scott | Fortnite

The Deep Conversation

It is no surprise, but once you turn on a camera on the internet, someone will start talking into it. And during tense times, those conversations can get quite deep. We have seen an extraordinary uptick in the quantity and the variety of conversations happening on livestream platforms. The Just Chatting platform on Twitch has seen the number of new channels created in the last three months go from 16% more in February and March to an astounding 30.9% growth in April. Viewers watched 42,855,285 hours of Just Chatting channels in the last 7 days alone. And Twitch is not the only platform in which this is occurring. Virtually all of the major social platforms have growing live capabilities. Twitch and IG Live have been the most compelling as they seem more mature in participatory capabilities and audience/co-participant features but the others will catch up. Also, going live on social platforms is a great way to game app notifications as followers often get pinged when parties go live, therefore creating a direct call to action. 

The content is a mixed bag, from wellness conversations to get through hard times to sneaker design, there are many topics to distract us, but deep talk is having a moment. Miley Cyrus has been using her IGLive platform to create a talk show called Bright Minded in which she talks with everyone from Selena Gomez and Elizabeth Warren to LBGTQ activists and front line healthcare workers. She was recently profiled in the WSJ for it.  Both Steph Curry and Justin Beiber have had deeply religious conversations in which utilizing faith as a method to get through the current crisis has been explored. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has actively been using her accounts to help explain what is going on politically during the pandemic (and showing up in Animal Crossing to give a commencement address) and Gov. Andrew Cuomo goes live on Twitter everyday to give a mini state of the state which is must tune-in viewing.  There is a great opportunity here for brands, personalities and anyone with a distinct POV to jump in this deep pool, the water is fine and welcoming.

@adidasoriginals | @sneakernstuff

@JustinBieber

@MileyCyrus

@StephenCurry30 | @TobyMac

@NYGovCuomo

SashaGrey | Twitch

Watch Me Whip (i.e. The Rest...)

And finally, there is everything else. In addition to the popular, educational and practical streams, there is also a lot of crazy, weird, odd stuff out there and we learn as much about ourselves as we do about others in the world around us as we view and participate. Singer Doja Cat did a live ‘let’s smoke, let’s do make-up, let’s dress up like an elf’ segment that was particularly compelling.  Go to R/Pan (Reddit Public Access Network) and you get a variety of live streams from sunbathing lizards and cats to people running model trains, woodworking and trippy animated goats. On Twitch, I spent a very enjoyable hour watching a POV camera of a bike messenger named Miekii as he rode and delivered packages in almost empty New York streets as I was on my third day of not leaving the house. Just as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allowed us to share every moment of our lives from what excites or angers us to what we are cooking, knitting or drawing, the live streamed world creates a personal visual miscellaneum for those far and wide to observe and follow along. And it is from within these ranks that we will find our next creative icons, guides and demons. As yet another medium falls from one-to-many to here-comes-everybody, the equalization of distribution will continue to create opportunity. 

@dojacat

@ghettogastro | @AsapFerg

InvaderVie | Twitch

R/Pan | Reddit | Various

Now what?

What should we as strategists, marketers, creators and brands do to ensure we are not missing out on this quickly growing trend? Here are four thoughts to start with. 

1. Trial and error — A lot of the examples above are built on the power of proven tactics, celebrity followings and raw talent. Many feel very personal, which is why they are so easy to connect with. We have to find our own voice in it and that only comes with trying and potentially failing a few times until we get our footing. For the same reason that not everybody needs a Podcast, not every person or brand needs to go live, but some of us may find we are pretty good at it when we find our flow.  

2. Understand where we appropriately fit in — Like any channel, there are ways to engage and areas to avoid. Tory Lanez can hold a twerk challenge or talent show because he and his followers are up for not knowing where opening that door will lead. An insurance brand on the other hand, probably not so risk tolerant. Gov. Cuomo using his platform to give daily updates on critical decisions and needs for his constituents makes total sense. Delta Airlines doing the same on the challenges facing travel, maintaining planes and keeping their workforce busy would fall flat. A Twitch streamer playing Overwatch to an audience of gamers and narrating his journey is much more entertaining than a financial advisor doing the same with your 401K plan. Know your lane and then lean into it. 

3. LiveSteam Commerce is coming— While not yet mature in the US, in Asia, Livestream commerce is getting a foothold and growing quickly. Influencers and celebrities are driving sales via Livestream platforms and having great success with it. When Kim Kardashian introduced a new fragrance in China with popular influencer Viya on AliBaba powered TaoBao, she sold 15,000 bottles in a few minutes. Viya, as a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) in the region also recently sold $30MM in product in Australia in only a number of hours on another stream. Both AliBaba and Tencent’s WeChat are growing quickly to Livestream commerce, can Instagram, TikTok and YouTube be far behind?

4. Iterate and innovate— Along with the two tactics above, the ability to iterate, innovate and push what these live platforms can do for you is truly a wide open opportunity. Core broadcast techniques and technologies, Lidar scans, 2D & 3D graphics, mixed reality, in-camera filters and effects, multi-platform streaming, comment aggregation, and so many more ways to stand out are available for those willing to start thinking beyond the front facing camera and there are a world of people and generous support available for those not up for doing it themselves. If you still get stuck, don’t worry…call me or tune in to my next (and first) Instagram Live. 

Sam Ewen is Managing Director of dotdotdash, an innovation agency seamlessly blending physical and digital experiences. He has spent 20+ years in the industry creating, managing and writing about brand experiences and technology.