From a closed circle and difficult to access, the production went to a complete oversupply of content, on different platforms and with fragmented, massive audiences and a relatively easy segmentation of users for advertisers.By Juan Pablo Morales Sarmiento*
We are going through a revolution in communication evidenced mainly by the consolidation of key components such as online video platforms, social networks, the massive emergence of virtual and augmented reality, multi-user applications, metrics and programmatic advertising, in the face of a traditional media industry that sometimes seems to be stunned by all the challenges that this represents.
From an academic point of view, we can affirm that the media are being replaced by complex interactive systems with an integrated and multisensory functionality, whose components in isolation do not achieve the same impact independently and where culture and consumption habits must be approached with a look totally opposite to the one we used to have.
This is how current communication systems include content that is conducted through omnidirectional channels based on information technologies, turning messages into complex, personal, massive and measurable experiences, originating anywhere in the same system.
This revolution also went through the technique used for production. On the one hand, the reduction in the prices of post-production equipment and systems and on the other, the incredible increase in recording quality have been key factors so that from being a closed circle and difficult to access, production has passed to what we have today: a complete oversupply of content, on different platforms and with fragmented, massive audiences and, thanks to technology, a relatively easy segmentation of users for advertisers, who finance the industry since its inception.
Paradigms are breaking and as producers large or small we must learn to use these new techniques to achieve long-term results. Today I can say that linear TV executives must learn a lot from Youtubers.
4 Keys to Live Productions That Engage Audiences
1. Let's move from stage to backstage and webstage. Two of the most recent international experiences that can serve as an example are the Brit Awards, originated in London on February 24 and with more than 200,000 users connected simultaneously in their live broadcast on YouTube, and on the other hand the delivery of the Oscars from Los Angeles four days later, which were also streamed online via Facebook Live.
In both cases as a central and alternative component to the main broadcast, the focus was on what was happening behind the scenes, behind the scenes and/or in a webstage specially designed for the online experience, offering the audience what linear television almost never offers: magic.
And it is this magic that is precisely moving consumers away from the linear television screen to other experiences. A synonym for magic in this case is interaction.
With respect for some local initiatives that have tried to emulate this magic on Television and which must be highlighted for this. It is not about making a chroma with the avatars of social media users who use a hashtag to interact with a program. It's about responding, speaking and reacting honestly and directly.
2. VOD speed. According to a recent report by Impaktu on digital advertising, YouTube is the social network with the highest rate of interactivity, followed by Facebook. Either in a live event broadcast by one of these two networks. The speed at which VOD content becomes available to users is directly proportional to its incidence and impact.
One of the most attractive functions of production systems such as Tricaster, is the possibility of publishing clips immediately to social networks such as YouTube, apart from the publication of a live stream itself.
However, there are many other recording systems in high quality and H.264 such as those offered by Avermedia or also Blackmagic and that can result in a relatively fast and easy to manage workflow. I suggest using it live continuously for capsule delivery.
Engage users in a set of content so that it is difficult for them to leave their environment and on the contrary, they are motivated to invite and share.
3. You have to involve the community, moving it from being simply an audience to being a correspondent. For this you have to create a Hashtag, unique, multi-networks and you have to invite people both in person and online to use it, also announcing the url of the official transmission. This initiative is not going to emerge organically. It is important to announce it, make it visible and tangible, promote it and reward it.
I was recently at a massive event with over 90,000 people around me and incredibly there wasn't even a single poster or a notice or an inflatable with a Hashtag. Be creative.
4. Start engaging Snapchat, Periscope, and Vine. Although each of these applications has a different function, it may be convenient to use them with only one recommendation. If you're going to do it, you have to do it right.
It is not necessary to use all three applications compulsorily. It depends on your strategy and the continuity you are going to give it. If you are going to start you should not stop, it is not a path in which it is convenient to go back, so it is important to think carefully before taking the first step.
Three of the things that most frequently happen in initiatives with these applications is that the audio is ambient through the microphone of the mobile, that the phone is held by the hand of a community manager and that the orientation of the mobile is vertical.
I suggest avoiding this, as well as having a mobile dedicated to it that does not receive calls, with enough load so that it does not turn off and hopefully with an influencer behind it that supports the activity without stopping.
Evolving into a social language
There is no doubt that the broadcast industry knows how to make TV. Still, it must modestly learn to interact and understand that Internet video goes further. For their part, new talent and corporations must start learning to do both.
The traditional industry must focus on experimenting and developing parallel thinking because video now goes beyond broadcast. It's not just about cameras, optics and switchers, lights and microphones, scripts and dialogues. Without controlling social networks and programmatic advertising, the audience will not arrive and, in addition, you have to keep it hooked by delivering the magic that has rarely happened before. We must remember that this magic of the internet has its origin in that people have access to more information, by more means and that in addition to consuming it, they generate it, ask for it and sculpt it. You have to give them that opportunity.
Video must become a machine to acquire customers and it is only through a coherent strategy, integrated with experiences, with metrics and with a continuous discipline oriented to listen and respond that it can be achieved.
*Juan Pablo Morales Sarmiento is a film and TV producer and vice president of distribution at Provideo. You can contact him via Twitter @JuanPMoralesS
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