What You Need to Know: Periscope for Events

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Heard of Periscope yet? A live-streaming app owned by Twitter, Periscope officially launched in March 2015. The app has rapidly gained traction, with 10 million-plus Periscope accounts and over 40 years of live video watched per day.

Because of its ease-of-use and broad social reach, the live-streaming app has gained popularity with experiential marketers. If you’re thinking about using Periscope to extend your event, check out our event marketing usage ideas and tips.

Live-streaming Apps Explained

At the most basic level, Periscope (or its competitor Meerkat) let you share an experience with others via live-streamed video. “We became fascinated by the idea of discovering the world through someone else’s eyes,” shares Periscope’s founders. "While there are many ways to discover events and places, we realized there is no better way to experience a place right now than through live video."

How does it work? The broadcaster (which can be anyone) uses their mobile phone to film whatever is happening around them. The audience watches the live stream and interacts with the broadcaster by sending messages or comments.

Using Periscope at Events

Though it’s still relatively new, Periscope is already being used for innovative face-to-face applications.

1. Share Industry News

Break news to your online community with a live video-stream announcement from your event.

2. Give Presentations

Invite remote audiences to watch your event’s educational sessions live on Periscope. 

3. Launch New Products

Using your event for a product introduction? Extend the launch to remote audiences through Periscope. 

4. Show Live Product Demos

Stream product demonstrations or tech talks to attendees who can’t be at your event. 

5. Conduct Interviews

Share short interviews with company executives or industry experts on hot topics and issues.

6. Answer Q&A

Have a well-prepared spokesperson answer FAQs – including those that come in live from viewers.

7. Go Behind the Scenes

Provide audiences with backstage event access – speaker rehearsals, how your tradeshow booth looks as it’s being built and more.

8. Promote Event Specials

Draw attention to event offers and discounts by showcasing them through Periscope.

9. Connect With Journalists

Have senior management or other company execs in attendance conduct press interviews with journalists around the world via live videostream.

10. Host Exclusive Mini-Events

Invite a featured speaker to talk about a hot topic—with access to the content available only on Periscope.

Consider these tips for live-stream success:

Be mindful of copyright issues.

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone, a lawyer who speaks on marketing and social media law, developed the handy “Marketer’s Legal Checklist.” As always, ask your legal team for your company’s specific policies. But as Gorgone points out, “If you plan your Periscope live stream as carefully as you would a professional video shoot, you’ll be much better off than if you ‘spontaneously stream.’”

Minimize quality issues.

Since video streams are filmed on mobile phones, viewers are likely to see shaky video and experience glitches, especially with weak WiFi. Camera stands and boosted connectivity can minimize quality issues.

Plan timing carefully.

As Jessica Webb at HubSpot suggests, “Because Periscope is connected to Twitter, that’s where you’ll be promoting your broadcasts primarily – so do some research on your Twitter audience to find out when they’re most engaged with your posts.”

Come up with a clever title and make your broadcast easy to find.

Webb explains “You'll have the option to do a private broadcast or share the broadcast on Twitter. To get the most views, I recommend sharing your broadcast on Twitter and turning on the location tagging option. This way, you'll reach a bigger audience.”

Live means live.

Periscope streams with no delays and users comment in real-time for everyone to see. That means you can’t screen or review content before it becomes public. Make sure you’re ready for total transparency.

Livestream footage isn’t retained permanently.

If you want to keep an archive copy of your product launch or keynote speaker, you’ll need to capture it on traditional video too.

Review results.

After you’ve finished filming, view how well your video did in terms of viewers, time watched, duration of views and retention.

Is Periscope Right for Your Event?

It’s easy to experiment with Periscope without a big budget or extensive resources, so it’s definitely worth a try. The bottom line, however, is that the most successful Periscope events are going to be those where you have a well-defined purpose – and provide on-brand, fun, interesting and entertaining perspectives.

Liked this article? Access more useful information, insights, resources and inspirations for creating and implementing influential brand experiences on the Sparks Blog. 

 

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