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The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

WHITE PAPER

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

Steve Vonder Haar Identifying Innovative Applications

for One-to-Many Video

January 2015

White Paper commissioned by:

Contents Creativity Flourishes in Business Video ...... 1 Video Use Case #1 : CreativeLive ...... 5 Video Use Case #2 : iStrategy Labs ...... 6 Video Use Case #3: This Week in Tech ...... 6 Key Takeaway ...... 7 About the Author / About WR ...... 8

List of Figures Figure 1: Deployment of Applications Leveraging Use of One-to-Many Video – Overall Respondents ...... 1 Figure 2: Applications of Live Online Video - Segmented by Organization's Frequency of Live Streaming Video Deployment ...... 2 Figure 3: Planned Expansion of Online Video Applications - Companies Deploying Between One and Nine Live Online Video Events Annually ...... 3 Figure 4: Planned Expansion in Online Video Application Adoption - Companies Deploying More than 100 Live Online Video Events Annually ...... 4

Creativity Flourishes in Business Video

When it comes to business communications, live streaming ABOUT THE video is no one-trick pony. Executives are finding fresh, BUSINESS VIDEO NOW varied applications for corporate video distributed on a one- SERIES

to-many basis. Indeed, as video technology platforms grow

more robust, the range of business use cases for video- This report is the fourth in a series of enriched communications is expanding in step. white papers tracking the usage, deployment and executive In its most recent executive survey, Wainhouse Research perceptions of live streaming video in identified more than a dozen applications of live online video the corporate sector. that are used by at least 40% of the organizations The concept for this series was represented in the survey. (Figure 1) inspired by previous market research

published on behalf of Cisco Systems It’s a diversity of use cases that belie the history of online that measures the growing use of video adoption in the enterprise. For years, employee online video on the Internet. training has served as the “killer application” of streaming Commissioned by Ustream and video for corporate users. By leveraging video to extend the produced by Wainhouse Research, reach of training sessions, organizations can deliver learning the Business Video Now Series seeks opportunities to more employees at a lower cost than would to take the next step in gauging be possible if individuals needed to travel in order to attend a momentum in the evolving online live session in-person. video market. The aim of Business Video Now is to foster greater awareness of and understanding of online video trends by providing data-driven insight, focusing on the expanding role of the technology in enterprise communications. Results from a survey of 1,007 executives conducted in the fourth quarter of 2013 serve as the foundation for information presented in this series. This report also includes highlights of creative uses of live online video by organizations leveraging the technology to create new business opportunities.

Figure 1: Deployment of Applications Leveraging Use of One-to-Many Video – Overall Respondents

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

Little wonder, then, that employee training is the most extensively deployed application of one-to-many online video. More than half of all organizations represented in the Wainhouse Research survey (51%) report than they have implemented online video in employee training applications.

The second most frequently deployed application of one-to-many video in the enterprise consists of “executive presentations.” This particular use case is epitomized by the “all-hands meetings” conducted by organizations to allow top executives to update far-flung staff on corporate news and strategies. Overall, 47% of survey respondents say their organization has deployed one-to-many streaming events to disseminate executive presentations.

While employee training and executive presentations have played a key role in encouraging organizations to adopt streaming video technologies, they do not tell the full story of the technology’s evolving impact on business communications. Indeed, as organizations begin to use live streaming video capabilities more extensively, they begin to embrace increasingly diverse use cases for the technology.

Simply put, expanded adoption of video technologies correlates with a proliferation in the ways that these capabilities are put to work. Figure 2 compares deployment levels for one-to-many video applications between organizations that produce more than 100 live online video events annually and those that use live video between one and nine times per year. The top-to-bottom rankings of applications listed in Figure 2 are based on the size of the adoption gap for each application between active and moderate adopters of live streaming video. As a result, the applications at the top of the list demonstrate the uses of live streaming that gain traction as users’ familiarity with online video grows.

Figure 2: Applications of Live Online Video - Segmented by Organization's Frequency of Live Streaming Video Deployment

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

Beyond quantifying how live streaming video is being used today, the survey results also help to identify the applications of the technology that are best poised to gain even more traction in corporate circles over time. In many cases, future momentum in the adoption of specific uses of live video will correlate with a company’s past experiences in using the technology. As illustrated in Figure 3, companies that are relatively inexperienced with live streaming video (deploying live video between one and nine times per year) tend to focus on boosting the use of the technology to address task-specific communications objectives. Topping the list of applications to be used more frequently as companies spread their live streaming ambitions is “IT Support,” with 22% of respondents reporting plans to boost implementation of the application already in use. Another 26% of this low-deployment-frequency group say they are making plans to initiate the use of live video in IT support.

Figure 3: Planned Expansion of Online Video Applications - Companies Deploying Between One and Nine Live Online Video Events Annually

Other applications near the top of the expansion list for low frequency users are executive presentations, customer service, and employee training. Each of these use cases reflect an application rooted in an organization’s desire to boost efficiency. Executive presentations – typically embodied by the “all-hands employee meeting” – are used to distribute a standardized executive message to far-flung team members in the hopes of enhancing organizational productivity and fostering a sense of shared community among employees. Efficiencies resulting from using live video more frequently in employee

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

training and customer service result from savings made possible by leveraging video to expand the reach and effectiveness of communications in business functions typically seen as “cost centers” by many organizations.

The outlook on relevant uses of online video suitable for expanded adoption appears to shift somewhat among executives at organizations that already use live streaming video extensively. Certainly, some of the basic “blocking-and-tackling” communications applications popular at low-video-frequency organizations also merit continued expansion even at organizations heavily committed to the use of live streaming. At companies that deploy live video more than 100 times per year, both employee training and customer service remain among the most cited applications targeted for expanded adoption.

But, as illustrated in Figure 4, organizations that are highly familiar with the implementation of live online video also are embracing the technology for expanded use in a broader set of external communications applications, as well. More than one-third (36%) of executives at companies deploying live online video more than 100 times per year say that their organization is either planning to initiate or expand upon current use of live online video in marketing presentations. Likewise, 35% of this high- video frequency group report plans to leverage online video more frequently to deliver enhanced “descriptions of products for sale.”

Figure 4: Planned Expansion in Online Video Application Adoption - Companies Deploying More than 100 Live Online Video Events Annually

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

These survey results illustrate the fact that creativity in using online video truly flourishes as organizations become more familiar with streaming video technologies. As executives become more comfortable with the realization that live video can be distributed to large audiences online in a reliable, high-quality manner, they begin to think more creatively about new ways that the technology can be put to work to build new business opportunities.

While the results of executive surveys can help us identify executives’ growing propensity for employing streaming video in a broader range of use cases, these macro market measures fall short in portraying the extent of application innovation taking root in today’s business video marketplace. Viable uses of live online video truly are as varied as the communications objectives of the organizations deploying it for business use. For this research report, Wainhouse Research interviewed executives from three companies that are putting live online video to the test. Their fresh applications demonstrate how the marriage of enhanced video-enabling technologies and executive creativity can enable new approaches for building business benefit.

Video Use Case #1: CreativeLive CreativeLive, launched in 2010, has established itself as a training destination with a business model that stands at the crossroads of live video instruction and on-demand video content distribution.

Each month, CreativeLive produces up to 200 hours of live training sessions generated from studios in Seattle and San Francisco. The sessions cover a range of creative topics, such as photography, graphic design, crafting and entrepreneurship. A short training event produced by CreativeLive may attract as many as 20,000 registrants. An extended course could draw as many as 150,000 to watch all – or part of – a multi-day live streamed event.

And none of these live event attendees pay to access the training sessions. Instead, CreativeLive views the live online audience as a crucial part of its content development process. Questions posed by attendees help presenters and instructors identify the topics and issues of most relevance to viewers. It’s a process that enhances the quality of the instruction delivered during the live event, increasing the value of the content when it’s packaged for viewing at a later time.

CreativeLive makes its money from the archives of its live training sessions. While viewers have the option of attending live sessions for free, they are charged fees to watch the same type of content on an on-demand basis. The charges might range as low as $20 for a short course up to $300 for sessions that stretch over several days.

Now producing as many as 20 events per month, CreativeLive has an archive of more than 600 classes that can be accessed on a pay-per-view basis by site visitors.

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

Video Use Case #2: iStrategyLabs Digital marketing firm iStrategyLabs leverages live online video to bridge real-world marketing with fresh approaches to interacting with customers online.

The seven-year-old agency has pioneered a range of marketing campaigns that leverage exposure on social media services, such as Facebook and FourSquare, to create awareness for traditional promotional events. Now, the agency has begun experimenting with the use of live online video to enable new vehicles for weaving online capabilities into larger marketing campaigns, said iStrategyLabs’ Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director DJ Saul.

“Live video is a very obvious and very powerful medium for bridging digital and experiential marketing,” Saul says. “It becomes the gateway for viewing something that is happening elsewhere.”

In one recent campaign, iStrategyLabs employed live video on behalf of Redd’s Apple Ale – a beer brand owned by Miller Coors Brewing. In an empty warehouse, iStrategyLabs built out a studio to resemble a Redd Apple-branded bar scene. The agency then started streaming live video from three separate cameras in the studio and used social media venues to invite viewers to visit the virtual bar. Via connections to an automated baseball pitching machine located in the studio, virtual visitors could instruct the machine to toss “Redd Apples” at various targets on the set. Viewers could see the targets they hit by watching the live video stream. “The whole idea is that you’re controlling something in real-time from another part of the country and seeing the results immediately,” Saul says.

The Redd Apple online video destination attracted more than a quarter million visitors during its 12-day run. During the promotion, 9,000 of those visitors fired shots using the virtual pitching machine. While it is difficult to measure the direct impact of this type of branding effort, Redd Apple did outperform its beverage volume sales expectations following the video campaign.

Video Use Case #3: This Week in Tech Live video webcasting is helping extend the reach of a podcast content publisher, creating broader opportunities for building a targeted media company. Today, Twit.tv (Twit is an acronym for “This Week in Tech”) represents the culmination of a steady stream of content creation blending the consistency of a radio talk show format with evolving video production and distribution capabilities.

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

Broadcast veteran Leo Laporte had begun producing podcasts featuring interviews and discussions with technology industry insiders in 2005. The podcast was an outgrowth of programming Laporte had previously produced for TechTV – a cable channel that ceased to exist after it was bought by cable rival G4. At the urging of some of his podcast listeners, Laporte in 2008 begin experimenting with using webcams to capture some programs in video and ultimately graduated to using more sophisticated publishing tools, such as Newtek’s TriCaster video switching device, to create video versions of his technology industry discussion programs.

Twit.tv now produces fresh video programming from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily with most of the content focusing on technology industry news, end user instruction, and how-to sessions. The service has aspirations of ultimately expanding its programming schedule to eight hours daily. Users can access the programming – or their archived replays later in the day – for free. The content is supported by sponsorship – primarily consisting of vendors of technology products seeking to reach a tech savvy audience.

Moving beyond podcasting and into live video production has its benefits. Live programming enables Laporte and other hosts to focus on more timely news events. At the same time, live production makes it possible for viewers to interact with on-air personalities in real-time via text-based chat windows. The live broadcasts also help burnish Twit.tv’s image as a go-to news provider for its narrow target market. The site now sees viewership spikes when technology issues take center stage. During simulcasts of product announcements from Apple, for instance, Twit programming can draw nearly 200,000 viewers.

Key Takeaway Applications for live online video in business are proliferating. No longer just a venue for employee training or all-hands employee meetings, live online business video is emerging as a viable alternative for a wide array of corporate communications uses. Moving forward, executives should assume that their teams will find multiple ways to put video to use and should invest in streaming software solutions that can enable these varied applications. Future adoption of live online video – and the resulting business benefit to be generated by its implementation – will be limited only by the creativity of the executives identifying fresh uses for the technology.

The Burgeoning Set of Use Cases for Live Video Streaming

About the Author / About WR

Steve Vonder Haar is a Senior Analyst with Wainhouse Research, focusing on enterprise streaming & webcasting. Steve has covered the technology industry for more than 20 years. He previously served as Research Director of Interactive Media Strategies and as Director of Media and Entertainment Strategies for the Yankee Group. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri Columbia with degrees in Journalism and Economics, and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas- Arlington. He can be reached at [email protected]

About Wainhouse Research: Wainhouse Research is an independent analyst firm that focuses on critical issues in the unified communications and collaboration market. The company provides 6 different vendor subscriptions covering unified communications, group videoconferencing, personal & web-based collaboration, audio conferencing, streaming & webcasting, and distance education & e-Learning solutions, as well as a single all-inclusive subscription for enterprise users. The company acts as a trusted advisor providing strategic advice and direction for both the UC&C industry and its enterprise users. For further details contact [email protected] or see http://www.wainhouse.com.