If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already been exposed to the world of search engine optimization (SEO) and understand the wonders it can do for your business.
In its simplest form, SEO is the process of improving your website—in terms of user experience, technical health, design, content, and navigability—in order for it to rank higher on search results pages. The higher your site ranks on those pages, the more credible it is deemed and the more likely users are to visit it. This exposure results in more clicks and organic traffic to your site, which in turn builds a site’s SEO score even further. All in all, the objective of improving your SEO ranking is to build trust in the eyes of your potential customers and search engines; and trust leads to results.
This year, we made a huge push to improve our website in order to enhance our experience for users, boost our overall SEO ranking and get the word out about our amazing product. We’re proud to say these efforts paid off and we were able to greatly improve our website SEO through both front and back-end optimization. Here’s a brief summary of the different changes we made and some ways that you can similarly optimize your site to rank higher on popular search engines.
So, How Did We Enhance Our SEO Ranking in 2022?
Optimizing Existing Website Content
The best place to start when improving your site ranking is with the website content you already have. If you have any existing content—no matter its length, type, or substance—it can always be improved, and positively add to your SEO efforts rather than detract. Here are the enhancements we made to ensure our existing website content was optimized for search engines.
Keyword Research: We started by conducting thorough and strategic keyword research, making sure to explore search volumes for all potential LiveLike use cases as well as all the geographic areas we target. Compiling the best and most relevant keywords allowed us to refine our existing content and update it according to more current user search engine habits.
During this stage, we made sure to integrate keywords thoughtfully and organically so as to avoid keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is the act of over-optimizing your content by using too many of the same keywords on an individual page. This over-optimization can be easily recognized by search engines, which will sometimes limit crawlers to your website or penalize your content and put it at risk of losing traffic.
While there are risks with keyword stuffing, integrating relevant, researched keywords into your content is a great way to improve your SEO and increase site traffic.
Metadata Management: Once you’ve compiled a list of relevant keywords, you’ll need to make sure your metadata similarly aligns. In its simplest form, metadata is data that describes other data and gives users information about the page they’re looking at.
Enhancing metadata involves optimizing meta titles and meta descriptions, by integrating keywords naturally so they correlate with what people are searching, as well as researching and maintaining optimal title and description length.
If meta titles and descriptions are not manually created by you, search engines will automatically generate them by taking the first text on each individual page. This can often do the trick if you happen to have an informative and relevant introductory paragraph, but puts you at an easily avoidable risk of losing SEO points.
Image Optimization: When optimizing for SEO, people often forget about images—but images are content too. Image optimization on your website can help to create better user experiences, faster page load times, and other ranking opportunities. When strategizing our image SEO optimization for 2022, we prioritized these major steps:
- Creating descriptive, keyword-rich labels for your image filenames, alt tags, and title tags.
- Replacing generic stock imagery with custom, LiveLike-specific visuals
- Compressing all images so as not to increase our page load speed
- Assigning eye-catching featured images for all unique pages to appear on search engine results pages
- Ensuring all images were mobile-friendly and suitable for social media platform sharing
Publishing Consistent, Link-Worthy Content
Now that you’ve optimized your existing content, it’s time to shift your SEO efforts to the future content that will be published on your site. It’s important to keep your content fresh by publishing consistently to stay up-to-date on any news in your industry, changes in your product, or shifting expectations from your users.
As well as maintaining consistency, we strived to publish a variety of different types of content this year, to satisfy our wide range of users. Since we work with clients from many different industries, there is no one specific audience persona that we are able to target. Because of this, it makes the most sense to put out content that appeals to a larger scope of users.
This year, we included videos, long-form articles, and mini-blogs, and focused on putting out unique content for EdTech, Fintech, Sports, E-Commerce, Entertainment, product updates, feature spotlights, and more.
One of the best things you can do for content SEO is to publish content that makes your website link-worthy. Links are one of the most important ranking factors of search engines, and search engines like Google will look at the quantity of quality inbound links you have to your web pages when they crawl them. The higher quality links your webpages have, the higher they will rank on search engine results.
This can, of course, be a challenging step, and requires you to put yourself in the minds of potential link-sharers. Just because you put out an amazing piece of content, doesn’t mean it will be deemed link-worthy by its viewers. Take some time to think about what kind of articles or content your community is likely to share, and brainstorm content pieces accordingly.
You may also benefit from collaborating with other businesses to co-support one another when publishing a piece, or spotlighting another company in the hopes that they share it with their networks.
Make Sure Your Website is User-Friendly
The next best thing you can do for your website once your existing content is newly optimized is to start brainstorming ways to make it more user-friendly. Simply put, if your website is hard to navigate, boring to look at, or causes frustration, users will be more likely to leave it and turn to your competitors.
For us, this involved taking the following key steps:
- Creating a website design that puts users first
- Keeping design simple with color combinations that reflect the LiveLike brand
- Using accessible, consistent, and on-brand language and tone
- Avoiding large chunks of text and breaking them up with visuals or headers
- Prioritizing mobile compatibility
Create an Interactive User Experience
For this step, we started by putting ourselves into the minds of both our clients and potential website visitors. And since we’re in the business of fan engagement, we felt it was only fitting to use this skillset to our advantage and integrate engaging tools to improve the user experience.
This involved adding interactive widgets—polls, trivia quizzes, AMAs—within our content to engage our readers and break up any lengthy text. Not only did this work to create a more fun, personable environment, but it also made our content more approachable and readable.
Provide Relevant, Specific CTAs
As mentioned above, we made sure our site pages had easily recognizable CTAs that users might be interested in depending on the page content they are interacting with. Having relevant, specific CTAs on your site can help users with decision fatigue by giving them direction on what they can do next. They can also work to create a sense of urgency that may help increase conversions.
Improve Your Site Health Score
The site health score of a website is determined by the amount of errors and warnings that are found on a site’s pages when they are crawled. In other words, it is a measure of the technological health of a website that takes into account its speed, structure, security, and technical SEO. And since these errors and warnings can include duplicate metadata, long page load speed, duplicate content, and low page word count, addressing the previous steps we’ve discussed can help to reduce these errors and improve your overall site health score.
This year, we worked hard to eliminate all errors and warnings on our site where possible, and successfully improved our site health score by 28%. Here are just a few ways we did this:
- Using XML sitemaps
- Standardizing URLs
- Using unique meta descriptions
- Optimizing all page title tags
- Adding image alt text
- Fixing 404 errors
- Adding internal links
- Using HTTPS
- Improving site speed
- Prioritizing mobile design
- Strategizing CTA placement and content
While we’ve worked hard over the past year to prioritize our SEO efforts and have realized success as a result, our work is not done! SEO optimization for a website is an ongoing process, and as you increase the amount and frequency of your website content publication, you will inevitably go through changing periods of higher and lower SEO success. It is crucial to stay on top of your SEO efforts by conducting regular site audits and optimizing all new content being published on your website.
Want to know more about search engine optimization or content optimization solutions? Let’s chat!
How to Light a Fire Under Next-Gen Consumers
Today on The Future of Fandom, we present the finale for our 2022 run of episodes—and hey, what good is a finale without a little Firework show?
On this episode, we explore how Firework envisions the future of truly connected, community-based, live commerce in partnership with their Chief Business Officer, Jason Holland.
Jason thinks like a modern content creator; from a long form, he builds for the short. Discarding the text and display of the past, he sees live and short-form video as the way forward—the only way forward. Since he joined Firework two and a half years ago, the business has taken off like a rocket and exploded onto the scene, boosted by partnerships with major retailers and tech titans in their ranks, and we’ll explain more about that in our discussion. Today, we’ll also discuss how next-gen consumers are embracing live commerce, the future of commerce in Web3, and Jason’s vision for an optimal community-driven experience where every voice has a voice.
Jason is more forward-thinking than most, and will more than likely have a hand in the future of the way you shop. So, let’s finish the year with a bang and predict the future with Firework and Jason Holland.
Connect with Jason Holland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonholland/
Read more about Firework: https://firework.com/
Full episode here:
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
Adam Connor (01:43):
Jason, thank you so much for speaking with me, first off.
Jason Holland (01:46):
Adam, thank you for having me. Couldn’t be more excited to be here.
Adam Conner (01:50):
You came to Firework about two and a half years ago, in June of ’20. We’ll talk about all the circumstances and maybe benefits to a virtual commerce solution about that in just a second. The first thing I’ve got to ask is that I know you had been introduced to Firework in May of 2020. That in my opinion, because I’ve never moved to a job really that fast, is you must have seen something that just lit a fire under you that was absolutely unstoppable, that in part made this move happen. Would you mind telling me the story of how you joined, and then we’ll talk about Firework as a biz?
Jason Holland (02:28):
Yeah, I’m happy to go into it, and you’re spot-on. It was an interesting circumstance where I was working with a business that I had been with over two tours of duty in the publishing space called Evolve Media. I was with the business in its infancy when we founded the company from 2004 to about 2010, took about a seven-year break and came back to the business as its chief operating officer in 2017. So, I’d been with the company for about three and a half years, and was introduced to Firework as a function of a strategic partnership that I did between the Evolve business and its publishing portfolio and the shoppable video commerce and livestream infrastructure that Firework has.
(03:12):
When I met Vincent, Jerry and the founders and executive leadership at Firework and saw what they were building relative to what is such a burgeoning, but I think arguably nascent space in video commerce, and what’s happening, especially in Western markets, in the US, UK, and in how retailers, brands, publishers and agencies are looking to adopt the technology and trying to figure out the best way to do it, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to join. So, I joined Firework in June of 2020. I’ve been here for about two and a half years, and work as the company’s chief business officer.
Adam Conner (03:50):
Folks, I would encourage you as we speak here to just go fire up Firework on your browser just to see what they’re all about and to see the incredible growth that they’ve not only experienced, but the endorsements they’ve had in terms of their funding. This is really going crazy, and right before we started you told me this is a seven-day thing. Now, for those who haven’t yet navigated to the browser — Yes, I’m still talking to you, listener — Could you tell us and help them out? What is Firework in a nutshell?
Jason Holland (04:20):
Yeah, happy to walk you through it. Firework is very much a video commerce infrastructure and operating system that enables retailers, direct consumer brands, consumer packaged goods businesses, publishing, and in the co-alignment with media buying agencies and holding companies to create a connected open web infra that is all built on shoppable video, live commerce and what will be the future of video commerce. As we think about short, 30-second swipeable, shoppable video and the experiences that digital consumers have got historically in the walled gardens, whether it’s an Instagram, a TikTok, et cetera, Firework’s thesis was, “Look, we have got to enable digital consumers and content consumption folks to be able to tap those experiences onto actual retail websites as well as direct-to-consumer brand websites.”
(05:18):
As we watch those KPIs from an engagement perspective, conversion, et cetera, click-through rate really applied to owned assets like an Albertsons, who is an early-stage grocery retail partner of Firework, and a Fresh Market, and what has been executions with Walmart and Sam’s Club, et cetera, the engagement and conversion that we see relative to digital consumers having these ecosystems on an owned asset are 10X what any other digital mechanism drives. That’s a really exciting component of the business.
(06:00):
Just walking through a quick timeline in history of the company, the business is pretty young. We were formed about four and a half years ago. Our co-founders, Jerry Luk and Vincent Yang, are both serial entrepreneurs. Jerry was the founder and creator of LinkedIn and LinkedIn Mobile with Reid Hoffman, was an early-stage employee, was one of the first 35 employees at LinkedIn, and he partnered with Vincent, who’s a former investment banker and ran components of JPMorgan and Summit’s investment banking divisions to bring all this to life. When I think about the engineering, tech, dev and fundraising horsepower that the business has got, it’s incredible.
(06:42):
And then when I think about the executives that we have started to bring into the business as the company has scaled from other top-tier global technology companies, it casts a really bright light on what I think is the future of Firework in sitting as the base video commerce infrastructure for all of open-web digital consumer connectivity.
Adam Conner (07:06):
Well, listeners, you get right there a list of titans which have helped to build Firework to date. You I hope can clearly see, especially since we talked a little bit about live commerce on this show before, how the future of Firework is likely very closely aligned with the future of fandom generally. A little plug for the title.
(07:27):
So, you join in the middle of 20, and if I’m doing my math correctly, that’s roughly two years into its founding. Now, of course we were in a time, especially in the US, where anything virtual-connected, anything digital content, even podcasts, saw a monster, monster lift. And in the midst of all that, you have day one. Can you describe what you remember most about 2020, how it affected live commerce as an industry, and what has stuck around now that we are looking at it at the end of 2022?
Jason Holland (08:10):
Yeah. I think it’s the investment that major brands and even small and mid-sized direct consumer businesses were making in their digital ecosystem, in how do we tap into a richer connectivity to our consumer base in shifting away from display images and what has historically been a text-based environment on the open web and websites, in really saying, “How do we deploy a more human high-touch experience?” That obviously nets out in short video, shoppable video, livestream and live commerce. And in the middle of the pandemic, that’s where the business really started to catch fire as these companies were looking to upgrade the ways in which they connect to their consumers.
(08:57):
So, it was exciting at the onset. The last two and a half years have been among the most intense, fascinating of my professional life. So much of that is just a result of not only the company’s scale and the amazing partners that we’ve got, but also the market at large as especially Western markets look to adopt live commerce and shoppable video and upgrade their digital consumer experiences. The only footnote I’ll put on that is Firework has been so fortunate from the standpoint of institutional knowledge and IP that we’ve got, all the way through our CTO, Rick Zeng, who was the founder and creator of Taobao and Taobao Live, which is the live commerce infrastructure powering all of Alibaba’s live commerce and the roughly 400 billion in econ GMV that they run through that in China. He is the founder and creator of our shoppable video and live commerce technology.
(09:54):
So, the institutional knowledge the business retains on how to blend, what I always tell people is the best of what China has done through the lens of Alibaba and live commerce with the best that the walled gardens have brought from a swipeable short video perspective, enabling it with shoppability and then bringing it to a connected infrastructure on the open web is what really makes the company powerful.
Adam Conner (10:19):
I’m so glad you said that, and I should hardly be surprised that you have somebody who is so central to live commerce’s growth in Eastern markets. That’s what I’ve heard all the way back between… 2019 was the first time I really started to learn about it from the brick-and-mortar retail perspective. A gentleman who I interviewed who was doing tours called retail store tours had taken a lot of his inspiration for what was to come from Eastern markets, and that was just in a brick-and-mortar context. We already knew that digital live commerce was brewing, and in fact, well on its way there already. So, the fact that you have that IP in the bank is just wonderful.
(10:59):
As far as this year is concerned, what is the latest and greatest in live commerce? I ask this because consumers may have remembered just at the beginning of October, TikTok mentioned, and I’m sure this is something they’ve probably also pursued in Eastern markets first, that they were going to dip their toes into live commerce solutions here in Western markets, in the US. Of course, if you’re on Instagram, you’ll have seen shoppable links, things like that. But I’d like to know from your perspective, since you’re in it seven days a week, what’s the newest, latest, greatest that we might not have heard of?
Jason Holland (11:36):
Happy to share there. I think it’s important to start as we think about walled garden social apps and the open web and defining in Western markets like the US, that 96% of digital consumer transaction still takes place on the open web. It’s not taking place in a social app. That’s where when we think about shopping in digital consumer bases on an Albertsons or a Fresh Market, a Walmart, et cetera, it’s really those ecosystems where we have got to place huge investments in upgrading the shopping experience, because that’s where the vast majority of the transaction is still taking place.
(12:19):
I think that’s where Firework said, “If we can build an infrastructure that any of these businesses, no matter how large or small, can tap into, and also harness the thesis that Alibaba has tapped so well around taking in-store sales associates and creating a brick-and-mortar experience where you’ve got a greeter as you walk into a Walmart, et cetera, and flipping that into the digital world so that we’re personalizing it and creating something that feels like you’re in the store as close as you possibly can in a digital environment. That’s really where the business takes off, and when I think about what China’s done so well from a content perspective is it’s not celebrities primarily that are driving the live commerce and shoppable video growth in China, it’s folks that are passionate about the products, it’s loyal consumers, it’s folks that work in brick-and-mortar stores that are turning the camera around and using the software to talk about the products and the services that they’re promoting.
(13:22):
That’s been a huge thesis of Firework as well, is how do we start getting livestream and video into the hands of the people that interact with products and that love the products the most every day? That’s where if we look at the shift away from A-list celebrity and some of the inauthenticity that especially younger audiences see in products that are promoted by celebrities, it really becomes an interesting component of our business as we work to build content in creator portals that are unlike anything that Western markets and retailers have been able to tap into before.
Adam Conner (14:00):
That’s an especially good point with regard to how the everyday person now can be what we’ve seen, I think between probably 2017 and today, go from influencer to micro to nano to pico, to all of these prefixes, which eventually just boils down to just a person and their ability through innovative solutions like this push a purchase, which maybe we didn’t think about five, 10 years ago.
(14:25):
In terms of the actual content experience tied to shopping, what are some of the ways in which you encourage interaction in the moment? What are some of the ways in which you measure that? What are some of the ways in which you’re seeing that the newest consumers and fans of today want to do it? Because other than, and maybe this is just my elder Millennial perspective, I see the video, perhaps I like it, comment on it or something like that. Then I swipe to a shopping experience, and the two are still separate for me. Now, I could have a video that I’m watching, a livestream video, and I could have a button, it might pop down a widget, something like that. But that’s my ancient 30-year-old brain talking. How have you noticed that Gen Z, Gen Alpha, if they’re tiptoeing around it, how have you seen that they are interacting live with this connected content commerce experience?
“That’s a great question. I think it’s a combination of interconnectivity in the ability to participate in something that’s live, whether it’s commenting, whether it’s interacting in a video capacity with hosts, et cetera, and it’s also the ability to create their own content. When I think about passionate shoppers and loyal customers and communities of shopper and fandom, frankly, that partners of Firework are building across the retail ecosystem and direct-to-consumer brands, CPGs, it really becomes the fact that video commerce is the future and it’s the connectivity that shoppers have got in passionate fans of brands, that it just doesn’t exist in display images and text anymore. Everything has got to either be live or short video.”
— Jason Holland (15:15)
(16:09):
And to your point around the blend of those two, I think that’s where Firework has done a good job of being able to then take a live stream, whether it’s 30 minutes, 45 minutes, et cetera, and cut all of those highlight reels down into short shoppable video so that you’ve got swipeable segments that bring the best of the best from those livestream segments into something that can live in perpetuity on a retailer’s website that becomes really powerful.
(16:36):
And then when I think about, again, content creators and just the future of fandom relative to brands, it’s the ability for those e-communities and the shoppers to actually participate in creating the content themselves that becomes really exciting. When I think about next year, that’s where we’ve got a ton of exciting stuff that we’re launching with several global partners, retail partners, et cetera, where they will leverage the ability for their shopper base and their most passionate, loyal fans to participate in creating the content in conjunction with them, which I think is awesome.
Adam Conner (17:17):
You are preaching to the choir there. You’re kind of preaching to another preacher, maybe a deacon or something like that, but you’re preaching,
Jason Holland (17:26):
I think you see it too, which is really exciting, because again, as the ecosystem grows, and I would say most of our conversations with our business partners start with, “We’re trying to figure this out. We’ve got to remit. This is on our strategic roadmap, it’s being deployed now. Investments have been set aside to build into video commerce infrastructure. How do you advise that we do it?” And when I think about the deep discussions that we have with engineering, tech, product, development, retail media, merchandising teams, et cetera, Firework is really the only full-funnel video commerce architecture that embraces full livestream and live commerce capabilities, full shoppable video, full one-click-to-buy, and then a distributed open web storefront across retailers, brands, publishers.
(18:18):
And it’s the connected network effect of bringing an entire open web together, which when we think about the open web, it’s still a hundred times bigger ultimately than all the walled gardens combined. Think about all of the shoppers that are on Albertsons, Kroger, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Nordstrom, all the brands that are selling their products within those stores, et cetera, and to have one video commerce infra that supports all of that and then cross-pollinates that content in a contextually relevant way becomes really powerful for shoppers and the retailers.
Adam Conner (18:54):
I can see it. I clearly see it. It’s clear that you can too, and listeners, this is why we do this show, because this is coming. And it may start and sputter here and there because, hey, we haven’t seen it before, but this is where it’s going. It’s all about creating that community at the end of the day from the long-form that you cut down to the clips — I can definitely relate to that because I do podcasts all day — To the feeling that you are truly contributing to something and that something is contributing to the world.
(19:26):
That is the root of two things that I have seen which come together nicely here. The first is how next-gen consumers and just young people operate, behave and work. And secondly, it is one of the many premises of Web3, which is still a pretty cloudy thing in a lot of folks’ minds, but the point is that things, life should start with community. Would you mind expanding on that a little bit? When you think about the open web current experience today and then look forward to this Web3 world, and maybe I’m not even describing that correctly, but just a world separate from today where this kind of thing has been fully adopted, where does Firework play? Where does live commerce sit?
“The word that comes to mind is ‘connected,”‘and that’s where when I think about, regardless of if you take the open web again and you think about any content that you’re consuming in a video capacity being contextually relevant and available from a live-streaming and shoppable video point of view, anywhere you’re at on the internet, that is a connected infrastructure that very much feeds into what I believe is the thesis of Web3.”
— Jason Holland (20:17)
(20:45):
And it’s the ability to take any shopper or any fan, et cetera that is interested in a brand or its content, and to be able to create and contribute to the content that they’re most passionate about. It’s the ability to view it and engage with it and shop with it anywhere they’re at on the open web, whether it’s a publishing ecosystem, thinking about our partners like Condé Nast and Hearst and Accelerate360, which is Us magazine, et cetera, and the ability for all of our retail partners, again, whether it’s an Albertsons, a Fresh Market, et cetera, to be able to interconnect all of that short video and livestream into contextually-relevant publishing ecosystems. And then from a retail media perspective, allow P&G and Unilever and Olaplex, et cetera, to then bring their content into the same connected infrastructure.
(21:41):
There’s nothing that exists like that right now, where all of this from a short video, livestream and video commerce perspective is proliferating and living across a connected infrastructure. So, when I think about network effect and what has really driven Firework’s scale from an investment perspective, it’s the fact that there’s no video commerce infrastructure that is connecting the entire open web, which again is massive relative to walled gardens. And I think that’s where people forget; you look at Instagram and TikTok, and it’s the digital consumer experience that they’ve made so popular from a swiping perspective, et cetera, that just hasn’t been made available to open-web audiences previously. That’s I think where the business is really excited.
Adam Conner (22:27):
The other thing that immediately comes to my mind, you say “connected,” I think about something which is imminently measurable, trackable, where you can finally start to see the true ROI of some of these. I don’t care if it’s a celebrity campaign or an influencer campaign or what, but it’s hard to say, “Hey, I got a million likes on this celebrity post or an influencer post,” that that drives sale.
Jason Holland (22:51):
To truly drive.
Adam Conner (22:52):
“Oh, well it drove these clicks,” and sure, there’s a funnel you can follow and there’s stuff, but it’s not as direct. And that for years, I haven’t seen it so much in the retail side, but I’ve definitely seen it in worlds where first-party data is hard to come by, especially the CPG world. How many years ago was it that Unilever and Keith Weed came out and said, “Influencer fraud is rampant. We need to figure out some better way.” They have got to be drooling over that future, and while it’s not here today, might not be here just tomorrow, it is coming, and that’s, again, very cool that you’re at the cutting edge of that. It’s kind of making me jealous sitting here in the host chair, honestly.
(23:28):
It makes me wonder, even if we don’t see that maybe utopian future in the world of connected commerce in a live context yet, what do you see for ’23? I mean, what’s the reasonable next couple of milestones where you see this starting to mold, even if not resembling that description you just gave us.
Jason Holland (23:47):
It’s a great, great topic. I think it all starts with retailers, brands and their shoppers, especially retailers and brands, wanting to own the connectivity to the communities and loyal fans and shoppers that, again, 96% of them are shopping on the owned website and assets of the retailer and the brand, and they don’t want to pay any of the Google tax associated with converting a platform they don’t own, which is TikTok, Instagram, et cetera. They also want to own the first-party data, and they want to own the conversion metrics and everything that Firework can offer back to them when you are communicating through video commerce in an ecosystem that you actually own.
“So, I think that becomes a really important piece of what will 2023 hold, and this is all a function of the discussions that we’ve had throughout 2022, is everyone is investing in video commerce now and they’re trying to figure out where does this slot into, not only our digital consumer connectivity roadmap and how we’re doing that in Q1 and Q2 of next year, but it also ties into brick-and-mortar and how are we using the shopper video content and the video commerce that we’ve got in our digital assets to power into our stores as well. Whether it’s QR coding on shelves, which is something that we’re doing with some of our biggest retail partners in Japan, such that if an in-store sales associate isn’t right there walking with you and you want to learn about a particular product, you swipe your phone over the QR code, and your immediately into livestream and shoppable video experiences showing you how to cook with the product, recipes to use with the product, how to use this particular home and garden product, et cetera.”
— Jason Holland (24:32)
(25:36):
And that’s where, when I think about the democratization of content and the ability to bring all of these experiences that used to live solely on TV into your digital ecosystem, and create DIY and home improvement shows through livestream and shoppable video that are all driven by experts in the categories and shoppers, it starts to put forth an entirely new content consumption experience that we’ve never had.
Adam Conner (26:10):
It’s true. You think about this a lot. I think about it in the traditional television, how do I combine the best of that, seeing somebody cook with the thing, use the home and garden product, whatever. Can I get that right here in my hand while I’m going down the aisle? That would be wonderful. There’s a couple of steps to get there, but I’m glad that it’s at least in the ether for ’23.
(26:34):
What are you most personally excited about for the next year in retail and commerce generally? I’m just curious, because obviously with a tinge to Firework, that was the last question, is what do you see for next year, but what’s on the fringes of even your imagination for like, “You know what? I just heard about _____. I think it’s really cool.” Do you have anything like that that you’ve seen recently that…?
“I think it all loops back to content and the way that we look at producing it, and it will become an even more prolific shift from professionally-produced, highly-curated content that is really expensive to produce, and that will start converting into in-store sales associates that are doing a fashion show that is far more authentic and real, especially through the lens of younger consumers, that isn’t super high-polished and scripted and has blemishes within it, et cetera, that we don’t edit out. I think that’s a really exciting piece.”
— Jason Holland (26:55)
(27:33):
And then it’s also going to trickle into fashion shows being hosted with fans and communities of people at their houses with their friends, and big massive retailers getting comfortable with the fact that it’s totally okay, and there’s this content ecosystem of passionate folks out there that are fully capable of using Firework’s tech to produce something that they’ve never been able to tap into before in their homes, et cetera. Then of course, it’s the ability to make it all shoppable and overlay a deep conversion layer that allows those brands and retailers to make a true frictionless payment and seamless experience, all the way through what I see as upper-funnel entertainment to lower-funnel conversion in one infrastructure. That’s really what Firework is trying to build from a video commerce capacity.
Adam Conner (28:25):
And hey, anything that helps to democratize that production process a little bit more is good in my book, because I don’t have a degree in visual effects, stuff like that. And even in the early days-
Jason Holland (28:34):
You don’t need it anymore.
Adam Conner (28:35):
Exactly. Even in 2013, ’14, Vine, which had very limited production capability, most of the stuff you saw was very quick and dirty that were some of the most popular, but even then you had the Zach Kings of the world and people who had amazing editing abilities still rise to the top because there was high gloss. That sheen is starting to wear. And of course there’s still a corner for that, but especially when it comes to then on top of it you’re throwing a brand in, people are already going to be a little bit skeptical of, “Well, what is this? Am I being sold to? Blah, blah, blah,” the fact that it’s… And brands frankly, and if brands are listening, you’re going to have to trade off the high gloss –
Jason Holland (29:15):
Authenticity and “real” is just as important now as brand safety, right?
Adam Conner (29:19):
Totally, totally.
Jason Holland (29:20):
And I think the benefit of what Firework’s built is that you don’t have to sacrifice brand safety protocols in the ability to monitor and edit livestream, buffer it, delay it, and still have the ability to edit out something that you don’t want. And then the ability to take that software and literally create short, swipeable video that fits a narrative becomes really exciting. That’s where it’s not just a video commerce technology for shoppable video and live commerce that we built, it’s a full video creation and editing CMS that anyone can use. It happens to be a B2B platform first, but ultimately I think the future state vision is that as shoppers and passionistas and fans of brands start to engage more directly with those brands, they’ll be using the Firework software to create their own video content just as much.
Adam Conner (30:16):
I hope that you’re right, for your sake and for ours who are just looking for a better shopping experience. Then, and I round out with this sometimes, I’ll do it here, although it might seem obvious, I ask people to fill out a blank. The blank is, “I can tell you for sure that the future of fandom will not include blank.” Is it eventually disconnection, high-production gloss? What is it in your head that you see us definitely moving away from?
“I do not think it will include text display and image-based anything. The future is video: it is live video, it is short video, it’s the ability for any audience to create and participate in the future of what a brand wants to do. So, I don’t think it will include what historically most websites have looked like, and that’s where Firework’s growth, as we bring the technology in, our ability to completely reinvent and re-architect a digital consumer experience to be all livestream and shoppable video first, and then connect it again across the entire open web in contextually-relevant ecosystems, that’s a really exciting future.”
— Jason Holland (30:40)
Adam Conner (31:24):
Agreed. Well, thank you for discussing that future with me here. Jason, it was wonderful to have you, and good luck-
Jason Holland (31:30):
Adam, it’s great to be here. I’m grateful.
Adam Conner (31:32):
… with ’23. For us all, to the future.
Jason Holland (31:36):
To the future. We couldn’t be more excited. I think Firework couldn’t be more grateful to sit in a space that is as explosive as it is right now and sit at the forefront of that. So, super grateful for the time, and thanks so much for having me.
Adam Conner (31:52):
I’ve noticed, and I think we can all admit, live commerce has started and sputtered slightly in the US this year, but while we’re currently far behind our Eastern market counterparts, I think Jason will be one reason we do a lot of catching up in 2023.
(32:09):
Thanks to Jason Holland from Firework for coming on the show, and to you, the listener, whether today is the first time you’re tuning in or if you’ve listened since we kicked off roughly a year ago, allow me in closing to offer my heartfelt thanks for predicting the future of fandom with us. These stories are a true honor to produce, and I can’t wait to see the stories that we tell next year.
(32:32):
With that, we’ll be back in 2023, and until then, please do stay subscribed wherever you listen, and connect with us on LinkedIn @LiveLike, or on Twitter @LiveLikeInc. For the final time in 2022, this is Adam Conner saying so long and thanks for being a fan.
What is Sceenic?
One of the most popular features of the LiveLike toolkit is Watch Parties, an interactive co-viewing experience that allows our clients to connect users privately, publicly or with their favourite influencers. And part of what makes LiveLike Watch Parties possible and so easy to use is our integration with Sceenic and their Watch Together video solution.
Sceenic offers solutions to create interactive video experiences and to power co-viewing capabilities on any video, OTT, IPTV, or STB platform. With their Watch Together white-label software solution, LiveLike clients are able to transform user video features on their platform and engage users using different video room functionalities.
These can include powering watch parties during a live event, allowing group video calling capabilities, introducing interactive video room-based features like live chats, quizzes, and polls, and more. With the LiveLike x Sceenic integration, your users will be able to chat in real-time synchronized video conversations while watching any content inside their favorite platforms.
The advantage of using our SDK is that we remove the typical complexities of video calling integration that are unavoidable when using a video calling service provider. For example, with LiveLike, our team of experts will set up your authentication server for you rather than having you go through the process of figuring it out on your own. Video calling integration can be complicated and time-consuming: two attributes we work to omit from the process!
So, How Does it Work?
In order to install the Sceenic LiveLike plugin to power co-viewing experience on your platform, check out the documentation guides below.
Within these guides, you’ll find information about how to implement LiveLike Watch Parties on your platform, and master the following features:
- Creating a video room
- Joining a video room
- Rendering participant videos
- Leaving a video room
- Muting/unmuting local participant audio
- Showing/hiding local participant video
Get in touch to learn more about our Sceenic integration or to find out more about LiveLike Watch Parties.
The market leaders of interactive fan engagement, LiveLike and Ease Live, today announced a new partnership which will combine the full strength of their platforms—from delivering interactive experiences at scale to building community features with loyalty and rewards features. The combined offering will be a supercharged 360° experience for fans seeking to dive deeper into their favorite live content.
This new strategic partnership creates a market-leading offering that leverages powerful interactive experiences to increase fan engagement with a renowned loyalty and rewards platform that encourages more audience participation. The partnership provides sports teams, leagues, and content rights owners with the perfect tools to build, nurture, and monetize fandom—all with a rapid time-to-market and distribution across a range of devices.
Ease Live provides state-of-the-art interactive overlays on top of live video streams that provide users with personalized access to polls, trivia, live games stats and more. These interactive features are accessible across web, mobile and connected devices.
With this partnership, LiveLike will enhance the Ease Live experience with fully powered live chats and a rewards and loyalty engine that allows customers to collect first-party data on audience engagements.
This results in an immersive and personalized experience that further engages the fans. Fans become more active participants in the live event with the interactive elements on the live stream than the traditional passive lean-back viewing experience. They remain longer and engaged during the live game or match. With LiveLike, fans are also rewarded for their activity with advanced loyalty programs and offers.
Combining immersive and engaging elements not only brings fans closer to their best-loved teams and sports, but also rewards them for increased participation and provides a sense of community. All of this creates additional opportunities for revenue generation through the use of brand-sponsored features, predictive betting, gamification and interactive advertisement.
What Does This Mean For Clients?
- Diverse and Robust Feature Set: The LiveLike and Ease Live partnership provides an all-in-one solution, from interactivity, engagement, and community to a fully-integrated in-house gamification engine. The flexibility of the two platforms allows customers to deploy new features instantly through our cloud capabilities without having to go to the app stores. This enables rapid time-to-market and new revenue realization.
- Ease of Deployment: The integration of LiveLike loyalty systems and LiveLike widgets to the Ease Live platform provides a turn-key solution that is unmatched in the industry. The partnership enables seamless backend integrations and fully customizable front-end implementation.
- Unparalleled Market Traction: Trusted by top-tier leagues and content providers, the combined roster of products and outstanding services is the secret sauce for their unrivalled success. Already deployed worldwide, Ease Live and LiveLike distribute content to millions of end users.
The ability for us to AB test the integration of the LiveLike module to fans versus a segment of fans that just got our typical race day experience, we saw a double-digit increase in engagement around the fans that specifically had the LiveLike modules.
Tim Clark
Chief Digital Officer, NASCAR
The big KPIs for a lot of the rights holders is all about how do we get more audience, how do we get that audience to watch longer. The more interactivity you give fans, the longer they watch, and the more monetization opportunities it generates. It’s all about storytelling in the moment and creating interactive opportunities while watching games. To do this, timing is an essential part. The Ease Live platform is unique in its ability to synchronize graphics, data and even watch parties.
Chris Wagner
Managing Partner, OTT Advisors
- Continuous innovation: Through this collaboration, both companies focus on their strengths and continue to evolve, listen, adapt, and deliver the best in fan engagement for years to come.
Get in touch today to learn more about how LiveLike and Ease Live can help you engage users on your platform.
Serving a World-Class Next-Gen Fan Experience
Today on the Future of Fandom, we serve up an open conversation about tennis, exploring how the US Tennis Association (USTA) is crafting brand love (get it?) for next-gen fans in partnership with their Chief Brand Officer Amy Choyne.
Amy has been a lifelong tennis fan; she’s attended the US Open ever since she was four, and in 2016, after various tenures stewarding brands across fashion and retail, she got the chance to serve at the helm of the sport she’s loved ever since she could hold a racket. A little over six years later, Amy reflects on that time with us today and speaks about how fan engagement has evolved and what she’s excited about moving forward.
We also touch on topics like the growing intersection between elite athletes and social voices, the difference between sports fans and fans of other industries, and just a little bit about pickleball.
So, let’s predict the future with USTA and Amy Choyne.
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-choyne-571593/
Read more about USTA: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usta/
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
Adam Conner:
Amy, how are you? Thank you so much for joining me and having this conversation.
Amy Choyne:
Thanks for having me.
Adam Conner:
So first things first, we are in a moment of reflection for tennis as a sport, being in a bit of a planning set for 2023. We’ve just come out of an electric season, a bunch of new things have happened, new entrance, new stars, and maybe people that you’ve known for a long, long time, but that the general public might not have. Just give me a picture of what this season of the sport has meant for you and USTA a and what you’re most excited about coming out of that.
Amy Choyne:
Well this year, 2023, has been a tremendous year for the USTA and the US Open. It is the second year after the pandemic when we let fans back in. We had a very strong attendance, probably the strongest ever. And every single night and day session in Arthur Ashe was actually sold out, which is a first. It was an all time high for food and beverage, for merchandise, for attendance. The energy at Arthur Ashe Stadium and on site at the NTC was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I can’t say it was all because of us. We had a lot of stars aligned. We obviously had this Serena effect as we call it, in that she had her swan song and performed incredible. It was also a moment of time where we felt a little bit of a torch being kind of passed down with Frances Tiafoe and Carlos Alcaraz coming up and all of these great new players, and people were really excited to see all that energy.
Adam Conner:
I bet. And I have seen that in other sports that I have followed from childhood. Tennis is a little newer to me, but I have an aunt and uncle who are really into it. So it’s been sort of in my world, but I’ve never played, unfortunately. I play tennis and it turns more into the home run derby.
Amy Choyne:
There’s still time.
Adam Conner:
There’s still, of course, still time. My wife plays. She seems to enjoy it. I feel like she would kick my butt. So I have not challenged her yet at this cause that would be more of a comedy session than anything else. But I want to ask this because you’ve had so many milestone moments this year culminating in things like the US Open and now you get to reflect and move forward to next year. I just want to ask because your journey to USTA was not necessarily via working in a whole bunch of other sports, which is typically what I see.
Once you get into sports, you stay in there, but you have experience from fashion, from retail. What is different in transitioning to sports marketing in comparison or running a sports brand, being a steward of a sports brand, as compared to those other industries? Because well, you’re a little unique in terms of the interviewing experience. I haven’t seen many people make that type of change after so long in that world. I’m just curious, what inspired you to move into that world and what’s different about the fans from let’s say the devoted customers of a retailer, or a fashion icon?
Amy Choyne:
It’s a great question. First and foremost, let me say that I’ve been going to the US Open since I was four. I come from a tennis family, and I am a tennis player. However, I don’t play with a lot of people in the office because they are really tennis players. But it’s not a prerequisite to actually work at the USTA.
Adam Conner:
That wasn’t part of the interview that you’d have to play the rest of the executive team. Okay, got it.
Amy Choyne:
No, you don’t have to play the rest of the executive team, but I think in all jobs, and particularly if you work in sports, to have a passion for that sport is particularly important. Especially for the USTA in that we are a non-for-profit, and our mission is to promote tennis in America. So you really have to feel passionate about that. So my job is twofold, and one is to ensure that the customer experience at the US Open is the best in class and we are constantly getting new tennis fans into the funnel, as well as delighting people that have been with us for a very long time, as well as getting more people to participate in the sport. Coming from retail, as I think we all know, retailers know so much about our shopping behaviors. I could tell you right now, even now, it’s scary in that my entire Facebook feed is selling me exactly what I just spoke about two seconds ago. But-
Adam Conner:
Isn’t that scary. Oh, they’re listening folks. They’re listening.
Amy Choyne:
And from a retail perspective, we know so much about customers’ spending habits, what they don’t like. Marketing nowadays is all about personalization and all about this customer experience. So when the USTA was looking to evolve the conversation with fans and prospective players, they wanted someone outside of the tennis industry. So that called within the retail and thankfully I got the job because it’s a fantastic place to work. The conversation with fans and players is a little different than selling a lipstick or a luxury purse, but you’re selling an experience when you think about the US Open. If you’re selling a great seat down on Courtside and a hospitality package with some bells and whistles on it, it’s no different than selling a trunk show to someone that is obsessed with the designer to get that extra special kind of touch point. So there are similarities. That said, the product obviously is so different for sure.
Adam Conner:
I have to ask, did it feel like a dream come true after all of those years of attending the US Open as a spectator to then have the chance to read that brand, which you so loved over the years? Does it feel any different from the other side of the experience? Just personally, before managing all of the bells and whistles, I’m just curious. I just remember the first time that I went to a real baseball game for instance, after playing Little League and being just overcome. Now you had had that stadium wow moment ever since childhood, but I’m just curious, personally, how did it feel to finally be there as an operator rather than a viewer?
Amy Choyne:
I could say to this day, after six and a half years I still get chills walking into Arthur Ashe Stadium and walking on the court and actually having an office there. It doesn’t get old. It is a privilege, as we like to say, to be a steward of the brand and to be able to work on it. So there really is nothing like it. And to be able to add to the experience and grow the brand.
Adam Conner:
Now in those six and a half years, the ways in which customers engaging with retail fans, engaging with sports have of course changed and evolved. Some trends pulled forward due to global macroeconomic and geopolitical events and some just organically. I’m curious given your background in retail and my background actually before I ever got on any microphone was in retail analytics. So I’m well aware of the deep amount of research that goes into consumer behavior. I’m curious in your tenure serving as the steward of the USTA, how has the fans engagement with the sport evolved over that time? And then I’ll move forward to the most recent US Open as a point in time, but I’m curious about the spread.
Amy Choyne:
No, absolutely. I think that people always connected with specific players and followed specific players, and we have kind of noticed that in the way people look at our content both on our website as well as on our app. We’ve tried to evolve all of our channels with that in mind. So for example, with our app, you can have a different experience if you are at the tennis center or if you are using the app at home, and you could follow different players. And we have ensured that the content can be searchable by players and information like that. We have an international audience that has evolved over the years and we make sure that we are talking to the broad spectrum of people.
“Then social media is particularly a great avenue for us. We’ve had about 1 billion engagements this last US Open, which is remarkable, and that’s only over a two week time frame. We have found great success in something like Instagram Reels in which we have this unique content in which we co-collaborate with the players, or an influencer for that matter. And it really increases our lift and engagement with the audience and allows us to really have these authentic conversations with these people who are either tennis stars or tennis enthusiasts and giving a different point of view.”
— Amy Choyne
Amy Choyne:
We’ve also activated YouTube for highlights because people love highlights. Unlike other tennis entities out there, we actually report on tennis throughout the year. We have an always on strategy. So for example, if you’re watching Roland Garros, and there is a head to head on television, we actually play on YouTube the last time they played possibly at the US Open. Or will give stats on different social media, just to educate it. So we know that fans want statistics, want education, and we always bring that back to the US Open. So I think that people want more and more and are kind of experienced content on all different channels.
Adam Conner:
I’ve seen that come to light, especially in sports gambling actually, where the casinos of your would just literally be a sports book where you would go and bet on a line. Nowadays, and we’ve had it here on this podcast, we had an example of it earlier this year where people led with that sort of information first, that content first. You hook people that way and then sure you push them down the final, maybe they do something. In this case, that always-on source is probably something that they craved you. I’m sure you did plenty of research on that. And that, as I’m sure you also know, is how you stay relevant throughout the year when maybe for example right now in a period of reflection, you can look back but these other channels are a great way of doing that. Then when you’re in the action they have so many different ways of engaging.
Did you see anything new or different or unexpected from the fans at this particular US Open as compared to what you’d seen before? What’s been new in terms of a cutting age behavior or observation that you noticed now that you’re on the other side of it?
Amy Choyne:
I’m always amazed that the amount of Honey Deuces people actually have. The behavior is tried and true at the US Open. I mean there’s nothing like being at the US Open, the energy, and the crowd if you’re on site. The crowd really, I wouldn’t say carries the player, but I can’t imagine. The remarkable thing when Serena was playing is if you were playing against Serena at the US Open, I kept feeling, oh my God, I can’t imagine being the person on the other side of the net because the crowd was so bringing Serena with them. So that isn’t changed, but it was so enhanced this year. And it always amazes me that kind of crowd experience because there’s nothing like it and that energy.
Then on our social media where fans can engage, they have opinions and they speak to each other. We moderate it just to make sure that people aren’t saying terrible things. That being said, I mean there’s crazy conversations that happen and debates. Obviously people were very passionate about Novak playing or not playing, had nothing to do with the US Open because that was a sure country decision on the vaccination. But fans are passionate, have opinions, and they’re not shy to let their voices be heard whether it’s in the social universe or in the stadium itself.
Adam Conner:
My guess is that you are there to enable and empower that conversation. Of course moderate it in its various colors. But what I have found is that this newest generation of fan of any type of sport is just as concerned about what happens on the court as what happens off the court. And we just had a great conversation with US Soccer last week where they mimic the same. I’m curious what you have seen over the past, let’s say year or two, to back that observation up that the next gen fan is equally caring about those two sides and then how you’ve thoughtfully stepped in. Of course, you moderate and curate an online brand presence for that where passionate fans talk. But I’m curious what else you’ve seen.
Amy Choyne:
When we came back after the pandemic, it was definitely during a time of unrest, and we definitely saw that. We did it mindfully. We had no fans in the stadium. We used kind of that platform to allow us to speak out on different things. There was a lot of unrest that was happening in the world at the time. We supported all of that during the pandemic. During 2020, we had something called Champion to Champion where we partnered with tennis players and paired them up with first responders or people in the education area where they had conversations where one champion would honor another champion. We actually put that on ESPN and on all of our channels at the coin toss. And it really showed that not only the USTA is being present in what’s going on in the world, but all of our players as well.
We’ve also found that players and a lot of them, the younger players like a Coco Gauff or Frances Tiafoe, really have shown their voice both on the court or off the court. Or Naomi Osaka, with Black Lives Matter. And I think they’ve grown up on these social platforms and they’re not shy of speaking up and standing behind what is important to them. And we want to partner with them to make sure that their voices are heard.
Adam Conner:
Sure. It creates a question in my mind of not necessarily two audiences, but of two validations for listening to somebody in any sports community, but tennis included. On the one side, raw on court performance, best in the world. You want to hear their perspectives, what they’re doing just because they are elite and they’re at the top of their game. Then there’s another side which often intersects this, the middle of this Venn diagram is quite large. But the other circle, let’s say, are the top socially minded players out there who have exceptionally strong voices and are seen as the foremost thinkers out there. Outside of what they do on the court, you have the privilege of facilitating both sides and that very large middle of the Venn diagram. I’m curious how you thoughtfully facilitate both in light of passionate fans who sometimes care about one way more than the other. And to a select view, some of those might be opposed. I’m curious how you navigate through it all.
Amy Choyne:
It’s an interesting question. It’s something that we debate all the time with our board. Where should the USTA stand on all of these social issues and some of the unrest that’s happening in the country? Generally speaking, we stay away from politics, because as the national governing body of tennis, I don’t think that we have the privilege of taking that stance and we stay very neutral. That being said, I don’t think that any organization in modern day can not comment on certain things that are happening in the world. And diversity, inclusion and belonging continues to be incredibly important for the USTA.
“We have a platform called Be Open, which we launched in 2019, in which we say that if you keep an open mind, great things can happen on or off the court. And in doing so, we have put out a tremendous amount of content that supports that and shown how tennis has been that bridge throughout the years with starting with Billie Jean King and Equal Pay, and the USTA having equal pay as a tournament, to us being a diverse sport with Arthur Ashe and Serena and Venus and Frances and Naomi and Coco and how the organization is giving back through our foundation in our NJTLs. Which was started by Arthur Ashe, and trying to diversify tennis by bringing it to low areas that are under-resourced across the country.”
— Amy Choyne
Amy Choyne:
So we try to use our platform to educate on that and to bring that conversation up. We always have naysayers and there’s always trolls on social media that say that we should just focus on tennis, but I don’t think that any modern day brand can stay away from it.
Adam Conner:
Yeah, I think that voice is thankfully getting a little quieter. It’s becoming a little bit more accepted to do it. I would associate that a lot of the time with a troll type environment. I agree, as somebody who is the steward of a brand that caters to all sorts of people and causes, you can’t both support it on the content front, evolve in the way that you engage with fans and not have a perspective. Cause the fans who are predominantly passionate want that. At a certain point you have to serve the fan, and that means sometimes you just have to take a stand, and these are important. So with that, because this is something which to me, I mean I’ve seen it over the last several years, obviously I’m sure that you have even between in the six and a half years that you’ve been with the sport, I got to talk about next year between years six and a half and years, seven and a half. I want to know what you’re most excited about.
I want to know about your thoughts on the future of the sport, the future of the ways in which fans engage. Because even in the world of tennis, even though again, I’m not in every day, every tournament watcher. We can level with that. But even within other sports I have seen the role of technology on the field evolve in crazy ways. I remember the first time, and I don’t even remember when it was, but I think it was recently, the first time I saw a line call where the ball’s either in or out and I had never even hardly even seen that before. I was like, okay, so this is much more… I see it more in soccer, that’s because I follow soccer a little bit more. But that has to equate to the ways in which you are engaging fans on platform, whether it be live down to the minute experiences, that commentary that you had talked about all year round, that always-on educational resource. This is a very big question, but because this is the Future of Fandom, I got to round out with this, what are you most excited about when it comes to that future?
Amy Choyne:
I mean I think you’re totally on the point that that technology is actually Hawkeye and actually our line judges are no longer human. It’s an exciting time for technology and I think on the analytical front, our player development team is working with many people, IBM being one of them, who’s been doing some wonderful things with AI and Watson of what can really be seen for a fan who’s really interested in the analytics and the strategy and the stats and how to engage in it. And as you said, I think that the betting world will be super excited about it as well from a fandom perspective. I think that we’ll see a lot there. As I said earlier, I think the torch has been kind of sent down. So all of these new players, the fans are going to get to know and see how they’re playing, get to know their personalities, see what they’re all about from a platform standpoint.
Unlocking User Engagement: A Guide to Boosting Interactivity With Quests
by LiveLike | LiveLike Blogs
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Captivating and retaining customer in today’s fiercely competitive landscape is an ongoing challenge for businesses, and brands are constantly seeking innovative ways to hold the attention of their users. One particularly popular method that has emerged to tackle this issue is the use of quests. Quests, also known as challenges, adventures, journeys, and more, involve a series of tasks that users must complete to achieve a specific goal to then unlock certain rewards.
Quests are a powerful tool for engaging users and can be implemented across entire ecosystems with various platforms, whether it’s a digital environment like a mobile application or website, or even a physical location such as a stadium or store. They provide a unique opportunity to drive user engagement while simultaneously accomplishing your business objectives.
Here at LiveLike, we’ve developed a cutting-edge quest feature that allows you to effortlessly create and publish quests for your users on any platform. In this article, we’ll delve into the exciting possibilities of using quests in a business environment and explore concrete applications in the sports and entertainment industry and beyond.
“I think the future of tennis in that way is incredibly bright. I also think, and I have to plug it because I am for non-for-profit, that the future is incredibly bright for recreational play, and actually fans getting out there and picking up a racket because we’ve had a 29% lift since 2019. I think it was a little help of Covid because it’s a safe sport. But when I first got hired, they’re like, “How do you make tennis cool again?” I can’t take credit for it, but I think it is in the zeitgeist now again, and I think it is going back into the golden age where people want not only to come to the US Open for that on ground experience, but are consuming it on the web, maybe even in web3 eventually, because our fellow brands of the AO has done some incredibly fun stuff with that. I think there’s a lot to be done in that area.”
— Amy Choyne
Unlocking User Engagement: A Guide to Boosting Interactivity With Quests
by LiveLike | LiveLike Blogs
Audio Player
00:00
Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.
Captivating and retaining customer in today’s fiercely competitive landscape is an ongoing challenge for businesses, and brands are constantly seeking innovative ways to hold the attention of their users. One particularly popular method that has emerged to tackle this issue is the use of quests. Quests, also known as challenges, adventures, journeys, and more, involve a series of tasks that users must complete to achieve a specific goal to then unlock certain rewards.
Quests are a powerful tool for engaging users and can be implemented across entire ecosystems with various platforms, whether it’s a digital environment like a mobile application or website, or even a physical location such as a stadium or store. They provide a unique opportunity to drive user engagement while simultaneously accomplishing your business objectives.
Here at LiveLike, we’ve developed a cutting-edge quest feature that allows you to effortlessly create and publish quests for your users on any platform. In this article, we’ll delve into the exciting possibilities of using quests in a business environment and explore concrete applications in the sports and entertainment industry and beyond.
Adam Conner:
I’m going to round out with a couple rapid fire questions cause a couple things just came to mind, but I think we can cover them quickly. Number one, you go back to being a not-for-profit. Obviously, that is much different from being in the for-profit retailer, fashion industry. Does that allow for more investment back into the sport and the experience? I’m just curious what that shift meant for you as a brand steward when you made that change back in 16.
Amy Choyne:
Well, first and foremost, I smile every day that I don’t have to worry about Black Friday. From a retail perspective, that is always a challenging day to prepare for. The US Open, we like to call the bake sale. Even though we’re a not-for-profit, we are an incredibly profitable one in which everything that we make at the US Open goes back into the sport and to the grassroots. And we have 17 sections across the country that are partners in getting tennis and participation into the field. So while we’re a non-for-profit, is privilege to be one that can support the growth.
Adam Conner:
How about another one, do you see pickleball as a friendly competition, a threat or just a tide that’s lifting all boats?
“Well, pickleball, padel, paddle tennis, tennis, they’re all racket sports. And at the end of the day, we’re a health and wellness company, and getting people out there and participating in racket sports is good for the industry and it’s good for humanity, if I can go that far. The one thing I could say about pickleball, which we are trying to do, is to work with them on blended lines. So when you go to a park, a public park, or even a private facility, we are able to share our kind of infrastructure. So there is a way in which we can all work together.”
— Amy Choyne
Adam Conner:
One player that fans should have their eye on for next year, sort of like the Alcaraz of this year. Who should people know is on the come up?
“It is an incredible time for tennis, especially American tennis. When you think about the Americans coming up, you have Coco Gauff, you have Jessica Pegula, you have Frances Tiafoe, you have Taylor Fritz. I’m betting on the Americans. Watch them. They are really strong right now.”
— Amy Choyne
Adam Conner:
Love it, love it. Last one, it’s a fill in the blank. I do this with a couple guests and I’d just like to get your take. Finish this sentence for me. I can tell you for sure that the future of fandom will not include ______.
Amy Choyne:
For sure? I could tell you for possibly sure, I don’t see the future of fandom really in tennis NFTs. We haven’t kind of cracked that nugget yet. So I am cautiously looking at how to engage in that space.
Adam Conner:
Well we’ll all look forward to seeing it. That’s come with varied levels of interest and excitement, especially through ’21 and ’22. What I can say for sure is that A, this has been a fantastic conversation. I now know a lot more about how you run the sport. And B, I think we can all get excited about what’s to come in ’23 and going forward. For sharing a little bit of that perspective with me, there’s been a lot of love. Can I say that? Is that a good tennis way to get to wordplay out of here? Amy, thank you so much for joining us.
Amy Choyne:
Thank you very much.
Adam Conner:
Thanks again to Amy Choyne from USTA for joining us. I gotta say, this conversation made me think a lot about the future of American athletes relative to the world, and it seems like tennis will be a particularly good opportunity for us to shine and of course thrill fans along the way.
And thanks to you, of course, the listener for exploring the future of fandom with us. I’d encourage you to stay connected obviously. So subscribe to us wherever you listen to your podcasts or (how about and/or?) you can also find all of our content livelike.com/podcast and on LinkedIn @LiveLike and on Twitter @LiveLikeInc.
I look forward to predicting the future again with you real soon. And until then, I’m Adam Conner saying so long and thanks for being a fan.
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: It’s time for our monthly product update! We have an exciting round-up of updates to share with you from October 2022! We are pleased to announce that we have officially launched our demo environment page, LiveLike Play, improved our chat moderation capabilities, simplified our leaderboard process, and more.
Introducing LiveLike Play!
The biggest request we get from potential partners is for a chance to actually test out our tools. That’s why we’ve introduced LiveLike Play, a section of our website that features demo examples of different environments powered by LiveLike! Visitors can now explore the live working demos, giving them a great way to visualize our tools in action and get a feel for how LiveLike can enhance their platform.
Global Shadow Muting in Live Chats
Now through our CMS, chat moderators can shadow mute users in all chat rooms for a dedicated application. On the front-end side, a shadow-muted user will still see their own messages, but they will be the only one who can. We have added this feature to reduce disturbances and potential harassment of users in public chat rooms.
Simplified Leaderboard Search Process
One of our major goals in constantly developing the LiveLike CMS is to make our processes as simplified and streamlined as possible. With this new update, integrators can now easily view what leaderboards a specific user is ranked on. This allows clients to build a more competitive experience on their platform and showcase compelling user profile screens.
Easy Access to User Widget Interaction History
Integrators can now also access a user’s past widget interaction history, and filter that history by widget type to show subsets such as past poll votes or predictions made. This new feature allows clients to learn more about their users and shift their platforms to adhere to certain fan behaviors.
If you want to learn more about LiveLike and what we are doing, feel free to contact us here. We would be delighted to learn more about your needs and expectations!
Making a Pitch for Fans at the World Cup and Beyond
Today on The Future of Fandom, we get out on the pitch ahead of the World Cup with US Soccer to think through their approach to a domestic football fandom, basing the frenzy of international action coming up this winter. And we get to do it with the help of their Chief Commercial Officer David Wright.
Did you know that there is more soccer content consumed in the US than any other country around the world? As David can tell you directly, the sport has seen explosive growth over his roughly 20 years of experience with it—and its rise is only continuing to ascend.
You’ll learn how that’s impacted David’s tactics and approach to the newest generation of fans, the ways in which they innovate, and their plans for 2023 and onward. We also touch on how US Soccer has led the charge in equitable pay and treatment between its men’s and women’s teams and how it can hopefully serve as a model for other sports. So let’s kick it off—finally, that wordplay makes sense!—and predict the future with US Soccer and David Wright.
Connect with David Wright on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveawright/
Read more about US Soccer: https://www.ussoccer.com/
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
Adam Conner (01:28):
David, how are you? Thank you for joining me.
David Wright (01:34):
Adam, I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.
Adam Conner (01:36):
I’m a big soccer fan over the last 10 to 12 years, and I tell you where it really started. It began with the World Cup 2010 South Africa. I’d really never even watched a game, but it was the summer after I graduated high school. I wasn’t doing anything. I was down on the beach and in between going to the pool and the beach and back and forth, I watched that first game and watched as people went nuts as Tshabalala scored the opening goal for South Africa and then continued to watch as Landon Donovan put one past Algeria to send us through. And from that moment I was hooked and in large part, in fact exclusively due to US Soccer. So first off before we get started, thanks for serving at the helm and serving as the steward of that brand, which I love.
David Wright (02:24):
Adam, I love that story. And I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’ve actually heard a lot of similar comments from folks as they talk about their entry point to the sport and on the cusp of another World Cup. The beautiful thing about the global game is it’s just that, I mean, it serves as a communal moment and in many cases, and you’re a great example, it sucks people in and we’re delighted to have you as a fan. So thank you.
Adam Conner (02:51):
Well, it’s a real energy. It captures the world and obviously by extension the US during these times. What’s different now that we’re doing it in a different part of the year? Does that change anything about the World Cup planning? Because, listeners, obviously we are in the mid fall here. In a little while, we’re going to be kicking off in the winter (which is something we have not done for a World Cup, at least in my memory ever). I don’t think we’ve ever done it. Does that change the way you plan?
David Wright (03:19):
It’s interesting, Adam. It obviously is a first and with anything that happens for the first time, I think there’s a lot of lessons and key learnings along the way. I think where we stand and how we look at it, Qatar’s going to be an unbelievable moment for our sport globally, for all the obvious reasons. But as we think about it domestically, it’s going to be off the charts. And I point to, I mean just look at the US-England game the day after Thanksgiving. Some of the early reports of viewership are record breaking. It’s predicted to be the most watched game in the history of soccer in this country.
(04:00):
But then when you fast forward, the other interesting part is let’s not forget about the Women’s World Cup a mere six or seven months later. So now you’ve got a condensed window where the global spotlight is on the sport and US Soccer in particular, men’s and women’s national teams are front and center and I think poised to do some really great things. So from where we sit, we love it and it’s a countdown to the first match here in a couple weeks.
Adam Conner (04:27):
I’m looking forward to it. I’m planning on not doing a whole lot of anything there for those few weeks except being glued to the television as most people are or try to get out somewhere and take a look. But your experiences with soccer as a sport extend far before the first time I ever sat down to watch a game. And because of that, you have this incredible tenure of memory with regard to the way that fans have developed for the sport, a fitting tenure for this show, of course, as we look to the future of that fandom.
(05:01):
But before I get to that, let’s start between your beginnings in soccer and then your brief chapter away from the sport. What did you learn in those first, let’s call, I think it was like 15, 16 years, about the way that a US Soccer fan and not US Soccer, not of the Federation, but in this case of Major League Soccer, which is where you were, how did they develop, interact, engage, grow perhaps in relation to the way that people grow up with soccer internationally?
David Wright (05:37):
Yeah, it’s a great question and I think, let me start back to kind of my upbringing. I grew up playing the game and I grew up at a time when I was always the kid that was trying to stand tall and be proud that I played the game of soccer. And I was very fortunate to be able to play in college and fortunate to then go on and go to grad school and to be an assistant coach. And that ultimately brought me to MLS in the early stages of that league, which I think is really important and quite frankly was very important for my development. It was at a time where MLS was incredibly nascent and in the early 2000s, there wasn’t a week that went by where people were questioning the viability of the league, which is important to know because now you fast forward a generation later and no one’s questioning the viability of the league.
(06:27):
In fact, many would argue that MLS is one of the most prominent soccer leagues around the world as you think about just how it’s structured and the success from a business perspective. But in those early days of MLS, it was all about education and informing people that MLS existed, but then really trying to peel back the onion to try to create engagement opportunities. When you’ve got a league that at one point only had 10 franchises, didn’t have any history, that’s a big challenge to create meaningful fan engagement opportunities that bring people in with the passion that you described at the front end of the show.
(07:08):
And so that was really valuable for me to see. And I think one of the things that I learned among many is that there’s no lightning in a bottle switch, you know, you can’t make up history. And when you look at some of the other more established leagues around the world, I’ll use the obvious example in the Premier League, there are generations upon generations upon generations of fan bases that grow up and support a particular club in part because they’re their mother or father or grandfather or grandmother supported that club.
(07:41):
And we haven’t had that history. But guess what? It’s starting to change. And now we’ve got thriving professional leagues on both the men and the women’s side that are now starting to create their own path on their own history. And that’s really important. Which was then fascinating. To your point about my detour, I went to baseball and I specifically went to minor league baseball for a variety of reasons, not the least of which I wanted to prove to myself in the industry that I could help build something other than soccer. And it was about 180 degrees different, as you can imagine. You’ve got 115 year old established property that had still tremendous upside, but you didn’t have to worry about the education piece, you didn’t have to worry about the history. It was already there. But we had to think differently and we had to evolve. And that’s what we did over the five or six years that I was there.
(08:28):
And now back at US Soccer at such a seminal moment for our sport, we call this moment in time, we’re at the very beginning stages of this moment in time and fan engagement is through the roof. And in part because we have this generation of support specific to US Soccer, if you’re a fan of this sport, we truly believe we have an opportunity to meaningfully engage with you, which is pretty powerful and gets me pretty fired up every day as we think ahead.
Adam Conner (08:56):
To give the listener, maybe a newer fan of the sport, somebody maybe who caught onto a World Cup or some other league after 2010, you took that, can we call it sab-bat-ical? Because you went to baseball. Anyway, you had that break.
David Wright (09:11):
Yeah.
Adam Conner (09:11):
You come back. Can you give us a sense of the acceleration of the fanaticism of somebody who was a soccer fan between that time in 2015 and the time that you joined back to the sport five years later? Because I would think that it exploded. I mean, I saw soccer fandom really jump in two ways, one early to mid 2000s, largely through gaming because FIFA really rose to crazy prominence. And then the second was when NBC took the rights to the Premier League and people finally started seeing it somewhere other than some international channel if they weren’t watching the MLS already. So I’m curious, from your perspective, you take that gap, you come back, what’s different?
David Wright (09:52):
Yeah, there’s a lot that has evolved in a really short period of time. It’s almost like technology, right, you think back five or six years and how technology has evolved and will continue to evolve. I think soccer is on a trajectory unlike any other, and you referenced a couple of them. EA and the impact that that game has had on fandom, I can’t tell you how many millions of people are passionate about the sport of soccer and in many cases haven’t played physically. But their entry point was through gaming, and now they’re hooked and they’re diehard fans. I would again go back to some of the other foundational pieces that have seen massive acceleration. On the NWSL front, you know, think about the last number of years and how that league has really found its footing in once and for all. Finally, our country and corporate brands and media are starting to pay attention and truly get behind female sport.
(10:47):
And I think the NWSL from a team perspective and a league perspective is really helping to lead the way. MLS is now on a pace to 30 clubs. And let’s not forget USL, right? USL second division has dozens of clubs around the country. And so why is that all important? Because now you’ve got rubber meets the road in almost every single market and engagement on a 365 day basis that is really surrounding people with the sport of soccer. And then obviously the Premier League and other leagues that have really set their sights on the US as an opportunity. Adam, I’ll give you a little nugget. There is more soccer content consumed in the US than any other country around the world. So you think about that and everyone has that same reaction, but it speaks to the demand. And so when you look at some of the rights fees that are skyrocketing, we’ve got an incredible relationship that’ll kick off in January with More Media, Apple and the great relationship that they forged with MLS.
“You’ve got the NWSL rights that are coming up in ’23 and I think there’s a lot of optimism around the growth there. And then obviously Premier League and what NBC and the network has done with those rights, there’s a reason why soccer rights are exploding, because content consumption is on the rise and particularly in this market is unprecedented. And that really speaks to the demand. And I could go on and on about all the other metrics, but this thing is a rocket ship and it’s not slowing down, which is great. And oh, by the way, you’ve got a World Cup in ’26, you’ve got LA ’28, you’ve got maybe the prospects of another woman’s World Cup in ’31 on US soil. So this moment in time that I talk about is pretty special and is going to have a big impact on the sport.”
— David Wright (11:54)
Adam Conner (12:42):
You could just hear the energy in you talking about it. And I’m getting excited because not only the near term, but what it could mean going forward for my ability to watch and engage with those new commercial deals coming up. And by the way, I grew up in Baltimore where there really was not a soccer presence. There was a little bit of arena soccer like in-
David Wright (13:05):
Baltimore Blast-
Adam Conner (13:07):
The Baltimore… Great. Oh-
David Wright (13:10):
There you go-
Adam Conner (13:10):
Perfect. Nobody knows about the Baltimore Blast outside of Baltimore, but now I live in Pittsburgh, shout out the Riverhounds.
David Wright (13:18):
There you go.
Adam Conner (13:18):
USL team.
David Wright (13:18):
Yep.
Adam Conner (13:19):
Soccer’s everywhere. And that demand, that statistic was initially like what? I get it because it is exploding and we’ll get to the women’s game in a moment. By the way, listeners, if you’re interested in that, why don’t you stay tuned to early ’23. You might hear a little bit directly from the NWSL on that front, but let’s talk a little bit about the ways in which you are innovating right alongside the way that this fandom has exploded and accelerated. You come back in ’20, obviously there’s a lot going on in the world at that point, but we are getting back on track.
(13:59):
And in that time two things have happened. We have a brand new generation of fans who have come to social prominence in Gen Z and we have had this striking overarching sense of the need to belong in a community which goes right alongside the fanaticism that you might have historically associated just with watching something on the television and never being able to engage otherwise. As those two trends have started to rise and as Gen Z has started to mature into its own, what are some of the ways in which you’ve been engaging as a brand in different and new ways to capture and make sure that you are getting the 18 year old of today or maybe sooner that I was in 2010 when US Soccer first hooked me?
David Wright (14:45):
Yeah, it’s a great question and I think it really starts with our organization’s ethos and core values and what we represent and what we stand for. I mentioned earlier that we firmly believe that if you are passionate about the game of soccer, we have an authentic opportunity to engage with you. So this notion of inclusivity is critically important to our sport, but really is woven through everything we do. We talk a lot about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. And those aren’t DEIB is not a four letter acronym. It’s real and guides everything that we do and in fact informs a lot of our business decisions. So if you look at how we position our property or our US Soccer as a brand, if you look at our actions, it supports this commitment to be a leader in the DEIB space.
(15:44):
And so why is that important? When you talk about Gen Z, you talk about this next generation of fan, at the core, it’s critically important. There’s a ton of research that supports that this generation significantly over indexed on supporting brands that they believe in, that resonate with them, that they feel they can relate to. And I think it starts with that. And then more tactically, we’ve really doubled down on our storytelling. So we have an unbelievable opportunity. Obviously everyone talks about our women’s national team and our men’s national team, but we’ve got 25 other national teams, not many people know that. And we’ve got all of these athletes from Para, to Futsal, to beach, they all have stories. And I think as we think to the future, our ability to tell those stories off the field is really, really powerful.
“I often look at our two kids. We’ve got a son who’s 19 and a daughter who’s 16, both play, but there as interested in what happens off the field as they are what happens inside the white lines. And so as a property, it’s a big area of focus for us and I think you’ll see us continue to double down on the content side of things. We also spend a lot of time really thinking about platforms and I’ll highlight… SheBelieves is an incredible platform. Obviously it’s got a competitive element, the ability to bring some of the top federations over to play against our women’s national team, but it’s so much more than that. It’s all about female empowerment and really showcasing the incredible feats of females on and off the field. And we’ve also seen that as an incredible means to engage with this next generation fan. So those are just a handful of things that as we think to the future, I think you’ll see us continue to really double down and lean into in our quest to truly engage with the masses.”
— David Wright (16:41)
Adam Conner (17:44):
And these masses, as you’ve said, have been values driven more than ever. Not only do they want to feel that they’re part of a community, they want to know that that community that they love also believes in the values that they do. It’s probably the best time then to bring up the fact that you are leading, I mean at the front of the pack when it comes to equity and pay equity and treatment. Now this is something that has been, well, it was deeply in the news and now we’ve come to the sort of exclamation point, which is that the equal pay CBA is here, men and women’s teams now have that equitable compensation treatment in the eyes of US Soccer. You’ve been there through all of that. What was it like in the trenches getting that done? And now that it is, how has that bolstered the message and the impact that you have again, both inside and outside of those white lines?
David Wright (18:47):
Yeah, first I give a ton of credit to our president, Cindy Parlow Cone, who really led the charge and also another individual that was behind the scenes, but equally as influential, Karen Leetzow, our chief legal officer. In short, Adam, it was tough. It was really tough, but actions matter. And to my point earlier about doing the right thing and creating positive change, I mean, what better example of an organization standing tall, leading and doing the right thing? But it wasn’t easy. There’s a reason why it had never been done before.
“Through the resolve and commitment of our leadership, the partnership with the Women’s National team PA, also the partnership with the men’s national team PA, very, very important to the overall partnership. The three entities were able to get together and figure it out. And I think what’s really, really powerful is the impact, not only is it having in the global space within soccer, but more broadly and how it’s impacting culture and other industries. We’ve already started to see that ripple effect. So again, a great example of doing the right thing, standing tall and as we look forward, something that we’re really proud to be paving the way and it’s going to be good for all.”
— David Wright (19:23)
Adam Conner (20:08):
And it’s strikingly important, especially now to have that. But any listener who maybe shares some of my entry into loving the sport can understand the impact that women’s soccer has had on that just as much as the men’s game. I mean, I started this off by talking about US Soccer’s triumph in 2010, that specific moment, it’ll be burned into my memory forever, but shortly beyond it, and I’m a little bit embarrassed to say it, but being surprised in 2011, watching the Women’s World Cup… not really even understand, “Okay, there’s a women’s World Cup. Okay, that makes sense.”
(20:52):
Again, I’m like a newish fan. I’m like, “All right,” see it on the television and watching the US just basically destroy almost everybody to then have them come back the next year, do it again in the Olympics and then just continue on this period of dominance. Man, I cannot think outside of Olympians, really many more female athletes in that time who were as revered and who came to prominence as much as those who starred for US Soccer. So I think that it’s a terribly important social moment, but a fitting validation of their performance and their shine over the last 10 or so years. And I hope that other sports follow as well.
(21:35):
Turning to the future then for both the men, the women, everything US Soccer, you’re on the verge of a pretty interesting change in the way that you can present that beginning in 2023. You’ll be managing your own commercial rights, which is something that is a new page that you’ve turned. In fact, shortly after the release of this podcast, folks, you should be listening to this on Monday, November 7th, if you are timely. On November the 9th, there will be a summit to talk a little bit about that. But I want to get a preview from you as we look ahead to it. What does that mean to you to have that power in ’23 with your own commercial rights, and what do you think that that will mean for the fan?
David Wright (22:12):
Yeah. Adam, I think it’s a great example of our ever evolving organization and we’ve had an incredible relationship with SoccerNet Marketing and SoccerNet Marketing has managed the rights for the better part of 20 years and really has given us the foundation that we’re now ready to build upon. But as is often the case with leading properties, the ability to manage the day in and day out decision making is really important. And I think as we look to the future again during this moment in time, what better time to take control of our business from a commercial standpoint? And so while it wasn’t an easy decision, it was the right decision, I think it was the right decision for the sport of soccer, it was the right decision for US Soccer. And I think we’re going to have tremendous success as we think about growth.
(23:02):
I mean, we are an NGB, national governing body, 501c3, which is really important to understand because every single dollar that is generated gets reinvested back into the business. So we are very, very focused on growing the business because we know that will provide resources for us to be able to compete at the highest level. And so on November 9th, we’ve got a commercial summit that will kind of serve to kick things off. And I think you’ll start to see us be very aggressive. I mentioned our Warner Brothers partnership that kicks off in January. We’ve got soon to be announced Spanish language relationship that is equally as important. But then we also have an incredible roster of corporate partners that are critically important to our success, not only from a financial standpoint, but how they activate, how they bring this property to life is really important.
“From a fan perspective, I think you’re going to see the US Soccer Federation continue to rise in prominence. I think you’ll see a lot more front and center engagement based on increased resource, more active partners, whether they be media partners or corporate partners. And that’s really good as we think about growth in the game. And it is absolutely a new chapter. It’s not going to come without as challenges as you would imagine, as is always the case when your business is evolving like ours, but one that we are incredibly bullish and excited for. And I think it’s going to be, again, really, really good for the sport and really good for US Soccer.”
— David Wright (23:58)
Adam Conner (24:36):
So stepping to one final question, and you know what, I’ll make this a pretty high flying one just because the title of this show is so broad. What do you foresee for the future of the way that any sport, whether it be a league or a franchise, can truly grow and win with these next gen viewers and next gen consumers?
David Wright (24:59):
Yeah. A couple of things, Adam. I think first, the properties that are winning the day are those that are at the core. They know who they are, they know what they represent, and they stick to that. As I often say, you can’t pick and choose when to do the right thing. You can’t pick and choose when you want to stand for this or when you want to stand for that. You got to be really consistent. And consistent meaning when it’s 75 and sunny or when it’s 42 and sleeting out.
(25:27):
And so first really looking inward and understand what do you stand for as a property? And then beyond that, how you are going to bring that to life? And I think what gets me so excited about US Soccer among many things is it’s really clear what we stand for and our partners have bought in. We know that our fans over index with our core values. So I think that’s really, really important for properties to understand who they are, what they represent, and then how they are going to bring it to life and stick to it.
Adam Conner (25:59):
Let me give you one bonus and then we’ll roll out of here. I’ve done this a couple times with guests, but it’s great because I think I’m going to like this better in a sport that I actually watch and follow. It’s a blank, the sentence ends with a blank. “I can tell you for sure that The Future of Fandom will not include ________. Could you take a stab at filling that blank for me?
David Wright (26:25):
Wow, I love that. Well, it depends on the timeline, but eventually The Future of Fandom will not include linear. So as you think about consumption and you think about the evolution of consumption, depending on who you talk to in the industry, that evolution is happening very quickly and how fans are engaging in and consuming content changes by the day. You’re starting to see properties have to really wrestle with, “Do I double down on linear that gives me today the broadest distribution, or do I lean into where the industry’s going, which is through a direct to consumer streaming platform?”
“Right now it’s a bit of a healthy mix. I mean, that’s how we approached it. We’ve got, as I mentioned, our great relationship and it is a healthy mix between linear and streaming, but there will come a day where it will be exclusively a DTC world. And when that is, I think remains to be seen, but properties need to prepare for that and evolve and try to stay ahead of the curve, those that evolve with consumption trends will win the day. Those that don’t evolve I think will find themselves struggling. So that’s what comes to mind with that. Great question, Adam.”
— David Wright (27:05)
Adam Conner (27:42):
Food for thought. Everyone think through that. The future might not be as far away as you think. For coming on and chatting about the beautiful game with me. Again, thanks for being the steward of the sport so far. I can’t wait to see what’s coming up this winter, and of course in ’23. David, very much appreciate your time.
David Wright (28:02):
Adam, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you.
Adam Conner (28:07):
World Cup time is almost here. Do me a favor. If you’ve never watched soccer before, give US Soccer a shot this winter. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the energy and the entertainment and sooner or later you’ll be hooked. Thanks to David Wright for joining us and thanks to you, the listener for exploring yet again The Future of Fandom with us. I’d encourage you to stay connected, so subscribe to The Future of Fandom wherever you listen to your podcasts. Or you can also find all of our content livelike.com/podcast. You’ll get all of our episodes back to our launch earlier this year and across social, we’re also on LinkedIn @LiveLike and Twitter @LiveLikeInc.
(28:51):
I look forward to predicting the future again with you real soon. And until then, I’m Adam Conner saying so long and thanks for being a fan.
Where the concept of live streaming was once mind-blowing, today’s viewers are looking to take it a step further with something even more interactive. They’re no longer satisfied with being passive observers to live streamed content; they want to feel connected to other fans, make an impact on the action, and feel like their voices are being heard.
And it’s up to the creators and producers out there to respond to these new desires. To keep viewers entertained, broadcasters, rights-owners and streaming platform producers need to consider interactive live streaming capabilities in order to meet new audience expectations.
In this article, we’re looking at the three major reasons why interactive live streaming can greatly improve the audience experience, and keep 21st century fans engaged with digital content.
Create a Sense of Community: Live Chats and Watch Parties
Alongside gamification and interactivity, one of our three major pillars is community. Building a sense of community on your platform and making sure your users feel connected to one another is a surefire way to encourage their loyalty and foster a strong united fan base.
While many of our other tools help to build this idea of connection, live chats and watch parties are the two most effective community-building tools in the LiveLike engagement suite. Both of these tools work to add a social dimension to your platform that give users the interactivity they’re looking for.
Whether it’s to strike up conversation about a shared passion, share real-time thoughts and reactions to live events, or even engage in lively debates, live chats and watch parties allow for real-time connection between your users and give them the chance to learn, bond, or feel connected.
Live chats and watch parties can be used in many different ways on your platform. Here are just some examples:
- With public, private, and influencer chat options, you’re able to customize your user experience depending on the type of connection you are hoping to foster. Allow public chat for group bonding or debates, private chat for individual conversations, and influencer chat for VIP audience experiences. Currently, public chat is the most popular and common practice, existing on gaming platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and more.
- Gain more control over the chat tools on your platform by creating a restricted or “Influencer” chat session where only you or your guests can share insights, updates, stories, and more. You can even combine this with an “Ask Me Anything” Module to enable your audience to participate while maintaining moderation control.
- Enable users to create their chat groups to enjoy the same content simultaneously. Instead of discussing on Messenger, WhatsApp, or another chat application, users will remain on your platform for all their social needs. You can even go further with a “Watch Together” solution to let users create video chat rooms with our Watch Party feature. This has already been implemented by the biggest streaming services including Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.
Introduce Opportunities For Engagement: Interactivity Feed
As well as looking for opportunities for social interaction, users on your platform similarly long for moments of interactivity that go beyond traditional communication. In other words, not only do your users want to connect, they also want to play!
Creating moments where they can have a say in what happens during a live event, flaunt their industry knowledge, or challenge their peers to some friendly competition alongside the live stream is a great way to boost engagement on your platform. This can be done with the LiveLike suite through the introduction of an interactivity feed, a localized place on your platform where you can push interactive engagement modules such as polls, sliders, AMAs, cheer meters, quizzes, and more.
With so many different modules—or as we call them here at LiveLike: “widgets”—to choose from, the possibilities are endless depending on your platform goals:
- Gather Immediate Feedback: One of the most valuable things to learn about your users is what they think of the content you are providing. And what better way to find out than to ask them directly through subtle but engaging widgets integrated alongside the content they’re viewing? Pushing simple polls or sliders is a great way to avoid sending out tedious post-event surveys and works to engage users in a fun, intriguing way.
- Stir Up Some Friendly Competition: The whole appeal of interactive live streams is that they are uniting, entertaining, and generally more fun than a passive viewing experience. That means it’s up to you to make the experience as fun and entertaining as possible by engaging your users with ways to test their knowledge, flaunt their skills, or make some noise. With quizzes, predictions and cheer meters, users can easily engage in personal or communal competition and feel wholly invested in the content on your platform.
- Provide Exclusive Offers and Relevant Information: The strongest platforms out there are the ones that do it all, and give users no reason to look for help, entertainment, or information elsewhere. With our social embed feature, you’re able to offer exclusive promotions, discounts, or experiences and provide users with all the information they need through external social media postings.
Nurture Your Audience: Loyalty & Rewards Programs
Finally, your platform is only as strong as your fans are loyal. On top of community and interactivity, rewarding your users is undoubtedly the most powerful thing you can do to create brand loyalty and ensure platform longevity. By integrating loyalty rewards programs into your interactive live streaming experience, you can make sure your most devoted fans feel appreciated and come back to your platform for more.
- Points: Reward items like points, stars, etc. are low-hanging fruit that can be set up to be given to users automatically based on their activity on your live stream. With points, your audience members are more likely to engage with your content consistently as they feel incentivized to collect more. That being said, points alone are not enough; they need to be combined with other offers or “real” rewards to ensure user loyalty.
- Leaderboards: Leaderboards are a great way to extend your points system and build momentum for users to return to earn points in the first place. Users can compete against one another for spots on the leaderboard and feel motivated to end up as a top ranked player at the end of your live stream. But besides eternal glory, why should they care about finishing first? These kinds of victories must give way to bigger, or more interesting, and rewarding opportunities.
- Badges and NFTs: Badges and NFTs are another way to incentivize your fans to interact with your live stream content, and are becoming more relevant as we gain more of an understanding about the value of owning NFTs. These can be awarded when reaching a specific number of points or for having completed specific tasks while enjoying your live stream.
- Gifts, Exclusive Offers and Premium Experiences: Real-time VIP offers and loyalty rewards are the last piece of the puzzle and perhaps the most important to your interactive live stream user experience. This is because it concerns what your end-users are able to walk away with thanks to all the hard work they put in to earn those points, leaderboard rankings, and badges or NFTs. This last step must include the offering of real-rewards that your users can enjoy outside of your platform, such as discounted concert tickets, a chance to meet a celebrity, a free signed jersey, etc.
Implementing these loyalty mechanisms on top of your gamified live streaming experience will help you to increase user session lengths, reduce customer churn, and successfully monetize your platform.
In 2022, the competition for user attention is huge and only continuing to grow. It seems like everyone is fighting to acquire the top production companies, diversify their content portfolio, and generally offer the most amount of content out there compared to their many competitors. But in reality, the focus needs to return to the user experience on these livestreaming platforms, and to the new expectations of interactivity.
Broadcasters, rights-owners and streaming platform producers need to ask themselves: What can my fans do on my platform that they can’t on others? Or: What do they want to do that I’m not currently offering?
Interactive livestreaming is an amazing solution to making your platform stand out amongst the rest, and is becoming the norm as we move forward in the world of digital entertainment.
At LiveLike, we specialize in creating these unique interactive livestreaming experiences, and have proven our efficiency with renowned broadcasters around the world (Warner, Fox, Canal, Sky). With the use of our extensive engagement suite, we can help you to build these experiences and introduce interactivity seamlessly within your existing ecosystem.
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When gamification came onto the scene around 2017, the majority of those in the fintech space reacted with doubt and skepticism, assuming the new approach to user engagement would not apply to the industry. Now in 2022, the addition of gamification elements to digital platforms has become essential and expected by users across all industries, no matter how seemingly serious or separate.
At its core, gamification is when typical game-like components—problem solving, competition, points and rewards systems—are applied to non-game activities—say, investing in stocks on a fintech app or banking online—to appeal to users and keep them engaged. In other words, and in this case, gamification is about making fintech fun! In 2022, game-like elements have been proven to help financial businesses in particular to engage their users more effectively and turn routine banking tasks into fun, rewarding activities.
Despite the early skepticism, the introduction of gamification to the fintech sector has since been welcomed by many different companies and brands worldwide, rendering it one of the most effective techniques for fan engagement. In fact, according to a study by Finances Online, companies that introduce gamification tools into their platform have been shown to realize a 700% increase in conversion rates. In this article, we’re taking a look at the five major benefits of engaging customers with gamified banking solutions.
1. Interactivity Attracts New Customers
Let’s face it, people don’t always have a lot of patience when it comes to app sign-ups, and fintech platforms can be highly set-up intensive. Often, they require users to input personal information, submit financial statements, or even integrate with their existing external bank accounts.
Introducing gamified elements to the sign-up process can help to attract new customers and maintain momentum for curious users, guiding them through the steps without getting bored, distracted, or simply fed up. In other words, turn your onboarding steps into an interactive game and new users are more likely to stick around!
A great example of a fintech gamification tool often used to attract new users is the use of progress bars or quests during user onboarding. Quests are sets of tasks that must be completed in order to achieve a quest goal; such as in this case of getting to the end of an app sign-up process.
With the completion of each onboarding task, users are given a visual display of their progress and proximity to the final step, giving them a sense of encouragement, reminding them of their end goal, and motivating them to keep going so as not to lose the progress they’ve already made.
You might even choose to add a reward that comes with the completion of each task to incentivize users further, whether that be in the form of points, discounts, or even fun, entertaining graphics.
With the use of fintech gamification tools like quests, you can work to address typical onboarding roadblocks, and reduce the friction customers may experience that would deter them from signing up, ultimately attracting new users to your platform.
2. Gamification Makes Fintech Fun!
One of the major challenges of conventional banking or fintech services is that not all customers are going to have a personal interest or even an understanding of typical industry jargon and financial matters. What’s more, even those who do may still associate the industry with dull platform interfaces, boring charts, complex calculations, and general seriousness—but fintech doesn’t have to be tedious!
The key to standing out amongst the crowd is by using gamification to make your platform accessible, intuitive, hassle-free, and fun. Interactive tools like quiz challenges, competitive leaderboards and live chats can turn your fintech platform into a place users come to connect, learn, and even play.
A perfect example of a platform that uses gamification to make fintech fun is Monobank, the first Ukrainian mobile-only bank known in part for its cute feline mascot, QR cat. The corporate character is already a cheeky giveaway of the bank’s fun approach to banking services, and personifies the brand in the mind of its 6 million customers.
QR cat appears all over the app’s interface, including on the many achievement badges available for Monobank’s most loyal customers. To earn these badges, users are challenged to perform certain banking tasks, such as splitting bills with friends, making transactions in different countries, spending in certain categories, and more.
Alongside offering the typical conveniences of a virtual bank, Monobank’s gamification efforts have resulted in a customer base of over 3.8 million, with around 120,000 new users joining each month.
When your users can associate your fintech platform with games, quizzes, and unique creative branding, suddenly the experience of banking becomes a fun activity rather than a tedious chore.
3. Nurture Your Audience: Loyalty & Rewards Programs
As well as aiding in customer acquisition, making your fintech app fun is a great way to keep your users coming back for more, and making sure they stay loyal to your brand. And what better way to keep users coming back to your platform than to integrate gamified loyalty rewards programs?
In an article published earlier this year, we looked at the importance of building and maintaining customer loyalty, and the massive impact it can have on a business when done effectively. This becomes even more relevant in the case of fintech, an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive as the demand for digitization climbs, and one where the most loyal customers often become lifelong devotees.
In fact, according to a study by Bain & Company, customers who feel truly loyal to their bank are up to 6x more likely to recommend it to others, on average spend around 25% more on their credit cards and are much less likely to switch to a competitor than customers who feel no sense of brand loyalty.
Introducing rewards programs for your most devoted customers makes them feel like you care about their experience on your platform and you value their loyalty enough to thank them for it. These programs can include the use of points earned for completing certain actions, leaderboards to show off top points earners, and badges awarded to celebrate customer milestones.
All in all, gamification is about mobilizing the psychological human tendency to want to play games and be rewarded; and when customers are rewarded for their loyalty to an app or platform, they feel appreciated and are more likely to return.
4. Gamification Boosts Platform UX
As previously mentioned, most users of fintech platforms are seeking out simplified ways to solve certain problems they are having, whether it be with saving more money, navigating their finances, or increasing their wealth. In other words, taking financial goals that are often complicated to meet on one’s own and making them easier. Therefore, the use of gamification on a fintech platform should have the same end goal of simplifying these processes to make them more achievable for users, to enhance the overall user experience.
With this in mind, it only makes sense that fintech gamification, when used effectively and responsibly, should actually help to foster positive financial habits for its users, such as curbing overspending, hitting money-saving milestones, and more.
Of course, fintech gamification is not always about making things easier; there’s also strategy in using it to make things more difficult. Introducing more friction on a fintech platform can make it harder for users to commit financial mistakes—overspending, making hasty investments, miscalculating hidden fees—a feature they will be extremely grateful for. Either way, the end result is an enhanced user experience on the platform that works to attract and retain customers.
5. Interactive Features Provide Useful Customer Insights
Finally, gamification is about more than just playing games and improving UX; it can also be a great way to learn more about your customers in terms of their behavior, usage habits and platform preferences. Especially considering the amount of fintech platforms out there, understanding your audience can mean the difference between standing out amongst competitors and falling behind. In other words, the better you know your users, the more easily you’ll be able to create a UX that satisfies their needs and turn them into loyal fans.
The issue with collecting data, however, is finding ways of doing it that don’t bother your customers or make your motives overly obvious. For example, sending out a long-form survey about what users are looking for on your platform might come across as, at best, disruptive, and at worst, spammy. Instead, using interactive gamification tools like trivia quizzes, predictions, and polls, offers a fun and subtle way to gather first-party data while providing an entertaining experience that encourages their participation.
All in all, the use of gamification tools—whether it’s interactive widgets, informative widgets, live chat capabilities, or loyalty programs—appeals to natural human desires, including the need for entertainment, social interaction, rewards, and competition. By introducing gamification to a fintech app or banking solution site, users are given the chance to earn points, compete with their friends, or get to the top of a leaderboard, and consequently, become emotionally invested in staying on returning to the platform.
Still not sure if gamification can be applied to your fintech platform? Get in touch today to learn more about how our user engagement elements can enhance your user experience.
Improving Your Odds of Winning Fans on Social
Today, on The Future of Fandom, we get to read a few pages from a sports book via a content juggernaut: Senior Vice President of Content Liam Roecklein of PointsBet. and the way it innovates within revenue driven content to grow a responsible, diehard following
This isn’t Liam’s first rodeo when it comes to shaking up an industry via content approach; he was previously the first content hire at Cheddar, and saw the brand through its ascent to the pinnacle of financial media. Now, he has turned his sights to sports gambling as the next space well worth disrupting. And on the show today, Liam explains how they do that at PointsBet with a “Thrill Bill” mentality.
We also talk about how the Company differentiates their content experience across acquisition platforms to win on social, and how to win the newest generations of sports fans who are increasingly fanatic about individual players rather than teams. Seeing as sports gambling is legal in just 12 states in the US, the fandom yet to come isn’t just fantasy, it’s real, and it’s right now.
So, let’s predict the rest with PointsBet and Liam Roecklein.
Connect with Liam Roecklein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-roecklein/
Read more about PointsBet: https://pointsbet.com.au/
Full episode here:
FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW
(01:24):
Liam, thank you for joining me. How are you? Good to talk to you.
Liam Roecklein (01:27):
Adam, it’s awesome to be here. It’s really exciting to chat with you about the future of media. I’m excited to talk with you about all these things.
Adam Conner (01:34):
Yeah, the future is something that you have seen many times before in specific points in history. I will ask about that. And it’s just refreshing to talk to somebody who thinks about content, similarly to me, personally, but similarly to people who actually want to watch it. And I feel like weirdly you don’t see that a whole lot within areas where things trend very quickly, like in sports betting over the last year or two as states have brought it on.
(02:00):
We’re going to talk about all this, we’re going to talk about those definitions of those two F words, future and fandom. We’re going to begin with the move to PointsBet, because you had a pretty sweet deal there for a little while as the first employee to Cheddar, who just blew up business media. I’m sure they have you to thank. What about sports betting, PointsBet, the potential disruption you saw there made you jump when you jumped?
Liam Roecklein (02:26):
Well, what I would say is I wasn’t the first employee of Cheddar, but I was the first content hire. And I was there as the first executive producer, which might as well meant nothing, because there was one of us, so I was doing everything in the content creation. And left six years later as the SVP and GM. And the reason I made the move to PointsBet, is because, like you said at the top of this discussion, I’m tracking the user behaviors. And I’m looking for disruption within the media industry.
(02:54):
And when I look at sports media, I think there’s an unrecognized explosion in growth, in fantasy and sports gambling. And I think you see it everywhere now, it’s going to be even bigger, a 100, a 1,000 X bigger. And I think the content that’s being created for gambling around sports, along with fantasy content, which is related to props, et cetera as well, it’s just not great yet. And I think if there’s a leader and a winner in that space, they will dominate the next 10 years as this adoption happens nationally, with more and more legalization across states. And I’m just really excited to be a part of this.
(03:32):
My background has been in digital and OTT media my entire career. One of my early jobs was with Time Inc and Sports Illustrated and GOLF Magazine. I’ve always been a sports fan. I was a two sport college athlete myself. So this is a little bit of a return for myself, personally, but the reasoning for it is the behavior. I’ve been tracking the data. I see what the consumer demands, and I don’t think it’s being done well yet. I think we can provide it to our customer at PointsBet as we build this content strategy going forward.
Adam Conner (03:59):
So you saw some of this sports betting content, not to call out anybody particular, but what’s the trope in terms of type of content that you sit back and you think, “Really?” That caused this push? Is it just content that’s made with the old style gambler in mind sitting at the horse track? Or is it just this overly broad fan polarization type of deal? What about this content made you sit back and think, “I can do better than this?”
“Well, when I look at the content ecosystem for gambling, it really is dominated by the two extremes. So you have the VSINs of the world, which is an OTT platform that is focused on what I would describe as a historic better. They feel like old men in smoky rooms, in Vegas casinos, talking about lines in an antiquated fashion. And then you have the BR Betting and the Barstool Sports of the world, where it feels like very young, 22-year-old, five leg parlays, it is more viral short form, but there’s nothing in the middle. And that is where we see value.”
— Liam Roecklein (4:27)
(05:02):
I think that’s where most advertisers, most companies see value in that 30 to 50-year-old demographic, where there’s a maturity an interest, people searching for news and information. And what our content strategy will do is bring that news and information, data and analysis to our consumer who demands it. They are watching the games through that lens. Yet, right now it’s being seen immaturely, from a very hyper viral standpoint on social media from the companies that are building with that strategy, and then from an old school matter, which feels like Las Vegas casinos, and it kind of loses the main demographic.
(05:40):
So for us, we think there’s a massive opportunity right in the middle, providing news and information, bringing data and analysis, using the different content acquisition platforms and distribution platforms that are most relevant today, so that is social media, organic search, which is mostly dominated by Google, and then email newsletters. So we’re really looking for that more mature better in the middle of those two extremes.
Adam Conner (06:06):
It’s funny on this show we’ve spoken across many industries, but that finding the middle between those two ends of any spectrum has often been the key in disrupting within that, or maybe even just producing for the first time, where not much has been made to specialize. I think about within, well, the financial world, the difference between your old style just maxed out your 401(k), you moron, and the 18-year-old meme stock, which might be today’s Parlay Piranha. Finding something in the middle, which we’ve tried to cover on this show, has been a specialty for folks.
(06:38):
To bring that to sports betting, I agree, you’re not looking for the 18-year-old necessarily. You’re not looking for the old guy in the smoky casino. You’re looking for a better named Billy. Who’s Billy by the way? Can you tell us about this?
Liam Roecklein (06:51):
So Billy is just a cohort, it’s honestly just an internal metric that we use, and we’re trying to attract a traditionally 30 to 45-year-old consumer, who is going to be betting often on our platform. And really it’s a departure from our competitors, who traditionally have gone for mass consumption. We really just want to delight our customers and when we think about Billy, we think about the sports gambler who really just enjoys the experience. It is our job to provide them with the best product experience, with the best lines, the best sports book experience, and also the best content experience.
(07:29):
And we have just come up with this cohort, and our absolute goal is to delight Billy. We do not look at it through the traditional metrics, and a lot of the content we’ll be providing will be making content for Billy. And what that means is we’ll provide him with the news and information so that he is informed to make his bets.
(07:47):
We will have fun and interesting content that will entertain Billy, and we will also be participating during the live events themselves. Those being the sporting events, so that we are there with live opportunities for Billy as he’s consuming on the television, but also dominating the second screen experience. So he’s on, likely, his, but also her phone, sharing memes, sharing betting opportunities. We want to be participatory in that experience and recognize that that is where the consumer is living. They are as much on their phone while watching a game as they are dedicated to the game.
(08:21):
And I think that’s a dramatic departure that is still not recognized, and is a white space for content creators and different operators. Our strategy will be to focus on that second screen experience to make sure that we are in the conversation that they are having with their group. And that all those groups are Billys, they’re focused on winning at sports gambling, and we’re going to provide that information for them.
Adam Conner (08:44):
So to specialize in content, to make the most entertaining thing possible. As the head of content, you’re sort of the Tarantino of your group, and you’re looking to “Thrill Bill.” Winning on social, then, becomes focusing on that entertaining content, rather than maybe what I’ve seen broadly within sports betting over the last year or two, which have been commercials which start with an offer, join us, become a customer with us. Very acquisition focused, rather than necessarily something, which I don’t know if it’s bringing awareness, but it’s just, well, as you said, delighting.
(09:23):
You and I think agree that winning on social is much better to do through that entertainment medium than by focusing on acquisition first. But I want to know why you believe that within gaming broadly that strategy gets disregarded.
Liam Roecklein (09:39):
Well, I can’t speak for my competitor’s strategy, and what I would say is I can talk for PointsBet. We feel that there’s an opportunity to delight our customers with a top tier product experience along with a top tier content experience. And even our new advertising campaign called Sanctuary features a Billy on his throne in the bathroom, placing bets where he can find a few minutes of silence and of peace, and can do what he believes is fun and entertaining and participatory.
“…for us on the content team, it is our job to recognize that life is hectic, life is stressful for the customers and the segment that we talked about at the top of this call, they’re often busy, they have young families, they have stressful jobs, sports gambling is a relief. It is fun. It is entertainment. But at the same time they want to be informed about those behaviors and those bets they will be placing.”
— Liam Roecklein (10:10)
(10:35):
And it is our role on the content team to do two things, to provide them that news and information, so that they feel informed, so that they’re able to place their bets on either side of the equation and that they are confident that they have done their homework. Which they’re looking for, especially within that middle of the road demographically outlined. And then also for them to have some fun, and to recognize that this is a fun behavior that happens within groups of individuals. To brag a little bit to their friends when they win and then to feel it when they lose, obviously, responsibly.
(11:06):
But I think that’s all of part of what is driving the user behavior we talked at the top, too, is that the experience of consuming sports as a fan is being driven by these fantasy behaviors, along with these gambling behaviors as opposed to just the sporting conversation. And if you look at what is being shared, and we see some of this data now, the gambling conversation is replacing the sporting conversation, in terms of priority, when it comes to the events of a football matchup or a basketball game, et cetera.
Adam Conner (11:35):
So in creating this super entertaining content you can enjoy from any throne of your choosing, at the same time you’re maybe helping Bill get paid a little bit, but you also got bills to pay. Can you talk a little bit about being a revenue-driven content producer within the lens of seeking to entertain and thrill first?
Liam Roecklein (11:54):
Yeah, I mean first and foremost, I think our job is to be authentic to our customer. That is content’s functionality within the business. And I recognize that this is a business, but we truly feel as a company, at PointsBet, that if we provide authentic news and information to the customer, we’re going to do fine, ultimately. And actually our strategy, and maybe you’ve heard about this from other guests on your show, is much more about customer-driven capitalism versus profit-driven capitalism, it’s net promoter score. And we are even grading ourselves on how delighted is Billy versus how much profit can we extract from our customers?
(12:37):
And we found that the most profitable companies, Apple, Amazon, Discover, et cetera, have shifted to this metric. And we really are wholeheartedly diving into, how can we make the best possible experience? And I think on the content team, we really want to make sure that the betters within the 12 states were present. And Louisiana just came online, we’re very excited to be in Louisiana this past week. We want to make sure that they have all they need to participate on our platforms, that they have the information, and that when they get to our platforms, our product is best in class.
(13:11):
And if they feel that way, they’re going to be an evangelist for the company, because they’re going to tell their friends within their groups, “Hey, I had a much better experience at PointsBet. I think you should check this out.” And I think if we do that, it’s kind of like the score will take care of itself. Like the old Bill Walsh metaphor, if we do the little things, if we’re making sure at every step the customer feels like they are listened to, that they have everything they need, not only to function, but also because they’re delighted to just participate, we’re sure that they’ll come and that they will share with their friends
Adam Conner (13:43):
Being where the consumers is, is something I admittedly have heard a lot more rather than the first part of the answer, so I’m glad that you gave me the full spectrum there. And, yeah, Louisiana natives and residents, you got a better book coming to the bayou soon.
(13:57):
Now, I want to switch gears a little bit, because I haven’t been as deeply involved in sports gambling from a customer point of view. In fact, well, I’m guessing the majority of the US really hasn’t, because it’s not there yet in this sense. But something that maybe follows the old gambler smoking in the casino is another stereotype that I’m hoping we can dispel here or at least that you try to dispel as you create content for PointsBet. Which is that, “Well, this is really just a casino, the book is against me, they’re trying to get as much money from me and I’m never going to win.” How do you avoid falling into those, I guess, like negative reinforcement loops and biases as you cultivate fans? My guess is the answer here is going to be in the content, but I have to ask.
“Well, what I would say is that dichotomy I think is toxic, and really what we want to do at PointsBet is to authentically engage with our customers and fans. And whether that’s a traditional content audience, we don’t have all the answers, but we’re going to the best of our ability to provide the latest stats, information, original insights, original reporting that will give our customer and our audience and edge, we hope. And then even we want to make sure that we have best in class pricing. So we’re going to be minus 107, we’re going to commit to being better than all of our competitors in the space when it comes to pricing. And when we’re distributing that from a content perspective, we are outlining on social media our pricing versus the competitors.”
— Liam Roecklein (14:44)
(15:27):
We also have done different promotions. So we’ve had relief on MVP bets for example. So we had a promotion where Russell Wilson, those MVP bets, the betters who bet on Russell Wilson, and hee performed so poorly through the first two weeks, we forgave all those bets, and re-credited those accounts. So, for us, it’s not always about beating the individual as a better, in all regards, we want to make sure they’re enjoying the experience, that they’re being entertained. And we’re going to take different tactics, whether it’s through content, product, pricing, and even forgiveness to make sure that we are delighting our customer. To keep saying it again and again, we need to delight the customer.
Adam Conner (16:06):
Yeah, that’s rare too. I mean that’s not something that I would’ve thought that any sports gambling company would do. A nice gesture, of course. It’s tough if you’re a Denver fan, but that’s the point, maybe you got help. And it’s that kind of thing, whether it be in the content or the promotional or the forgiveness aspect of some of these things, if you know are on the wrong side early, that’s how I would think you grow some of those people who are just interested in the content to consumers, fans, to diehards. And that is what any brand wants. I don’t care what industry you’re in, you’re looking for those diehards.
(16:39):
So not on the exact same note as the last question, but I have to also ask, as you cultivate fans that become diehards, are there lessons that you’ve learned or principles that you keep in mind as you do that, within an inherently addictive industry? Because it’s great if somebody’s just consuming the content and being responsible with it, but you can’t possibly control what they’re going to do after that. So I’m curious how you think about that from the producer standpoint.
Liam Roecklein (17:08):
Well, what I would say is, first and foremost, content’s role is to create that authentic experience. And if we’re doing it right, you’re right, we want out of our million total followers, once we get there to have 10,000 diehards. But I also want to say that to your point on gambling, we want to do it responsibly. And what I’m so excited about joining PointsBet is that since the advent of PASPA and the legalization first in New Jersey and now in the 12 states we’re in, but will continue to be adopted in the next three to five years across the United States, is that we have the tools on our platform to reach out.
(17:47):
We are actively tracking customers who may display problematic behaviors, and we will have them limited to avoid problems. We also have support hotlines that we can direct customers to. So I think versus where the industry was prior to the legalization of gambling, the behavior was happening, I think we’re in a much better place. And I think content’s role is, yes, to grow the biggest total audience, to have those diehards consuming our content, but to encourage at all points responsible gambling, because that is first and foremost in our industry.
Adam Conner (18:21):
Yes, it’s good that you’re a steward of that and I think that, well, I think they’ll have to, but every sort of gaming partner that’s legalized in the US will have to maybe meet your standards on that, always be the best there. And I’m just thinking about, even in the past couple of weeks, listeners, we’re recording this in very, very late September, with the pressures among the creator community and the gaming community where platforms like Twitch have just banned streams that will use services that aren’t at least regulated in America, maybe not even legal in America, gambling, because they recognize that potentially toxic cycle in an inherently addictive industry.
(18:58):
It’s great that you have, whether it’s automated or harshly regulated guidelines in place to weed that out. Because, like you said, you want to build responsible, diehard fans. People who are thinking clearly about it. When Billy thinks clearly, everybody wins.
(19:14):
Now let’s go back to being where the consumer is, because I love talking about this topic with people. You have several different acquisition platforms across PointsBet’s content ecosystem. Within each of those different places, each of those thrones, let’s say, where Billy is, how do you tailor experiences across to ensure that they are seeing something new and different and specific every single time they interact with one of your individual properties?
“Well, what I would say is, first you have to recognize the user behavior. And what I would say is traditionally media companies have tried to apply a one size fits all content strategy to diverse distribution platforms. And even within the three distribution networks that I just outlined, organic social media, organic search, email, newsletters, and really we are talking about organic here, there are a lot of different tactics and subtactics that we will employ.”
— Liam Roecklein (19:40)
(20:07):
So first and foremost, we are debuting a brand new studio in lower Manhattan called the PointsBet Studio, where we will record linear shows. But the purpose of those linear shows, as much as I love the linear shows, and they’re going to be distributed on OTT or digital platforms, maybe even eventually on networks, and also wherever podcasts are consumed from an audio only perspective, the real goal of those shows are to reverse engineer different clips.
(20:34):
And what I mean by that are 45 to 60 second clips that we can prioritize on social media. And we will cut that with subtitles in vertical format, really in different frames with different markets that they’re discussing within that to ease the user experience across the platforms. And they will have different cuts for whether it’s Instagram or TikTok or Twitter or YouTube. We have to be very specific to the platform, and employ different strategies and tactics to ensure that they are optimized for consumption on those platforms.
(21:06):
When it comes to search, we’ve debuted a new blog for hustle.pointset.com. The Hustle is our brand new text based consumption acquisition channel, and really our editorial publication, it is a newsletter that we’ve partnered with Front Office Sports that is written three times a week right now, but will be expanding to five times a week. That will hit inboxes, where people read their information right around the time they’re thinking about gambling on games.
(21:32):
So right now we’re on Sunday, in the early mornings, before the full slate of football, and Monday, right after, recapping and pushing towards Monday Night Football, and then on Thursday as well. There will be more articles, original reporting as well going to digital. But, for us, it’s about recognizing the behaviors. Individuals who are interested in this space are constantly on social media, and when they’re on social media and they’re interested in a game, they’re using Google to look up information around those games and opportunities to bet on markets.
(22:01):
And they’re constantly, just because of the Billy cohort we talked about, on email, likely for work, but also for pleasure and for community. And using those email platforms and recognizing that these are the acquisition channels that are most relevant is a white space I believe. I think a lot of our competitors are focused on more traditional media acquisition channels like linear television or radio or out of home, where for us we really want to pivot towards where is the behavior, the consumption behavior happening? And how do we provide the best possible experience on those individual distribution platforms, with the tactics I outlined?
(22:36):
You need to make sure you’re optimized and you need to make sure that you’re delighting your customer just from a distribution standpoint, too. Because if you put up any barrier, if it becomes difficult, even a little bit, they will choose to go elsewhere. And my goal and I really look at the future of content is easing those barriers, so that it becomes easy to either read, listen, or watch our content, and then, ultimately, make a decision and use our product
Adam Conner (23:01):
Listeners, you could take the last roughly two minutes of that explanation… First of all, roll this back two minutes and play that again to yourself, and then listen to it and ask, what industry you think that that perspective is from? Without knowing that this is sports gaming. Because let me tell you something that is so clearly different in my mind from the way that, well, just gambling in general has been approached forever. But that specific POV is the same way that education got disrupted in the digital age, that tech has been disrupted forever, that financial sector has been disrupted over the last like six, seven, eight years. This is just the model that is going to win.
(23:41):
And I’m geeking out a little bit over here, because as somebody who builds podcasts all the time, but also has these great conversations and builds almost for the short form, even though it’s in a long form shell, that funnel of engagement and consumption is going to make people like PointsBet win. And it’s what makes Liam one of the experts in his craft.
(24:02):
So I’m thrilled to have that foundation for this final question, which is focused on the future, listen to that alliteration. And I want to ask about it, because, when I think about fans of sport, so different even from where we were 10 years ago, and we’ve talked about this a little bit on the show in a couple different lenses.
(24:22):
Fans who are new are not necessarily fans of their teams where they grew up or their teams where they went to school, I mean they might be, but more so they are fans of players. And this makes for a much different fan in aggregate than somebody who is just a Pittsburgh diehard. So in your mind as a content producer and as a steward of a brand which is not only placing bets on teams, placing bets on players, how does that change your strategy, if at all, across sport to hook this maybe Billy of the future as compared to the stereotype in the smoky Casino? I’d be curious as we round out, how you think of the future in terms of the other F word, fandom?
Liam Roecklein (25:09):
Well, what I would say is, you know started this conversation by saying, why sports gambling? And I was traditionally in financial news, at least in the last six years, even prior to that, when I was with Time Inc, I worked agnostically with content. I worked with Time Magazine and Fortune, Essence, People en Español, I even created content in Spanish. So to me the optimization we just outlined in the prior section is applicable to all the different industries you were touching on, education or gaming, et cetera.
(25:37):
The reason why, just answer your exact question, I came to this industry is because I’m following that user behavior, that fandom behavior that you just outlined, which is with Gen Z, and the even more so with Gen Alpha, which is, obviously, almost in its infancy right now, the next generation coming up behind it. I was the individual, I’m in my mid-30s, who watched six hours straight of SportsCenter, who was a diehard, I’m from the New York area, Yankee fan, and checks the box scores in The Daily News every day.
(26:05):
That behavior is not happening. And we are seeing, through data, a shift in individual fandom, especially with the younger demographics towards individuals. And you could see this on social media, whether you’re a Cristiano Ronaldo fan or you are a LeBron James fan, or to your point on Twitch, you’re a streamer fan as well of your favorite gaming platform. And there’s so many of them, I won’t even name them, because it’s so niche to that specific, whether it’s Call of Duty or FIFA, et cetera. It’s so niche to those individual games.
“I think the future of sports consumption is gambling in fantasy, because when you’re no longer interested in the team, for the team’s sake, I want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers win on Sunday, you are more interested in the games, because they are interesting and they are participatory. I need Juju Smith-Schuster, former Steeler, now the Chiefs, to hit on his yards. I am very invested in watching this game to win my fantasy matchup. I am very invested, even to use that exact example, to see him go over 65 yards as a prop bet this weekend. And that behavior will exist.”
— Liam Roecklein (26:37)
(27:12):
Where watching the games to see if the Pittsburgh Steelers win the AFC North or are positioning themselves to get in the playoffs, is less relevant. I also think you talked about from a strategy perspective, I think it’s actually made the league more popular in the fact that more parity exists, there’s less relevance in terms of dominant teams. You used to see the Cowboys dominate for years on end. We do not see that happening anymore. And I think that’s because of a lot of the measures the NFL and the league itself has taken. But it also is better for the league from a media consumption and the gambling and fantasy behaviors we saw, because it makes it more of a global and domestic phenomenon.
(27:50):
So if I’m in Pittsburgh, I care as much about the Los Angeles Chargers game or the Kansas City Chiefs game because it is equally interesting to me as the Steelers’ game. So from a content strategy perspective, I think we become less localized. We’ve become more national, and we’ve even seen that adoption when we talk about sports gambling on European soccer or different types of match-ups that we’ve seen boom in popularity in this country, in the United States most recently.
(28:16):
So I just am following the user behaviors to wrap this up. And there are not a lot of new fans of teams being born. Of course, they exist and they will continue to persist, but there are much more Aaron Judge fans than there are Yankee fans. And I think if we follow that behavior, if we program to that behavior, we’ll win with media now and in the future.
Adam Conner (28:37):
Agreed. As somebody who is 30, grew up with the SportsCenter bingeing as well, even the new sports that I’ve picked up and watching, since four, five, six years ago, those are sports in which I have immediately gone player first, not teams. Sure, I’m Baltimore born and bred, kind of weird being in Pittsburgh, but I’m an Orioles and Ravens diehard guy. I’ll follow those people forever. But in 2010, I watched soccer for the first time, and I got into it, because I was a big fan of Fernando Torres as the player, not Liverpool, FC at the time. I became a fan of the team, but that was much later.
(29:11):
I’ve been a lifelong Motorsport fan, of NASCAR specifically. And these days it’s just about individual personalities, drivers, not necessarily the team for which they drive. If I were a fan of golf, I don’t know too much about golf, but if I did, I know enough to know that I’d suck on my golf course, but other than that, if I were a fan of an individual golfer, I’d be a fan of the golfer, not the country for whom they play, not the tour on which they play.
(29:34):
So I see that perfectly and now that you say it, yeah, you’re just following the behavior. It’s not that hard folks, just look at what maybe Gen Z, Gen Alpha, look at what you’ve done over the last three or four years, and then build for that.
(29:47):
Liam, I’m thrilled to have learned so much from you here, and I’m just, again, refreshing to talk to somebody on the content side of the game who thinks about this in a similar way to the way I do. I’m glad you are shaking it up in sports gambling. Maybe you don’t wish it, but I wish there were three more you to disrupt other boring industries, because we need more people like that thinking forward.
(30:09):
Thanks for talking about the Future of Fandom with us. And hey, if you’re in one of these 12 states that has it now, folks, you might want to consider PointsBet for your premium content and gambling experience. This is all been an ad! No. Anyway, I’m thrilled that you’ve been here. Thanks so much for joining us.
Liam Roecklein (30:25):
Adam, thank you so much for having me.
Adam Conner (30:29):
Take it from someone who works in content production every single day and has interviewed hundreds of brand leaders on how to do it right, Liam knows his stuff. If PointsBet ends up being the foremost content fixture in sports gambling over the coming years, color me unsurprised. Thanks very much to Liam Roecklein for joining us, and thanks to you, the listener, for exploring the Future of Fandom today.
(30:54):
I’d encourage you to stay connected, so you can do this, livelike.com/podcast, go visit that, you can listen to all of our shows. You can also read along, view clips, things like that. And of course we are across social media too, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter, LinkedIn at LiveLike and Twitter @LiveLikeInc. I look forward to predicting the future again with you real soon. And until then, I’m Adam Conner saying so long and thanks for being a fan.
Integrating new technologies into existing ecosystems can be a pain—but it doesn’t have to be. We have ensured that the LiveLike suite can be easily implemented and is accessible for any type of user or use case, from an individual non-coder to a team of experienced developers. In this blog, we are taking a deep dive into why easy integration is so crucial for the success of your platform, and why it was such a major priority when building the LiveLike product.
1. One Product, 3 Types of Integration
At LiveLike, we are always looking for ways to make our customers’ lives easier; and as a part of this goal, we made sure to create a product that is highly flexible and responsive in terms of integration. When implementing our product, our customers have the freedom to choose from three different integration types:
- Embed Codes: Copy and paste HTML5 integrations for websites
- SDKs: Embed customizable functionality into apps and websites
- APIs: Server-side integrations and automation
Each of these methods have their own unique benefits and disadvantages. The most advanced way to integrate our Audience Engagement Suite is through APIs. Though requiring more advanced coding skills and slightly more time, this method allows customers to create a fully customized and bespoke experience for their end-users.
If clients are looking to spend less time on implementation and desire a faster approach, they have the option of using our SDK, which is available on iOS, Android, and the Web. This enables them to use our core feature without any issues, although they may be left wanting more in terms of customization.
Finally, the easiest way to implement our solution is by using Embed Codes. This method only works for Web implementation but is highly efficient for specific use cases. Check out this video showcase for our Embed Code Publishing process:
Of course, these three methods can also coexist, meaning our clients aren’t limited to just one approach when integrating our technology into their existing ecosystems.
Why Does It Matter?
Having a variety of options for product integration is a huge advantage because it widens the realm of possibilities for clients regarding resource allocation, roadmaps, task priorities, and execution time. If our clients have multiple projects working simultaneously, they can rest assured knowing LiveLike’s three integration solutions ensures they aren’t stuck with only one way to manage them.
2. Obtaining Quick Wins
When integrating the LiveLike solution, our clients benefit from the ability to realize several wins very early on in the implementation process. As an example, editorial activations can be done in just a couple of minutes with the use of Embed Codes. Similarly, clients can start the SDK initialization process as well as some basic UI in only a few days’ time.
While it can often take time to see results with product integrations, we think it is mandatory to guarantee some kind of tangible positive outcome in the early stages of the implementation.
Why Does It Matter?
Quick wins provide project momentum because they drive value at the early stages of the integration. They give team members confidence in the work they are doing as they can see the progress they are making.
3. Iterative Integration Strategy
We provide our clients with an ever evolving set of tools, and each of these tools can be used separately so that they can integrate one thing at a time. Using LiveLike, customers are able to experiment and discover what works for them and what their priorities are. What’s more, as we continue to add new features to our suite, our clients can add them to their apps without modifying any of the work they previously did.
Why Does It Matter?
Deciding to integrate LiveLike doesn’t mean having to use 100% of our solution or nothing. As even just the first few steps of implementation can result in significant progress, customers can integrate step by step as they navigate the process and grow or evolve their ecosystem. On top of that, if clients decide to change their strategy, they can be assured that all the work they have done beforehand will not be lost, but instead can be altered and added to.
4. A Global Off-the-Shelf Loyalty Solution
With all the different behaviors, scenarios, and personas that exist within an audience, it is often very complicated to set up a community loyalty strategy that adheres to your specific customer base.
At LiveLike, we make this process easy and scalable through our wide range of reward integration possibilities. Every API is built and available for any use case or ecosystem, from earning points to rewarding users based on specific behaviors.
For example, you may start with the simplest low-code rewards program solution, giving points to your users for widget interactions that are automatically tracked on a leaderboard. If you decide you want additional loyalty solutions down the line, you may then integrate our APIs to reward your users with points, badges, and/or NFTs based on completing specific behaviors such as making a purchase, spending a certain amount of time on the platform, logging in a certain amount of times per week, etc.
You can even transform our LiveLike Points feature by creating Virtual Currencies to let users purchase exclusive and premium experiences on your platforms.
Why Does It Matter?
While implementing strong loyalty rewards programs can take a lot of development effort, our fan engagement suite allows you to do all of it from one single place. In addition, the diversity of our loyalty features and the flexibility of how you can integrate them allows you to adjust your goals and experiment with what works best for your community.
5. A Powerful CMS
Finally, our engagement suite and interactive features derive solely and directly from our CMS. Once you have integrated LiveLike and the solution is up and running, there is nothing left to change, implement or navigate: You can create, modify, and delete your different interactive experiences all from the CMS. What’s more, the CMS can be used manually at first, but once you have settled on your workflows, they can be automated via the APIs, making the overall process even more seamless and hands-off.
Why Does It Matter?
A powerful and robust CMS is key to avoiding the need for additional development efforts after the solution has been implemented. Our CMS allows our clients to work more efficiently and streamline their workflows, which we believe is a mandatory step to allowing them to prioritize other crucial tasks at hand.
In addition to being highly navigable and user-friendly, our solution is also extremely easy to integrate. When developing our product, we made sure to do it in a way that would benefit as many organizations as possible, with different methods of integration (Embed Code, SDK, or API) to eliminate any barriers to success.
With the LiveLike Audience Engagement Suite, our objective is clear: We want to take interactivity and loyalty to the next level. We want companies to create deeper relationships with their clients, consumers, and fans, and build strong communities that can stand the test of time. We want the brands that work with us to create new, unique experiences by putting their communities at the center of it.
If you want to learn more about the different ways to integrate our solution within your ecosystem, you can check out our comprehensive integration guides featured on our LiveLike Developer Hub. We update this hub regularly so our customers have all the information they need to integrate our solution with ease. For more assistance, we also have a support team on hand that can guide you through the various stages of implementation.
Still not sure if our engagement suite is right for your business platform? Get in touch today to learn more about how gamification can enhance your user experience.
Integrating new technologies into existing ecosystems can be a pain—but it doesn’t have to be. We have ensured that the LiveLike suite can be easily implemented and is accessible for any type of user or use case, from an individual non-coder to a team of experienced developers. In this blog, we are taking a deep dive into why easy integration is so crucial for the success of your platform, and why it was such a major priority when building the LiveLike product.
1. One Product, 3 Types of Integration
At LiveLike, we are always looking for ways to make our customers’ lives easier; and as a part of this goal, we made sure to create a product that is highly flexible and responsive in terms of integration. When implementing our product, our customers have the freedom to choose from three different integration types:
- Embed Codes: Copy and paste HTML5 integrations for websites
- SDKs: Embed customizable functionality into apps and websites
- APIs: Server-side integrations and automation
Each of these methods have their own unique benefits and disadvantages. The most advanced way to integrate our Audience Engagement Suite is through APIs. Though requiring more advanced coding skills and slightly more time, this method allows customers to create a fully customized and bespoke experience for their end-users.
If clients are looking to spend less time on implementation and desire a faster approach, they have the option of using our SDK, which is available on iOS, Android, and the Web. This enables them to use our core feature without any issues, although they may be left wanting more in terms of customization.
Finally, the easiest way to implement our solution is by using Embed Codes. This method only works for Web implementation but is highly efficient for specific use cases. Check out this video showcase for our Embed Code Publishing process:
Of course, these three methods can also coexist, meaning our clients aren’t limited to just one approach when integrating our technology into their existing ecosystems.
Why Does It Matter?
Having a variety of options for product integration is a huge advantage because it widens the realm of possibilities for clients regarding resource allocation, roadmaps, task priorities, and execution time. If our clients have multiple projects working simultaneously, they can rest assured knowing LiveLike’s three integration solutions ensures they aren’t stuck with only one way to manage them.
2. Obtaining Quick Wins
When integrating the LiveLike solution, our clients benefit from the ability to realize several wins very early on in the implementation process. As an example, editorial activations can be done in just a couple of minutes with the use of Embed Codes. Similarly, clients can start the SDK initialization process as well as some basic UI in only a few days’ time.
While it can often take time to see results with product integrations, we think it is mandatory to guarantee some kind of tangible positive outcome in the early stages of the implementation.
Why Does It Matter?
Quick wins provide project momentum because they drive value at the early stages of the integration. They give team members confidence in the work they are doing as they can see the progress they are making.
3. Iterative Integration Strategy
We provide our clients with an ever evolving set of tools, and each of these tools can be used separately so that they can integrate one thing at a time. Using LiveLike, customers are able to experiment and discover what works for them and what their priorities are. What’s more, as we continue to add new features to our suite, our clients can add them to their apps without modifying any of the work they previously did.
Why Does It Matter?
Deciding to integrate LiveLike doesn’t mean having to use 100% of our solution or nothing. As even just the first few steps of implementation can result in significant progress, customers can integrate step by step as they navigate the process and grow or evolve their ecosystem. On top of that, if clients decide to change their strategy, they can be assured that all the work they have done beforehand will not be lost, but instead can be altered and added to.
4. A Global Off-the-Shelf Loyalty Solution
With all the different behaviors, scenarios, and personas that exist within an audience, it is often very complicated to set up a community loyalty strategy that adheres to your specific customer base.
At LiveLike, we make this process easy and scalable through our wide range of reward integration possibilities. Every API is built and available for any use case or ecosystem, from earning points to rewarding users based on specific behaviors.
For example, you may start with the simplest low-code rewards program solution, giving points to your users for widget interactions that are automatically tracked on a leaderboard. If you decide you want additional loyalty solutions down the line, you may then integrate our APIs to reward your users with points, badges, and/or NFTs based on completing specific behaviors such as making a purchase, spending a certain amount of time on the platform, logging in a certain amount of times per week, etc.
You can even transform our LiveLike Points feature by creating Virtual Currencies to let users purchase exclusive and premium experiences on your platforms.
Why Does It Matter?
While implementing strong loyalty rewards programs can take a lot of development effort, our fan engagement suite allows you to do all of it from one single place. In addition, the diversity of our loyalty features and the flexibility of how you can integrate them allows you to adjust your goals and experiment with what works best for your community.
5. A Powerful CMS
Finally, our engagement suite and interactive features derive solely and directly from our CMS. Once you have integrated LiveLike and the solution is up and running, there is nothing left to change, implement or navigate: You can create, modify, and delete your different interactive experiences all from the CMS. What’s more, the CMS can be used manually at first, but once you have settled on your workflows, they can be automated via the APIs, making the overall process even more seamless and hands-off.
Why Does It Matter?
A powerful and robust CMS is key to avoiding the need for additional development efforts after the solution has been implemented. Our CMS allows our clients to work more efficiently and streamline their workflows, which we believe is a mandatory step to allowing them to prioritize other crucial tasks at hand.
In addition to being highly navigable and user-friendly, our solution is also extremely easy to integrate. When developing our product, we made sure to do it in a way that would benefit as many organizations as possible, with different methods of integration (Embed Code, SDK, or API) to eliminate any barriers to success.
With the LiveLike Audience Engagement Suite, our objective is clear: We want to take interactivity and loyalty to the next level. We want companies to create deeper relationships with their clients, consumers, and fans, and build strong communities that can stand the test of time. We want the brands that work with us to create new, unique experiences by putting their communities at the center of it.
If you want to learn more about the different ways to integrate our solution within your ecosystem, you can check out our comprehensive integration guides featured on our LiveLike Developer Hub. We update this hub regularly so our customers have all the information they need to integrate our solution with ease. For more assistance, we also have a support team on hand that can guide you through the various stages of implementation.
Still not sure if our engagement suite is right for your business platform? Get in touch today to learn more about how gamification can enhance your user experience.
This week on the Get to Know LiveLike series, we’re excited to introduce you to iOS Developer Ljupcho Nastevski.
We’re proud to have someone like Ljupcho on our team, and excited to give you a chance to hear about his unexpected career path, his secret ingredient for making magnificent code, and so much more.
Tell us a little bit about your career path. How did you get into iOS development?
It was completely random! I was always interested in problem solving and learning more about CPP (a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language), but I had no idea how to start my career—I just knew that those two things needed to be involved somehow. Then, I remember seeing an ad about an internship in Objective-C (another object-oriented language derived from C). Until that moment, I had never done any mobile programming, and ObjC was so foreign to me, but I simply knew I had to go for it.
I guess I was just lucky because what started as a quick decision ended up leading me down a career path that continues to be challenging and interesting.
Can you describe what an iOS Developer does and what your typical workday looks like?
Input: Coffee
Output: Magnificent Code
Did you always want to work in a developer role?
Not at all! To be honest, if you had asked me what I wanted to be before starting college, I don’t believe I would have said developer, but I’m happy it turned out the way it did.
What have you learned about LiveLike (as both a business and a team) since you joined?
A lot! While being part of the LiveLike team, I’ve met some amazing people that ask the right questions, and make thorough, well-thought-out decisions. So I would say that I’ve learned that there is no such thing as over communicating or over iterating. Also being open and transparent and having a clear vision for the future really helps developers make better engineering decisions.
Is there anything else you’d want to share with aspiring developers?
Some things just take time. A big part of developing is not just learning processes by memorizing them, but by properly understanding the steps, and dissecting them to the smallest components. By truly understanding how something works, you can manipulate it to your advantage.
Thank you, Ljupcho!
September has officially begun, which means we have an exciting roundup of August updates to share with you! We are pleased to announce that we have made some great new changes to the CMS, integrated our solution within one of the AWS products, and more. So, let’s get into it!
Expanded Reaction Capabilities
What users can react to on your platform shouldn’t be limited! Previously, reactions were only available to use within a chat—users could react to any individual chat message sent—now, users can use reactions anywhere. With this latest update, our clients can now provide access for their fans to react to anything on their platform, whether it’s a sentence in a blog post, a moment in a live game, or even the appearance of a team player.
LiveLike x Amazon IVS
As part of the AWS Partner Network (APN), LiveLike solutions can now be easily layered with Amazon Interactive Video Services (Amazon IVS), providing customers with more options to build and interact with audiences via live video.
Requirements:
- A LiveLike account
- A LikeLike application that can be created through the [LiveLike Producer Suite]
- A LiveLike Client ID
- An AWS account to use AWS IVS
- A stream URL to load videos
Check out the full steps below to integrate the LiveLike SDK with Amazon IVS, as part of your interactive application.
Access Reward Transaction History
The LiveLike audience engagement suite allows you to reward your users for their loyalty and interaction with your platform. With this new update, you will be able to generate a reward transaction history. This history provides a data feed of each instance of a user earning rewards. It can be filtered by profile, reward items, reward actions, widgets, and dates. It can also be integrated on your platform so that users can review their activity and understand their rewards balances.
If you want to learn more about LiveLike and what we are doing, feel free to contact us here. We would be delighted to learn more about your needs and expectations!
If there’s one thing people love to do, it’s chat. Whether it’s about themselves, their passions, or their opinions, it’s a part of human nature to want to socialize to connect with others, enjoy communal moments, and create and manage our personal reputations.
Conversing with others is a considerable part of our everyday lives, and since being able to do it online, it has only accelerated: Messenger has almost 1 billion monthly active users (source), more than 100B messages were sent each day on WhatsApp in 2020 (source), and the most popular category on Twitch is “Just Chatting” (source). The more people are connected to others and can chat—even virtually—the more they feel they are part of a greater community.
With all this in mind, we have always made sure to prioritize powering three different types of live chats that allow users to connect effectively in real time. In this product feature, we’re focusing on the most commonly used of our three chat types: Public Live Chat.
Introducing Public Live Chat
In order to empower positive social experiences among your platform users, we have developed a feature that enables engaging, easy-to-use and easy-to-monitor real-time public discussion.
With our public chat feature, your users get to engage in live conversation with other fans of your platform who likely share the same interests, passions, goals, or opinions, all without needing to know each other beforehand. Our public chat feature has the ability to bring together thousands of people simultaneously to interact on your platform, and discuss your live events or product offering in real time. It is an amazing tool to engage people, empower a community and incentivize users to return to your platform more frequently.
Main Features:
Our Audience Engagement Suite provides you with Chat UI and APIs to create a fully customized public chat experience that is tailored to your brand and your users. The supported features of the chat system include In-App Notifications, Room Member Lists, Avatars, Stickers, Reactions, Spoiler Prevention, the ability to report offensive messages, and of course, Moderation Tools.
When creating a chat room, you will get access to all the basic information you need in order for it to run smoothly: Room ID, Room Title, and Visibility (whether or not you want your chat to appear for members only or for all site visitors). The chat UI elements, including input windows, chat body, and chat bubbles, can be customized per your design guidelines.
Public Chat & Reactions:
The only thing that comes more naturally to us than talking to one another is reacting to the things other people say; and so of course, we had to make sure reacting to messages was an option in the digital world as well.
Whether your users disagree or are perfectly aligned with what someone else has said in a public live chat, our chat capabilities allow them to express their feelings and react with relevant emojis. The reactions you allow your fans to choose from are grouped into “Reaction Packs” and can be uploaded to your producer suite. Each reaction pack can contain up to four reactions.
Reaction packs can be customized based on your brand guidelines or on those of your partners if you wish to activate your partnership through our Chat feature.
Public Chat & Stickers
Have you heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words? Sometimes, an image is the only way to truly and accurately express a person’s feelings, evoke an emotion, or get a message across. Using our chat feature, your audience will be able to interact with chats not only by sending text messages but also by sending visual stickers (images, GIFs, etc.). This simple yet powerful feature works to drive engagement and draws in users to make them even more inclined and excited to chat with other fans. This holds especially true when the stickers fans have the option of using are relevant to the platform, typical user discussion topics, or the feelings they are likely looking to express during a live event. For example, users of a sports platform chat are likely to want a sticker pack that features GIFs of their favorite teams celebrating a goal, major athletes playing on the field, or even famous moments in sports that evoke an emotion. Giving fans a selection of stickers that are funny, relevant to their niche or to your industry, or entertaining in any way, will make them more inclined to use them and in turn drive higher engagement in your chat and on your platform.
Moderation Tools
Moderation is a mandatory feature when integrating a public chat, as it allows you to control what people are saying, and avoid the use of inappropriate language, insults, and other bad behavior that might deter people from using your platform.
As a part of the LiveLike Public Chat toolkit, we have developed key solutions to help you create the safest public chat experience for your fans. Firstly, we have enabled Automatic Filtering, a feature that allows you to ensure chat messages are being automatically moderated and filtered based on their contents. Automatic filters can be set up to work in a keyword-driven way (if a message contains a word from a customized list of bad words, it will be filtered) or in an AI-driven way (if an AI model recognizes a message as being objectionable, it will be filtered).
Adding to our moderation tools, if you don’t trust machines and want to moderate your public live chats yourself, you have the ability to do so as Moderator, and can delete messages, make user reports other users to moderators, block users, or mute them.
Leveraging Public Chat to Drive Business Objectives
Not only does the Public Chat widget have the ability to draw in new users and engage your existing audience, it can also help you to meet some of your key business objectives and monetization goals.
By pairing it with the rest of our Audience Engagement Suite—including our widgets, leaderboards, and loyalty rewards programs— you’ll be able to create a complete user journey and incentivize users to spend more time on your platform and sign up for your product or service. Of course, logged-out users will get a modified UI provided by the integrators that prompt them to log in or sign up to participate.
Case Study
Many brands across the industries have successfully activated our Public Chat feature to empower their community:
- GIGSET, a music platform for artists to perform online for their fans, used our chat feature to let audience members share their love for the event with other fans during concerts.
- LaLiga used it to bring more interactivity to the watch parties they organized for their fans over the 2021 football season.
- FloSports uses our public live chat on top of their programs in their mobile applications to better engage users. 19% of unique users on the FloSports app typed at least one message and they registered a significant increase in time spent on their application.
All in all, it’s important to give your users every opportunity to voice their opinion, provide feedback on your platform experience, and engage with other members of the community.
When used effectively and paired with relevant stickers, protective moderation tools, and useful reaction packs, Public Live Chat allows you to empower social experiences, foster a sense of community, and engage users on your platform.
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