Benefits Of Live Streaming Events

In recent years, but in particular after the COVID-19 pandemic, live streaming has become a familiar and popular method of event coverage. Live streaming lets an audience watch and interact with an event in real-time, through live video feed, online chat and other interactive features.

Live streaming has been used for the likes of music, sports events, awards shows, conferences and training sessions, as well as established itself as a popular feature on apps and other social media platforms — think TikTok and Instagram Live stories. Most events can be live-streamed to a wide range of platforms, including YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter.

If you livestream an event that has both in-person and online attendees, this would make it a hybrid event that boasts its own set of benefits. Without further ado then, these are the top benefits of live streaming your event.

  1. Increase Reach & Turnout
  2. Higher Attendance Rates
  3. Better Audience Participation
  4. Real Community Feel
  5. Sponsorship & Monetization Opportunities
  6. Archived & Reusable Event Footage
  7. Improved Analytics

1. Increase Reach & Turnout

With the option to have both an in-person and online audience, you can connect with a much larger and more diverse group of people around the world. Those with geographical, financial or other access-related limitations can still consider and attend the event.

80.2% of event organizers were able to reach a wider audience with virtual events. Bizzabo, 2021.

2. Higher Attendance Rates

On the same note, the more people you can reach, the higher your attendance rates. Anyone, anywhere, on any device, can tune in. A small sports event that holds just a few hundred, can now be seen by 1000’s of interested people, for example.

Higher attendance extends to future events too; 30% of people who watch a livestream of an event will attend the same event in person the following year.

3. Better Audience Participation

With the chance to participate with just the click of a button, audience members are more inclined to participate in your event. This might be in the chat, with an interactive poll, or on social media. You can even have a social media feed on the stream to showcase audience responses in real-time. For the 18% of virtual attendees don’t want to socialize at all, there’s that option too.

To keep fans engaged, you can ask questions, or use scoreboards and custom graphics pre, during and post-event.

49% of marketers say that audience engagement is the biggest contributing factor to having a successful event. Markletic, 2022.

4. Real Community Feel

Fan engagement is crucial for community-centric events, like a sports game. With a live stream, your audience is able to engage in real-time with like-minded fans who share their experience, which can help accelerate its growth. You can also attract new fans, which creates a larger, more engaged and loyal audience.

A live stream can also further motivate and engage your in-person audience; if you’ve ever watched a sport on television, you know how fans love to express their support and passion on camera!

5. Sponsorship & Monetization Opportunities

Monetize your event and generate revenue by offering commercial opportunities pre, during and post-event. Paid advertisement or sponsorship from an organisation or business can help cover your running costs. This might be as simple as adding the sponsor’s logo to the live stream and/or online marketing materials.

Likewise, if your event has paid tickets, increased sales from increased reach = more revenue for your business.

Benefits Of Live Streaming Events

6. Archived & Reusable Event Footage

As your live stream can be recorded, you have access to a wealth of reusable event footage after its over. Upload a post-event stream for those who missed it, or edit it into shorter videos to create social media footage that keeps audiences engaged. For sports events in particular, you can capture replays from key moments of the game for post-match coverage and highlights.

Similarly, when it comes to your next event, you can use this footage to showcase what previous events had to offer, in turn encouraging more attendees.

86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Hubspot, 2022.

7. Improved Analytics

Live streaming gives you access to important analytics, such as the number of viewers and their demographic, location and view time. You can leverage this to find out what went well (or what didn’t), and use that to inform future events.

This data is much harder to gather in-person. At a football match, it would be nearly impossible to get feedback from all attendees, but a live stream allows you to do this.

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We’re Buffoon Media: a bilingual media production company based in Port Talbot and London, producing and live-streaming content across the globe. Learn more about our hybrid events and other services on our website.