Destination BC’s plan to use the fast-growing, live-streaming app Periscope to market B.C. as a tourism destination during Women’s World Cup (WWC) games highlights the evolution of social media and how brands increasingly communicate their messages.
The provincial destination marketing organization will start using Periscope at half time starting June 12 at the WWC match between Switzerland and Ecuador and it will have similar live-streamed Periscope broadcasts at six other matches.
The video series will take viewers to various spots throughout B.C., such as Grouse Mountain, the Vancouver Aquarium and Whistler and its hosts will answer viewer questions.
The initiative highlights an evolution in how marketers are using social media to get spread clients’ content.
Vancouver social media marketers such as Patio Social Inc. managing partner Megan Halkett and Guerrilla Social Media Marketing author and lecturer Shane Gibson told Business in Vancouver that they are increasingly using Periscope and seeing clients use the live-streaming app.
Halkett, for example, used Periscope earlier this week at the Banff World Media Festival for client Cinecoup, which provides money for up and coming filmmakers. The event live-streamed five teams vying for $1 million in film-making funding.
“We’ve had live-streaming apps for quite some time but the challenge was that most were separate from any major networks,” Gibson said. “So the challenge was to figure out how to get people to your feed. The fact that Periscope is owned by Twitter (Nasdaq:TWTR) and integrates with it really well gives you a built-in network and audience if you’ve already built an audience on Twitter.”
He explained that the app works well for organizations such as the Vancouver Board of Trade (VBOT), which hosts speakers. The key is not simply to have a VBOT staff person live-stream a keynote speaker, however. Gibson said that organizations who host speakers should encourage people in the audience to also engage socially by streaming the speech. If audience members use well-used hash tags such as #FIFA, the potential for the broadcast to go viral increases, he said.
“Twitter has always been used as a back-channel for events because there’s often a conference hash tag and people use that in tweets,” Gibson said.
“Periscope is that next level of back-channel.”
