Livestreaming is a small but growing part of creator culture. Much like Stories, livestreaming is a way for creators and other influential figures on social media to present content that is often less polished than photos or recorded video. Livestreams also give influencers a way to interact with their audience in real time through live chat.

The pandemic has brought an influx of new users for subscription OTT, live videos, and video games in 2020, but other activities such as social networking, mobile messaging, and digital video haven’t seen the same bump.

eMarketer principal analysts Jeremy Goldman and Jillian Ryan, along with senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Sara M. Watson, discuss what a reimagined workplace looks like, The New York Times digital transformation, what big tech can expect from the Biden Administration, whether the world is getting less colorful, podcasts as a direct line to consumers, how many people live underwater, and more.

The same audiences for live shows in the pre-pandemic world are now congregating online for virtual shows. They still like to buy artists’ merchandise, and they’re interested in the brands artists wear and consume. Viktrs is a social commerce platform that helps musical talent monetize their video content through commerce.

During a virtual event for the higher education sector, Questex had over 20,000 live attendees. “We set up 15 different chat areas where attendees could jump in and have conversations with each other. The chat was visible to everyone and took on a life of its own. There were still people in the chat talking hours after the event ended,” Spellman said.

Live Shopping. Facebook officially debuted live in-app shopping on its core platform in November, partnering with retailer Anne Klein for a series of holiday shopping livestreaming events. The launch has been a long time coming—Facebook first teased the feature during its Facebook Shop rollout in May. (In August, it also launched live shopping on Instagram.).

On today's episode, we discuss why paid newsletter subscriptions are having a moment, the competitive advantages of the biggest players, and why marketers should (or shouldn't) get involved. We then talk about HBO Max's upcoming ad-supported offering, whether Microsoft buying Discord makes sense, and the real problem with password sharing. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence Nina Goetzen.

Runner-up CIBC rose to second by offering live chat—exceptionally in demand, and offered by no other FI in the study. Key Insight: Live chat is the way to go for digital-first servicing—but six of the seven FIs still need to fill that gap. Texting with a human agent via in-app chat provides customers with immediate and flexible assistance.

That includes things like email, SMS, messaging apps, social media, live chat, branded apps, customer portals, push notifications, the point-of-sale (POS) checkout experience, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, phone support, returns, on-site experience, appointment schedulers, loyalty programs, and more.

Which channels (email, SMS, live chat, in-app, etc.) to invest in to deliver the best CX. Plus! Alex Timlin, senior vice president, verticals at Emarsys joins the conversation. Presenters. Jeremy Goldman is an eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, focusing on customer experience and brand marketing, including email and SMS marketing, personalization, omnichannel, and consumer attitudes.

As a live chat substitute: Email marketing could have been used to develop a two-way conversation between brands and audiences but didn’t. SMS is conversational and facilitates an ongoing dialog between brands and consumers.

Live means live. The nature of live video means that content cannot exactly be approved in advance or edited after the fact. For these reasons, brands are at the mercy of the talent and technology once the stream goes live. Audience interactions can be harmful. Live chats are an essential part of livestreaming.

Tan thinks we could see early use cases in high-definition, multi-angle livestreams, live event streaming, and virtual reality (VR). Some of the biggest challenges for marketers in China are rising ad prices and finding new, high-quality traffic. Tan cited GroupM China’s forecast that ad pricing would increase by 38% for social and 25% for digital video.

Insurers can offer customers self-service channels in the form of chatbots to answer simple queries—evidenced by Lemonade’s Maya—and more complex queries can be directed to live agents via chat or phone call.

Snap unveiled a new third-party app program called Minis that will live inside the app's Chat section. Minis will allow users to do things like order movie tickets or compare class schedules. Developers can build their own apps, which can be shared between users through Chat.