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Yahoo! goes Live!
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For once, this is not a post about the Yahoo! - Microsoft merger :)
Yahoo! recently launched a new product called Live!
Yahoo! Live, according to Yahoo! is a platform for Live Video. Anyone and everyone with a webcam can stream videos of themselves in real time.
According to TechCrunch, It is very similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting to the public. Other people can drop by and watch, or choose to participate via video, sound or text chat.
The biggest flaws as of now are that videos cannot be archived and played back - so once they are streamed - thats it!
Information for Yahoo! Live can now also be accessed elsewhere - they have an API integrated into the platform.
Such a platform can effectively be used by a lot of brands contextually for Social Media Marketing. This platform tends towards voyeurism and it is quite clear looking at a lot of examples that voyeurism works best when coupled with titillation.
Diesel used this kind of a platform effectively. The campaign went like this - two gorgeous, crazy girls steal an underwear collection (a newly launched underwear collection), kidnap a sales manager and lock themselves in a hotel room with their victim for five days.
The Swedish clothing brand caused a stir by staging the stunt and then streaming the whole five-day event at Diesel.com.
So essentially people were logging on to Diesel.com and spending hours to see what the girls were doing and how they were looking in the new underwear collection.
Again the key is - how to get maximum views and make live streaming contextual to a brand?
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The idea of using video streams for social media marketing sounds good.
The Diesel example was especially a very smart idea.
How “gorgeous, crazy girls” work, irrespective of what media we use!
Two updates on this :
Yahoo! Live! is already crashing under load. Shame on Yahoo for venturing on something unprepared.
Second, Ustream link in the post is wrong, it should be http://www.ustream.tv which is possibly going to be acquired by Google. So watch out Yahoo !
yea thanks man - actually i checked out Live a few minutes after i blogged it - it did crash… so yea it was disappointing. Thanks for the ustream.tv update…
On a lighter note - its called Yahoo! Live! - pretty ironic isn’t it - almost tailor made for Microsoft!