As you market your event, you reach people across the world that join your community. Some of them will make it to your event but, the largest majority will be left out, leaving you with a huge fan base waiting to be engaged. So if you are not catering to them by producing a live stream, you are for sure leaving money on the table.
Actually even worse, if you are producing a live stream and failed to add it to your sponsorship package because marketing and sales didn’t think about it. Just think of this number I recently read from Slush’s website, the famous Finnish tech conference and imagine the potential.
Yeap, 1 million live stream viewers!
As an event organizer, I’m sure you have tried to brand and package every single inch of your event for sponsors and exhibitors to buy and your broadcast is not different, so here are a couple of ideas on how you can make money from it.
It’s all going to depend on the level of production you will have. Today, production companies like BSEEN are building TV-Style channels for events, meaning setting up a dedicated studio for live interviews, combining it with a stage live stream to show keynotes and panels, and finally walkthroughs around the venue showing the exhibitors area.
All complete with a live stream moderator, branded inserts, call to actions, animations and more!
So let’s imagine you decide to go all in, here is how you could package your broadcast to bring further value to sponsors.
Full Sponsorship:
One partner becomes the main sponsor of the live stream. Their logo is placed on the stream, roll-ups behind speakers, moderator mentions the sponsor, their logo on your website, etc.
Partial Sponsorship:
A partner becomes the sponsor of the live studio. Just like on TV when the moderator says, “Hi everybody and welcome to the Tesla social media studio, live at….” Plus a fully branded studio with showcasing on your website.
Individual Sponsorships Packages:
If you curate the content you put in your live stream (which we recommend for engagement purposes – more on this on another blog), then you could offer your corporate speakers to live stream their talk.
You could offer your corporate partners a live interview in the studio. Keep in mind that if you have a main sponsor for the live stream or the studio, this could bring some conflict of interest.
You could offer your exhibitors some exposure time. Next time you do a walkthrough, the crew could casually stop by their booth to showcase their products and services.
Last, you could offer your exhibitors the opportunity to go live to their communities from your event, maximizing your exposure.
Other indirect revenue sources:
Statistics say that 67% of people who watch a live stream from an event or similar are more likely to buy tickets next time. So you can drive ticket sales or merchandise or any other service that caters to your global community.
With engagement, your brand increases its value leading to higher trust and positioning within the industry, leading to more business.
To keep in mind:
Facebook and other platforms prohibit the use of 3rd party advertising which is great and bad. Great because it pushes your to be creative and engaging with the way you drive your sponsors and bad, because well, you just can’t run an ad in your live stream (at least shouldn’t).
In case you decide to break the rule and still do so, make sure you hold copyrights to the music or Facebook’s algorithm will kill the live stream.
Something else to keep in mind, if you didn’t plan to have a live stream as you start selling to sponsors and later added it and now you want to get sponsors for it, then make sure you approach your current partners before going after new ones. Given the huge potential of live stream versus the physical space at your event, this could create conflicts.
What to do:
Have marketing meet with sales and the production company and work together in a concept before you start selling so you can add the packages to your portfolio. But, never forget in the end is all about your viewers and driving engagement above anything else.
Don’t show crap just because you sold it, always try to curate it in advance your audience will repay you.
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