SHOW NOTES
Bambuser
TRANSCRIPT
Peter:
Welcome to unpacking the digital shelf where we explore brand manufacturing in the digital age. Hey everyone, Peter Crosby here from the digital shelf Institute. If you heard that there was a commerce experience driving conversion rates of 20 to 40% on average wouldn't you want in well that's what many brands worldwide are seeing through their live video shopping experiments, and many are doubling down in 2021. Mary Gharemani CEO of live video shopping platform provider Bambuser joined me and Rob Gonzalez to outline the strategies that are working and how brands can test and learn their way into this exciting new commerce experience. Opportunity. Mary, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, we've been, we've been really looking forward to this conversation. So Bambuser, is now a platform for live video shopping for brands, but your roots in live streaming come from a really different place. Tell us sort of where you, where the company came from and how you, how you got into this.
Mary:
So thank you for having me. And it's a pleasure and the, yes. So if we go back a little bit in time, so Bambuser was founded back in 2007. Um, they have really been pioneered within mobile live streaming since it began, I would say back in the days. And I think that, you know, if you look at the timing back then, uh, I mean the iPhone was released to the world or smartphones in 2008. So it's, it's a quite funny story. So th the co-founders of Bambuser are Coleman. Martin is still with the company and they have been here for 14 years, which is, which is a bit rare in the tech industry, even if you're a co-founder to stay somewhere for 14 years. So, and they had them, um, there was those two, and then we had two other, uh, co-founders that are no longer with the company, but they were from more the business end.
Mary:
And then they, they released the product to the market with a Nokia. I think it was a Nokia 66 30. So it was a phone that even they didn't even have, you know, like a screen. So, so they were really, I would say a lot before their time where mobile really didn't have that adaption and the usage as we have of today. So it's a quite interesting story. And, and that's where it started. It started out in, in, you know, those four guys meeting Tom and Martin has had built like a prototype or mobile live streaming. And the other two guys had a vision and an idea about going live and building a product that, you know, the key to going, why would that one was the mobile live streaming solution. So they find each other on internet. And that was how Bambuser, gets founded back in 2007.
Peter:
And, and, uh, early on it, it who were the main sort of users of live streaming, like that was quite early on. And it, and, and kind of what, what sort of brought it, you know, brought it to the forefront of people's minds.
Mary:
So Bambuser was actually like the first company who, who, who could, uh, you know, product on the market where consumers could share video online, you know, back then it wasn't that usual to, to share a video online. So I normally talk about Ben Boozer in three waves. So the first wave of Boozer was a community where, you know, consumers could upload video, live video content and share with other consumers, like a little bit like YouTube. You know, you have a platform where, where people upload their videos and there is a community, you know, amongst that. And I think like they were actually one of the first company or the first company in the world, actually doing that back then when this was not, you know, something people did. Um, I think the second wave of Bambuser was, uh, when they pivoted into media. So if you remember back in the days when journalists used to stream, you know, out on the field, they would normally have like a big bus with, you know, a lot of heroes coming out too.
Mary:
And it's still like today when you know, happenings is happening, you know, around the world and events, you see like this big mini bus coming with, you know, people like gears and so on. And I think what they wanted to do, it was quite romantic. So they wanted to empower the free speech of the people, or, you know, the, the microsites, the free speech in the world. So every individual and journalists could live stream. You know, if something would happen, you always have your mobile phone in your pocket. You don't have a big minibus with journalists and guitarists, you know, around the corner when things happen. So that was like, the second wave of members are in. And looking back at that time, if you look at the Arab Arab spring, I mean, the, I would say, you know, the Fundacion of Barboza really came through doing, you know, that hard time, because every coverage that was coming out of the country was with Bambuser technology. I actually was looking at some shots for CNN BBC, and you can see, it says like by Boozer technology, because
Peter:
I love it. Yeah.
Mary:
Because everything was closed in the country and no nothing would come out of the country in terms of social platforms or other things. And the amazing part was that, you know, the coverage and footage that come out, so actually came out of the Arabic spring, not all of it, but a lot of it was with numbers to technology. So, so the company has really, you know, and the third wave that we're going to talk more about today is of course the live streaming and the live video shopping solution and what we're pivoted into since 2018. Uh, but before that, I mean, the history is long and they've pivoted and they've done some great things before, you know, I joined the company as the CEO. Um, you know, we start, we started on the third wave. That's where,
Peter:
Yeah, let's talk about that, that third wave, cause you you've taken that foundation and you've pivoted into live shopping. So you have this platform that technologically supports the activity that you want to do, but now you're really focusing it on this, this, this new trend of, of live shopping. And that, that journey began in China. Like what, what made that the right place for, for you to bring this product to market?
Mary:
So I think also in, I joined the company 2008 and when I stepped in the role of the CEO of Bambuser, it was a challenging and, you know, um, it was a challenging time because, you know, they, they, they had spent the past years, you know, on, on building something. And as we progressed, I think also looking at w I just felt that when we, we didn't have how to say it, it became quite clear, uh, very quickly that we didn't have a product that differentiated from the market. If you look, you know, what we were selling back then, and that we needed to change. So that was like when, where everything started. And we, we had something that we had built on from 11 years, which was the mobile live streaming solution,
Peter:
You know, let let's, let's, uh, let's double click on that, on that new wave of mobile live streaming, you took that technology foundation, you pivoted into live shopping and, and that journey began in China. Right. So what characteristics, so what, what, what did you see in China that made that the right place, uh, for you to introduce this technology?
Mary:
Correct. So if you look at China, it's the Mo you know, the world's largest e-commerce market, uh, by far they're really leading e-commerce trends and, and, and with products and, and, and a lot of cool innovation is coming from out of China. Actually, if you look at e-commerce, so w we look to China and we saw that the trend with what the end in China, it's called S um, so, you know, live video commerce is not live video shopping. So the live commerce that was coming out of China has gone from zero to, uh, at least last year, it was 20% of the total e-commerce market was going through this channel. So it became really, it's gone from zero to 20% of a huge market in like four years. And what started the trend in China was that Timo or Alibaba that the team or the platform, or the marketplace, they started out with live.
Mary:
And then, you know, they started the trend back in China, and it has grew like crazy over the past four to five years. What, what is live commerce alive in your shopping down? So it's, it's more or less, you know, we're used to video. So video has been around for a long time and live video is just a part of it. It's a video, but it's live, and then it becomes recorded. So I would say what live video shopping is about, and the trend is that you put a layer of interactivity and shopping on top of video or live video. And that's what, you know, that's what live video shopping is about. So instead of just having a video, you actually add interactivity in terms of audio, video chat, you know, you can send emojis, you can have a dialogue with the customer. So, so we saw this trend in China going, like I said, from zero, basically to being 20% of the total e-commerce market.
Mary:
And I actually don't have the latest numbers, but it's, it's a lot of billion dollars going through this, this channel. And we had the technology and we had all of the pieces we needed because we built them the past 11 years to actually build the product and go to market. So we decided, and we took a big bet back in, you know, 2018 early on where I would say in the Western world, if you said, live commerce alive, as you're shopping, people would laugh, say like, yeah, good, good luck, good luck, Mary. You know, that that's something that's happening over in China. And I think also out in the West, we never believed that, you know, what, what happens in China a little bit stays in China in terms of, you know, adaption and, and how we, because we use technology and, and the behavior is very different. But I think if you look at this trend and we just fast forward, like two years, it's not that long. And social commerce is the buzzword of 2021.
Peter:
And they'd been, they'd been seeing real results. They're like, what, um, I think the conversion rates that they're, that they've been seeing in China have been significant. Yes,
Mary:
Correct. So, so they, I think that the average in China, and of course, it depends a little bit up and down, but I remember when we looked at the numbers for chairman and before we went live with our customers here in the Western world, we thought that, you know, this, this is just crazy. It's like, you know, it's, it will never happen in Western, uh, having, uh, an add to cart or conversion rate of 20 or 40%. It's not going to happen because if you work with e-commerce, you know, that if you have a conversion rate on your e-commerce for like one, two, 3%, you're, you're, uh, you're, you're doing a fantastic job. Normally most e-commerce platforms have a conversion rate under one. So, so we taking that number and going back to when we released a product, I remember our first show with a client.
Mary:
I can't, I'm sorry, but, and we were looking at the numbers and we couldn't believe our eyes in, in terms of conversion, engagement and sales, because in China, this is the greatest chills sales channel since e-commerce was, you know, fi you know, since e-commerce has started. And I remember that we couldn't believe our eyes in terms of the sales, the engagement and the conversion. So, yes, correct. It is a tool where people tend to stay for a long time and watch it's, it's an, it's a tool where, because of the chat and you can actually have a dialogue with your customers, they tend to interact more and, and really, you know, want, have a lot of questions. And, and also a lot of love back to the brands or retailers. And then also the easiness of adding something to cart in a video that you like is it makes things easier.
Mary:
So if I see a mascara and it's a tutorial, you know, the normal behavior would be before that you have to Google and you have to find that mascara and, you know, what's the brand. Well, you know, and this is an easy way to, just for, for a brand or retailer or influencer to show products, and you have the product in front of you. You can just add it to bag in the video and check out. So, so our KPIs and the numbers we see. So in average, on our platform with the customers, we have worldwide and really global. So the only countries we don't stream live into today's India and China, where live in, in rest, you know, the rest of the markets of the world, we see an average, um, watching time of approximately nine minutes. So when the retailer goes, live on their e-commerce and they get, you know, a consumer into the player that the customer will stay for almost nine minutes, which is also the average number.
Mary:
It's, you know, it's three times or four times higher than if you're just browsing to a website and just look at something. And in average, 25% to 30% of everyone in the show is going to send hard or comment or ask questions, which is also very high. Like, you know, almost a third of everyone is actually, you know, interacting with your brand and asking questions. And we have an add to cart rate of approximately 30%. So of a hundred people watching there, you know, there will be 30, 30 add to cart in the stream. So approximately add to cart rate of 30%. So, I mean, and this is across all of our brands, so it's, it's amazing numbers. And I think also we wouldn't have the success we have had, you know, the past one, one, one and a half year with the new pivot and the new product, if the KPIs was,
Rob:
You know, what's so interesting about this is my mental model of China is that it's different things that work in China don't tend to work everywhere else, things that work everywhere else don't tend to work in China. And this is an example of something that seems to have worked in China and then worked elsewhere using basically similar metrics. Like you're saying, it's similar conversion rates and so forth globally, which is, which is, uh, that's crazy to me. Um, the, the question I've got though is if you look at those conversion rates and you think about the nine minute on average of video watching, is, is, is it that the video is causing the conversion? Or is it that by the time you've got nine minutes into the video you, you sort of are self-selected as somebody who's very interested in this. So you're, you're, you're kind of talking about, uh, audience, that's already a little bit down funnel in the buying process already, right? Yes. Are they when, when somebody adopts this then? So I guess the, the, the key metric that I would think of is when somebody adoptions are they seeing, um, overall lift in sales attributable to the, to the live commerce, to the engagement, to the videos.
Mary:
So I think if you look at, and I think also if you look a little bit ahead, like two, three years ahead, you, if you look at it, e-commerce, since it evolved, it has been a static HTML page with a picture and a text and everything would do as humans. How we direct these to video, we take talk, we, you know, we FaceTime, we sit in teams or whatever you use for, you know, having conversations, instru video. So I think if you look at it as, uh, if you look at it as a communication channel, I think it's about you put a layer, which is audio, video, and chat, and you create a dialogue with your customers. And I think that dialogue part is the interesting part, because video has always been one way to record a video. You know, I look at a celebrity, I, I look at a fan or somebody I like, but I can't talk to the person.
Mary:
I can't chat with it. I can't ask my questions, you know? So I think that the big innovation and, and why it works in the Western world as it does in China, is because it's a human behavior that you move it essentially from the store to digital store. Because when we say for an example, you know, I walk into an H and M store and I want to pair it, buy a pair of jeans. And I go to the, you know, to somebody who is working in this, in this, in the store. And they helped me with my sizing and I can ask questions, you know, I can try the jeans on, and then I do my purchase. And essentially I won't, you know, the return rate of me returning those genes is quite small. And also I don't buy like six or seven size.
Mary:
This is because I actually get help with sizing. And I think the same behavior you have in the live video shopping tool. So if I look among our clients, which are, you know, big global enterprise companies as also, we have a lot of small, medium, you know, brands that are, you know, local direct to consumer brands. And what we see is that, you know, they, they invite their fans or they consumers. So the customers into the world. And it's, I think also to add to that, I think what is amazing with live it's that it's authentic. It's real, you know, you can't, you can't make a dress look better, even if you try it because it's, you know, it's, it's, it's live, you can't, you know, change the colors or make it a little bit more longer. So I think also the authenticity and the transparency is what the consumers actually, you know, love with the channel. So, so I think in the end of the day, you know, you're just moving a behavior and you're making e-commerce a little bit more how to say sticky in terms of communication channels, because a text, you know, a static HTML page with text and pictures, won't give you the answers you have when you're going to buy, you know, a product, even if it's a lipstick, or if it's a car, you would actually have like a human, you know, touch.
Peter:
Yeah. That's a, that's what I find interesting. I do feel like it's about the answers. Like when you think of trying to make the space between consideration to purchase as short as possible, it's that hopefully you provide an environment where a consumer can get every one of their questions answered. And in this case, you're doing it through, uh, like you said, a live media where you can see how the dress moves. You can decide whether that's the right length you want, you can, you know, you can ask a question in the chat, like it creates to your point. Uh, you know, so often we talk about bringing digital into the in-store environment, but what you're really talking about is bringing the in-store environment, um, with, with, I would imagine a higher degree of entertainment value, um, often into, into the experience
Rob:
We've seen though, I mean, we've seen live chat on walmart.com and target.com and others where you've got the Q and a from the brand. We've seen the Q and a feature on Amazon and other places. And obviously reviews is a, is another, another place that have gotten interactive where it's not just leaving a review, the brand responds to the review and so on and so forth. So there's a lot of text in those and in textual ways to interact. And you know, me personally, I read books, I don't watch as much TV. I don't, I'm not like on the Tik TOK or whatever the kids are doing these days. I'm more of a text guy. So I'm more, more comfortable with those. I kind of wonder if just hearing what, what, what you're saying, if there's something special about the video and the audio in live that that's different, or if it's special in specific categories only so that the dress I get, you know, not, not that I try on dresses that often, but when I do, I like to see how I look. And so, uh, but that's different than if I'm buying, you know, a breakfast cereal. I don't, you know, it's like, what am I going to ask you about the breakfast cereal? So are, when, when you look at the, the special power of the live here, where, where does it seem to shine the best? Or am I underselling? Is this actually killer for breakfast, cereal and I'm, and I'm totally missing it?
Mary:
I actually don't know. So I would say, you know, when we started out, the biggest categories was fashion and beauty, and the past six months we've gone into home electronics, food, um, sports, so home decor, or like home furnishing. So, so we actually see this turning out to be a great channel for selling more or less everything, actually, you know, it's it's and I think like it, just to give you an example, so the behavior today is like how consumers, you know, today use a combination of social media and e-commerce sites together when they consider a purchase. So for an example, a user will pop between a social media app like Instagram, and then head to YouTube to see a tutorial or a demo. And if they like it, they will make a purchase on the, you know, on the brand website. So that's a normal customer behavior. What live video shopping does is that it solves all the three issues for you. You're going to live stream, you can ask, answer your questions. You can look at the demo, you can interact in the demo, you get, you know, answers to all of your questions and you can add it to back in the video. So you don't have to pop between, you know, YouTube, Instagram, and a brand website, because you actually do everything on your own website.
Rob:
Yeah. I was going to say, actually, it just occurred to me that this is a better version of like QVC or infomercials, right? This is really everything that you ever wanted an infomercial to be where, uh, my, my dad and my sister used to stay up late together as almost a bonding activity and watch the infomercials. And we'd end up with all this stuff in the house that, you know, no one, no one would intend to buy, but it's one of those things, like if you go to the store and you see the thing that cooks pasta in a tube, you're like, that looks silly. But if you watch it in the infomercial on video, you're like, God, I need that, that thing looks amazing. And then, you know, you call them up and you give you a credit card. So this is, I, I, I'm sort of seeing it now. I see what you're saying. It's, there's something about the video and the engagement and the live stream that people have not translated that ridiculously large marketing channel of infomercials and so forth online effectively. And this, and this is, you're basically saying that you guys are doing that and you're doing it well.
Mary:
Yeah. But also like, you know, it's, it's a new, like all the channels that has popped up that has been new and exciting, I think, and that has sticked around. I think, you know, um, if you look to China, so in four years it has gone from zero to 20%. So everything that was sold in China last year, 20% of every good that was so was, was, you know, sold through, live in your shopping. So the player where, you know, where the magic happens, more or less, uh, where you have, you know, the interactivity, the add to cart, well, I believe have a bigger role and a more important role down the road. So if we say that we can stay with H and M and stick with them. So if we say that H and M does live in your shopping, and if you look at a website today and our e-commerce platform, e-commerce website, you normally have landing pages.
Mary:
So you have a starting page, you have a campaign, you know, campaign page where you have all your campaigns and then you have product pages. If you look at the data that we're seeing is that the, the live video shopping player will be the most converting and engaging landing page on your whole website. As of today, the volumes are pretty small because it's a new channel. You know, people are iterating, they're trying to find their way forward. You know, it was just like Instagram came. I mean, your first, second post, wasn't the best posts you've done. You know, you've iterated and you learn how to post and, you know, find a guideline. And I believe that we're going to see the same, you know, same thing happened over here. And I think we're going to see it faster. And when the, the player, which is where, you know, the video place in the end will be one of your most important landing pages is going to, you know, it's going to evolve also.
Mary:
So I think also for us, we, we don't know how the channel or how the brands use. The channel will evolve over time, because people are using it for events, not people, I'm sorry, the BR our customers, the brands and retailers, they use it for events. They use it for launching products. They use it to have a communication with their community, and they, you know, the use case is so different from customer to customer. So I think also that we're in, in the Western world, we're going to see this, this channel grow. And I think that we're going to see things we didn't expect also because at the end of the day, we are a software company. We licensed the software. The content is, you know, our customers, the retailer and brands that, you know, they feel it with content and, and they feel it with very different types of content. And they use the channel in different ways. But in the end of the day, what we see is that it's the greatest sales channel in e-commerce, you know, today, if you look at, you know, the numbers that you would just talk about, but also the is still small because, you know, there is not a lot of companies doing this.
Peter:
So do you have some examples you might be able to give of brands that are doing it right from your perspective?
Mary:
Yeah. We can take Samsung for an example. And, and, and going back to, you know, Samsung is not beauty or accessories or clothing, it's, you know, they're selling, uh, consumer electronics. So, so Samsung, I think it's a good day when they released their, I think it was the latest galaxy phone. So they released the phone through a live in your shopping show, where they had influencers and celebrities invited to a Samsung studio, and they were talking about the phone. They were using the phone, you know, they indirect, the interaction was super high. People were commenting, sending likes, really understanding. And, and normally you have, you know, when you sell expensive products, even if it's, you know, home electronics or machinery, your sales funnel will be, you know, quite long because it's, you know, it's an expensive thing you're going to buy. And the sales funnel normally a longer then of course, uh, a purchase with, with the Le you know, average order value, that's slow.
Mary:
But what we see is that, you know, it's amazing what you can do with this channel, because first you, you, you have a lot of people tuning into Samsung that maybe are not Samsung fans, because they like the celebrity or the influencer that is in the show. So you attracting target groups that normally, maybe you wouldn't do in a normal campaign on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, because your, your search target is, is very, it's very narrow. And then you get those people in, you get them in a context. It's very, and I, and I love that with live, you know, because video has been around for so long time, the live. And, and I think Rob, this is what you're getting to. You want to know the magic, like, you know, and I think the live part is the magic because it's will live in a world that's on demand.
Mary:
You know, you can, you can have any content, any, any, any time of the hour of the day, and you can just click it and you can watch it, the live, it makes things a little bit more exciting. It's entertainment, it's this sharp attainment, you know, it's, it's, it's, game-ification, it's, it's now or never. And it's also a feeling of, you know, I'm not alone on internet or on samsung.com. You know, I'm here with a lot of people interacting and chatting and people around the world. So I think that that is a good example. And then I can also take, we can continue with Samsung, because if you look at it a bit also about e-commerce and when the world is going, so you have the big platforms as Facebook and Instagram and tic talks that is actually going from, you know, being a social platform and they want to transform into marketplaces because nobody's making money on ads anymore.
Mary:
Everybody wants to understand that e-commerce is going to be the future, and everybody wants a part of the commerce part. So they're actually, you know, more and more rolling into becoming marketplaces. And, and if you look, I believe that the purchases of, you know, the brands and retailers we work with today will move out from the e-commerce platform. So as of today, most brands are making in a hundred percent of their revenue going up because you can't byproducts on YouTube or on Instagram, or on Facebook, you get inspired, but you go back to the retailers website to actually make the purchase. If you look a little bit ahead, I believe that the purchase will move out on internet, not only social platforms. So you could actually do just watch, uh, you know, the product anywhere and you can actually purchase it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be on your own.com.
Mary:
And what we did is that we have, we have a feature where, what we call simulcast or multi-domain where actually Samsung and data show. That was quite interesting. So, um, when you do show, you want to distribute that live at your shopping show, as on as many, you know, places as possible on internet, because you want to find, you know, new target groups and new customers. So they did a quite interesting, um, show when they launched another product where they had the show going on on Samsung, but they also had to show running on a media outlet and, uh, retailers that actually sell Samsung products like an online retailer. And, you know, you, you push traffic between those three, you know, websites. And what you see when you do a live show is that your social channels becomes very active. So people are pushing, you know, traffic from social, into Samsung, into the media outlet, and you have something exciting going on.
Mary:
That's only for an half an hour. And going back to, you know, Rob to your question, I think the exciting part with live your shopping is the live part because it's now or never. And it's a lot of shop attainment in that one. So, so I think Samsung is a great example. We have, um, a customer in, in Denmark, mythos mottos is the biggest beauty player in Denmark, and they also, they have done amazing results. They have been really been, you know, using the technology in a very interesting way. They do. They're very frequent in doing live shows, and you can really see that, you know, the, the role, the live plays in their e-commerce is really a huge part. And they've, you know, not during the pandemic where you have less people in the store and more people on your website or, or.com, why not use the store and the staff to be able to handle people that are on your, you know, because you have more footfall digitally than you have in the store.
Mary:
So Martha's has be using the store. So they've set up like mini mini desks. It has actually been on TV where they serve the customers digitally. So they have like live shows where they help consumers with the same, you know, in the same way they would have done in the stores. So they've really looked at the store more as a, you know, showroom to sell both digitally and physically, rather than seeing the store, like closing down the stores and not being able to sell. So, so I think we have a lot of different examples of, you know, and, and of course, because of, you know, NDAs and so on, I can disclose all of our customers, but, but I would say it's interesting. And going back to, they use it very differently. Some of our customers, they do five live streams today, and some does, you know, once a month and others only do big campaigns. So it's, it's very different how they use the channel.
Peter:
I was super interested. I mean, all of that was fascinating. The different use cases that you can have. The multi-domain one really struck me because I was putting myself in the seat of a brand person saying, Oh, I can do live shopping, but only if I've got a brand.com, that's sort of that I can attract people to, like once again, I'm sort of stuck having to bring people in, but the multi-domain puts me also out in the, in the places where my people are. I already have channels. I already have relationships there. So that to me seemed like the real, uh, one of the real compelling use cases where I could broaden that reach, um, and create, I would imagine a virtuous cycle where once I've got them on the media network, then I can get them use, maybe even bring those people into my brand.com experience and start to build that, is that, is that what you're seeing? That that's really becoming a,
Mary:
And I think also, you know, the future of e-commerce and internet is going to be platform agnostic. It's not going to be, you know, uh, on one page or on one platform. I believe that the future will be platform agnostic. And also I think that, you know, the multi domain and we're looking at so many interesting user cases in how we could, you know, distribute the video out on internet more or less. So, you know, we're actually launching now, so you could integrate into social media because all of the platforms that has open API as you can actually push to stream out or social also. So I think in the end of the day, we're trying to give the brands and retailers a great software and a great product where we empowered them to stand on their own feet in terms of not giving away, you know, brand narrative, transaction, and data to, you know, the, the big platforms that are taking all the profit and trying to find a way for them to do live in your shopping content and push that content out on as many how to say, um, domains and social platforms as possible at the same time, because then they don't need to create content for seven or eight different channels.
Mary:
They only need to create content once, but they push it out at, you know, um, to as many places as you can. So I think in the end of the day, we'll see, it's going to be interesting. I think it's a lot of fun then it's super exciting, but I truly believe that, you know, we're going to see a platform agnostic world where things are going,
Peter:
So, um, Mary to close out, cause I, you know, 20, 21 is a year that will be full of so many experiments and brands have to start small. They can't, uh, they can't just sort of explode onto the scene. So if you think about somebody listening to this, it's like, all right, I want to kind of start to get my strategy together for this. Is there a test and learn version of this? You know, is this something where somebody can sort of dip their toe into this in 2021 and figure out if it works for them? And what, what would you, what would you advise for that strategy?
Mary:
I think it's, it's, it's important to test. Uh, I think it's important to get to know the channel and how to use it. I think it's, it's that for big brands. And we saw that very early on, you know, we're super big within enterprise companies because I think they understood quite early that this is, you know, social commerce is something that's here for staying, and we need to understand, and that, that I think for the SMEs or, you know, that the brands that don't have like big headquarters and, you know, a lot of people on a marketing team, like we have, you know, we work with DTC brands that are like five or 10 people, you know, totally in the company. And they have two people running the live show. I think where we see huge success is when you dedicate one or two people in your organization normally would be commerce or marketing to actually do a trial and error to understand, you know, does our end customers like this channel and this way to engage with our brand.
Mary:
Um, and also going back to content, you know, we get a lot of questions, you know, what works, what's exciting. I think in the end of the day, I mean, if you know your consumer, well, like, you know, my, my target group is this type of people who likes this and you actually listened to them in terms of what would they like to see in content wise? You know, what would the, who, who is the person that you should put in front of the camera? I think celebrities and influencers are amazing, but going back to Martha's, I mean, they have amazing numbers and results and they beat a lot of celebrities that other clients are using that are, you know, really big ones because they find they have found a format that works for them and costumers, if you get me, right. So I think it's about trial and error, not, not making this a big thing rather than just, you know, doing some shows, be authentic, be transparent.
Mary:
You know, don't put too much time into trying to figure out a format rather than, you know, just go live. I mean, that's our biggest, you know, how to say what we really try to push out, like go live and, and, and get the feedback from your customer base. And then you grow with the channel. I think that's the best advice I can get. But I think just like, you know, the early brands on Instagram they had, of course, you know, plenty of more how to say that they had really an advantage to all of their brands that found Instagram pretty late, because it was, you know, it was more expensive to buy target groups. It was harder to grow the community. I think when you find a new channel and a new format, you should be quick and you should try and it's it's trial and error, you know, just, but I think my, my biggest advice is just try it out and go live. And then, you know, you just iterate,
Peter:
Just go live. Well, it certainly is a it's, it's an exciting, it's an exciting time. Uh, the, the results that you talk about are super inspiring. And so I think, uh, to start to plant this seed early in 2021 and see how this develops over, over the course of the year and the years to come will be super exciting. So, Mary, thank you so much for coming on and chatting about this, uh, this exciting new trend with us. We appreciate it.
Mary:
Thank you for having me,
Peter:
Our thanks to Mary for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a colleague or leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks as always for being part of our community.
