A holistic video distribution strategy, powered by AnyClip’s Video Platform, increased the virtual event audience for VentureBeat’s Transform Conference by 24X.
The Solution
To achieve these goals, VentureBeat turned to AnyClip’s Luminous Platform to power a holistic video distribution strategy, expanding on an existing editorial video partnership between the two companies. This strategy encompassed five primary elements:
- First, during the event, sessions were live streamed via AnyClip’s Luminous Platform players appearing across VentureBeat’s website. As each session concluded, the content was ingested into AnyClip’s Luminous Platform, where the technology’s AI backbone automatically tagged, aggregated and organized the video into categories.
- Second, immediately after tagging, Transform content was distributed to a user-friendly video hub page, which was powered by AnyClip’s Luminous Watch technology. Through this always-on resource, designed to serve the long-tail interests of the AI tech community, content data automatically populated conference event videos into channels and playlists and activated advanced video search tools that made it easy for viewers to find and rewatch Transform sessions at any time.
- Third, in the days of and immediately following the conference, VentureBeat used AnyClip’s AI-driven editorial recommendation player to surface conference content to audiences across their site. Using video content data paired with AnyClip’s natural language processing (NLP) technology, players automatically matched the most relevant Transform conference videos to their surrounding article page contexts, enhancing interest and engagement for this content for VentureBeat readers.
- Fourth, VentureBeat utilized AnyClip’s data-powered engagement features to enhance Conference video experiences and lift exposure and conversion opportunities for sponsoring brands. Through an interactive “Xray” call-to-action overlay appearing within the video player UI, VentureBeat automatically promoted links to read more about featured speakers and sponsoring brands as these brands, products, people, keywords, or topics were featured within streaming video content.
- Finally, VentureBeat maximized Transform’s revenue opportunity through a mix of integrated graphic sponsorships, branded content amplification and pre-roll advertising opportunities that delivered visibility, alignment and interaction for the event’s brand partners, at scale.
VB TRANSFORM BY THE NUMBERS:
The Results
As a result of an innovative and multifaceted distribution strategy, VentureBeat and AnyClip’s partnership delivered strong outcomes, raising the value of the Transform event presentation for viewers and sponsors alike. Within five days of the event, VentureBeat realized massive audience results, with unique viewers exceeding those of their prior virtual event, GamesBeat, by 24X and achieving a new record in viewership for the Transform event franchise. Additionally, the video replays on the event’s video hub more than doubled the number of live/same day streams, giving the content a valuable “life after live.”
“We’re proud that, in partnership with AnyClip, we were able to host a virtual event that will not only gave us extreme engagement lift during the event but continues to engage our audience over time. ”
Assisted by AnyClip’s AI content recommendation technology and interactive features, audience engagement with Transform content was also successful, lifting VentureBeat’s video content engagement rates 161% vs the previous month. Through these same features, VentureBeat also delivered value for sponsors, sparking audience engagement, promoting visibility and yielding ample opportunity for pre-roll ad insertions adjacent to streaming Conference content.
“We’re proud that, in partnership with AnyClip, we were able to host a virtual event that will not only gave us extreme engagement lift during the event but continues to engage our audience over time. ” said Lauren O’Brien, COO, VentureBeat & VB Transform. “As digital experiences become a critical complement to — and evolution of — our event executions, we’re thrilled to work with a video technology partner that helps us to deliver a valuable conference experience, whether it occurs in the real or a virtual one. Our partnership with AnyClip is critical to our long-tail content engagement strategy and will help us continue to keep and expand our executive B2B executive community.”
“While virtual events may be a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, their popularity ensures they will become a mainstay. For event hosts, this is a seismic shift that calls for new solutions and experiences that will allow these events’ full value to be realized. This execution with VentureBeat is proof that a holistic video strategy is a powerful way to achieve that, offering the ability to engage with audiences before, during and after the event while also maximizing the benefit for sponsors,” said Gil Becker, CEO of AnyClip.
The Update
VentureBeat chose AnyClip’s Visual Intelligence platform to power its upcoming events. This followed the successful collaboration in 2020. In addition to the increased viewership from 2020, overall engagement with Transform content exceeded the previous month’s editorial video engagement rates by 161 percent.
Like in 2020, VentureBeat once again used AnyClip’s video players to bring daily, live streaming of each Transform 2021 session to VentureBeat.com. Once sessions concluded, AnyClip’s core Visual Intelligence Technology used AI to automatically tag, aggregate and organize video from the conference into curated categories, channels and playlists — on a dedicated video-on-demand event hub — and activate advanced video search tools that make it easy for viewers to find and rewatch sessions at any time. Using the player’s unique, data-powered capabilities, the most relevant Transform videos were matched in context to their surrounding articles, driving increased engagement and discoverability.
Additionally, through an interactive “X-ray” call-to-action overlay appearing within the video player UI, VentureBeat could automatically promote links through which their audience can read more about featured speakers and sponsoring brands as they are featured within streaming video content. AnyClip also maximized revenue opportunities for VentureBeat through a mix of integrated graphic sponsorships, branded content amplification and pre-roll advertising that delivers visibility, contextual alignment and interaction for the event’s brand partners at scale.
Said Ben Ilfeld, Head of Product, VentureBeat, “As VentureBeat expands Transform from three days to a full week of activities for enterprise business and technology decision-makers, we are again partnering with AnyClip to help us reach and engage the broadest audience possible with our comprehensive coverage across the breadth and depth of the world of applied AI.” He added, “The digital event experience has become a material element of our business and AnyClip has proven they are the video technology partner for us.”
