Unlocking the Power of Video Live Streaming
Video live streaming has emerged as a pivotal communication tool, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike traditional TV, live streaming platforms such as YouTube and Facebook offer a dynamic and interactive experience, allowing real-time engagement through comments, questions, tips and more.
- Almost 30% of internet users worldwide watch live streaming content each week.
- 27% of people watch live streams on mobile devices.
- The live stream that holds the record for the most concurrent views on YouTube is the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 Mission Soft-landing telecast, with 8,090,676 concurrent viewers.
- Video-first platforms like Twitch and YouTube are still the biggest destinations for live streaming content. Twitch averaged 2.64 million concurrent viewers watching content in Q3 2022.
- The global average download speed over mobile broadband is 42 Mbps, with video being responsible for 65% of all internet traffic.
Now with that being said, let’s go over the basics of live streaming, the who, what, why, where and how.
The Importance of Video Live Streaming
Video live streaming brings about a more authentic and engaging experience in connecting with customers. The interactive nature of live streaming allows businesses to receive immediate feedback, answer questions, and build a stronger community around their brand.
This real-time commenting and live chat engagement not only enhances customer relationships but also provides valuable insights into audience preferences and behaviours.
Whether it’s a monthly internal staff town hall, an annual investor update, an annual general meeting, an awards event or keynote speaker event through to taking the next step in your podcast journey. Video live streaming is a powerful amplification tool and communications investment.
Planning: Keys to Successful Video Live Streaming
Planning is very important for your livestream to pay off properly. You want to map out everything to the last detail.
Ask yourself these questions;
Format and Content – Determine whether your livestream will be 100% live or if it will be pre-recorded like the Graham Norton Show. Decide on the type of content you will present and whether you need branded graphics, animations, lower thirds, name plates, or introduction titles. Do you have a robust and professional audio solution?
Target Audience and Objectives – Identify your target audience, their location, and the channels (Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube etc) through which you will reach them. Clarify your desired outcomes and the central message of your livestream. Tailor you content, talent, style and format for your audience.
Contingency Plans – Prepare for unforeseen circumstances, such as guest cancellations, internet connection redundancy (bonded internet) as outages and disruptions are common or factoring in time zone differences. Consider pre-recording videos to play during the livestream if needed and work through any audio or presentation back up scenarios.
This will dictate the channel and format; whether it’s a niche interactive business Zoom event with break out rooms, or more of a more generic straight to YouTube video live stream with live comments to a wide audience.
Additionally, just as rehearsals are vital for live performances, they are crucial for livestreams. Determine if you need a script and schedule rehearsals to ensure everyone is well-prepared. In our years of experience, people tend to overestimate their abilities on the day. They can soon stress out and freeze up on the live set once the lights are turned up and there is a microphone shoved in their face. Preparation is key and will reduce this commercial risk and damage to your brands reputation; moreover, it will help in delivering a polished and professional livestream.

And always remember that the live stream needs to be entertaining; talking heads don’t cut it in any more in 2025. Everyone’s tired of boring Zoom monologues or being spoken at. Think about some sort of interactivity, it could be live polls using Slido, you might choose to open up the live chat Q&A in the comments or dial in a live video call special guest. It’s always good to physically show people as well as that, if you’re talking about a specific topic or product, physically pick it up and show it, point to the feature or cut to some prerecorded product video content or even a PPT slide for visual reference to keep people engaged.
The golden rule is ‘show, don’t tell‘, which is even more important in the visual medium.
Adapting to Different Situations
If the format isn’t fully live, is a mix of live and pre-recorded content, or a fully pre-recorded program then you’ve got a different set of requirements to consider.
For example, will you be recording the full program ‘as-live’ a couple weeks earlier in a studio to allow for some editing and polishing prior to being played out to a live audience? Let’s explore this scenario in more detail.
There are tools on platforms like Facebook and YouTube that allow you to play out your pre-recorded program to make everyone viewing think the broadcast is LIVE, so they’ll watch it as if it was live, can enjoy the buzz and comment and chat in real time. It’s the same principle to TV when they broadcast a movie or a delayed sports broadcast into peoples homes.
This kind of delayed broadcast, or “as live” broadcast, can de-stress things and take the pressure off, allow you to edit and polish the program prior to broadcast, given that there are a lot of moving parts and multiple points of failure for a live broadcast. But with that being said, there’s still no shortage of planning and preparation to be done.

If your program or event has already recorded in full, you can schedule it and play it out ‘as live’ or have it ‘premiere‘ to your attendees and live audience who won’t be able to tell the difference. This means you may want to plan to include some chat questions in your pre-recording designed to elicit a response once the ‘live stream’ pre-record program is played out. This along with a live playout moderator to respond to live chat messages can help drive engagement sell the interactive live feel to the viewers.
Every live stream is different and each can open up an entirely new set of challenges. Understanding that is just the start for live streams, but incredibly crucial nonetheless.
Live streaming is an incredibly dynamic experience, not just for the viewers but for all the involved production team. Not all live streams will fall under “live” or “as live” — sometimes you’ll have a hybrid situation where you want to live stream an in person event with live presenters, addressing a live audience and with special guests who may video call in. This is where you’ll be required to plan accordingly, test and adapt to the unique set of requirements of each brief.
As an example, during our partnership with the NSW State Regulatory Insurance Authority team (SIRA), we handled their State Insurance Regulatory Authority Forum live event coverage. However one of the VIP speakers from the UK could not physically attend on the day, so we edited her pre recorded address and supplied those as MP4 files to be played to the in person event audience in Sydney on the day.
Planning and collaborative communication is what allows you to tackle these kinds of situations effectively, as it allows you to allocate the necessary time & resources to these deliverables.
Example 01
FinTech Australia wanted to host an industry briefing to launch the Australian Banking Industry ‘Reverse Pitch’ which included a sold out in person event in Sydney and a ‘livestream’ to reach the greater industry spread across Australia. Our team handled the technical planning, venue recce and production of the livestream which included two (2) fixed cameras and one (1) remote controlled PTZ camera including a bonded internet connection for a robust viewer experience.
Technical Considerations and Best Practise
To ensure a professional and seamless live streaming experience, businesses must pay close attention to technical details and best practices. This includes choosing the right streaming platform, testing equipment, media files and internet connections, and having backup plans in place for potential technical issues.
The best live streams will have backup plans with backup plans: for example, fixed wired internet as your primary web connection with some sort of 4/5G of WI-FI connection as a back up or even going with a bonded internet solution which has 3-4 different types of internet connections running simultaneously. So if the primary wired connection goes down, rather than the entire live stream coming to a halt, there will be a seamless fail over to another back up internet connection without any disruption to the viewing experience. This is super important stuff that needs to be considered for every stream.
Regarding best practices, utilising multiple camera angles and high-quality production elements can make the livestream more visually appealing and keep the audience engaged. The bonus of having a couple different camera angles is that it gives you some fail over redundancy. So if one camera should fail, you’ve got a variety of backup camera eagles to switch to in a worse case scenario to help save the day.
Additionally, considering “as live” broadcasts can offer a balance between the authenticity of live content and the control of pre-recorded segments reducing stress and risks for the project team.
Example 02
Bake was engage to bring the virtual ‘Finnies 2021‘ fintech industry awards event to life. We worked with the client to plan, record and play out an ‘AS LIVE’ awards program. Over 150+ pieces of content were created and played out to a ‘live stream’ audience with live commenting and built in live engagement easter eggs and live photo highlights. The awards show has over 12,000+ views which was a 10x improvement over previous years.
Amplifying Your Live Stream Content After Broadcast
Like many other great marketing strategies, live streaming also offers the potential for a range of post stream amplification opportunites with the ability to repurpose and syndicate content for various marketing channels.
That one long form piece of content, can turn into a range of 20 or 30 short social pieces, TikTok or story content. In turn, that could then be scheduled to auto post to linkedin, Instagram stories, eDMS, embedded on your website site to increase time one site or event Paid Media ads.
It’s a real asset that can easily be overlooked with how action packed the processes involved with the live streaming itself can be. However, ensuring you’re weaponising this content strategically, can be a real force multiplier that extends the impact and return on investment of a live stream and maximise cross channel impact.
To sum it up, with long form livestreams, we recommended to cut it up into small bite size snippets that you can share throughout the year as part of your content calendar. As per the Gary Vee content model, you can make 30+ pieces of micro content from a single keynote. Maximise, maximise, maximise!
Example 03
Bake worked with the Havas team to plan and produce a live stream for their client SunRice. It featured Sammy and Bella who walked through some easy to cook recipe ideas. Live streamed to Facebook featuring four (4) camera angles, live commenting and switching. The stream had 79,000+ views, 168+ reactions, 79+ comments and 20+ shares.
Conclusion
As the digital landscape continues to grow all the more prominent, incorporating live streaming into the marketing strategy can be a dynamic and engaging way to connect with an audience.
We’ve helped iconic Australian businesses across all types of sectors to bring their live streaming campaigns – get in touch today to see how we can apply our professional experience to bring your project to life.