Streaming Tank Webcasts McLaren, Britain's Got Talent
If you're looking for an example of how online video has revolutionized everything from television to fashion to marketing, look no further than London's Streaming Tank.
When we first covered Streaming Tank in 2006, it was a small but growing team that webcast The Who's 2006 European tour. Today, Streaming Tank counts among its clients Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Nokia, Samsung, Live Nation, AT&T, The Economist, Stella Artois, and Aviva. The company has streamed streamed London Fashion Week for the British Fashion Council, a 24-hour Maroon 5 recording session sponsored by Coca-Cola Music, and Starbuck's (Red) "Love Project," which webcast people in 196 countries simultaneously singing the Beatles' "All You Need is Love."
In addition to such entertainment and corporate marketing events, Streaming Tank is working closely with content producers such as FremantleMedia, which produces The X Factor and American Idol among others, to build and deliver second-screen apps and interaction. According to a recent report from Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV broadcasters in the UK, 65% of people who engage in two-screen viewing—using laptops, tablets, or phones to engage with or socialise around content on the television—are doing so once a week, and 37% are doing so daily.
Two recent projects highlight the success not only of Streaming Tank but of online video in general as a marketing tool and delivery medium.
McLaren Formula 1 Launch
On 1 February, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and its digital agency Work Club webcast the launch of the MP4-27 Formula 1 car, with drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton unveiling the vehicle online from McLaren Technology Centre in Working, Surrey, England. The webcast was delivered in Flash as well as to Android and iOS devices on McLaren's home page and the McLaren Racing Facebook page. In addition, the team's title partner and official communications partner Vodafone distributed the webcast to many of its global web properties.
Streaming Tank webcast the launch of the new Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
on McLaren's Facebook page as well as other sites.
The 90-minute webcast recieved 230,153 hits according to Akamai, with 90,148 unique Flash viewers and 2,137 unique iOS viewers, though Streaming Tank co-founder and global operations director Chris Dabbs says he suspects the actual numbers were higher since Akamai generate their numbers from IP and not individual streams. But the really impressive number is the total viewed minutes, which clocked in at an astonishing 2,767,163.
Streaming Tank was in charge of production, satellite, encoding, and Facebook development. The multi-camera shoot was shot and mixed in HD, sent via satellite to the BT Tower in central London, and then by fibre to TV Centre and Streaming Tank encoders, says Dabbs. Streaming Tank then delivered video news releases to television broadcasters over its satellite network.
Britain's Got Talent
On 6 February, Streaming Tank delivered a second-screen experience for the most popular show in the UK, ITV's Britain's Got Talent, produced by FremantleMedia, Talkback Thames, and Simon Cowell's Syco Television. Streamed live to YouTube within the UK and Ireland, the webcast from London announced audition finalists as well as interview them as they were about to go on and meet the judges. The event was hosted by Stephen Mulhern from the Britain's Got More Talent spinoff show.
The Britain's Got Talent auditions webcast was streamed live on YouTube on 6 February, with host Stephen Mulhern
interviewing contestants before they took the stage.
The 25-minute event achieved 41,000 unique viewers, according to YouTube Live, says Dabbs. It set the stage for another live stream of Britain's Got Talent auditions in Birmingham, England on 18 February, and Dabbs says that further webcast plans are in the works around the finals of the show later this year.
Related Articles
Creating a massive online video live event means managing the conversation before, during, and after the event itself. Streaming Tank shows how it's done.
18 Jul 2014
The video landscape is fracturing, and streaming in Flash is no longer enough -- even when serving video to employees.
17 Feb 2012