Should Brewers be Adapting to the World of Live Streaming?

Despite the widespread adoption of live streaming – predominantly as a form of community and entertainment – many businesses have decided not to explore the potential of the technology. Naturally, many will assume that it’s not as necessary since 2023, even for businesses that could stage applicable events and sessions, while others will see their offerings as not really suiting a live stream.

However, getting creative and promoting a live-streamed event can be big for just about any business or service. IT doesn’t always have to be a sales event, rather a way to introduce people to new products and services, give demos, build a community, and more. We’re still some decades away from the metaverse and all of its virtual immersion events becoming mainstream, but it’s worth getting used to forging live connections online now.

How Far Live Streaming has come already

You’d be forgiven for thinking of live streaming as being a fairly restrictive medium. After all, the most commonly used forms of live streaming are through social media between friends and followings and on Twitch and YouTube while streaming content like video games or podcasts. Two forms of live streaming are now pushing the boundaries of what live streaming can achieve, making it much more potent and immersive.

Working the angle for many years, iGaming can now be seen as a trailblazer in live streaming usage. From table games to bingo, you can now play these games live, in real time, with human hosts or croupiers performing the actions of the games as though you were in a bingo hall or on a casino floor. You bet and dab in real-time, see the events unfold in the moment, and even collect winnings as soon as the live game goes your way.

To achieve this, studios applied a couple of extra bits of tech, like game control units, optical character recognition cameras, and a specialised UI for the players at home to use. Similarly, some drivers of the live commerce trend that’s swept the Asia Pacific have made shopping through live events exciting and immersive. In these streams, hosts respond to questions, perform demos, offer discounts, and the users can buy through their screens with just a tap.

How Can Brewers Make Use of Live Streaming?

Brewers and any kind of drinks-oriented business simply doesn’t compute with a live-streamed event on paper. You could have an expert give a tour of a brewery, explain what’s going on, but that misses out on the part of these tours that people really enjoy – the sampling. Already, though, major names in the British beer industry are working out a way around this that makes a live event desirable.

CAMRA has hosted a handful of live events online which centre around enjoying exclusive beers and tuning in to a tasting session. The CAMRA’s Good Beer Box involved paying £40 for a box of six specially selected beers delivered to your door, a pass to the Zoom session, and a tasting evening with award-winning writer Adrian Tierney-Jones. The event ran from 7:30 pm and featured lots of entertainment and discussion for the group.

Businesses, even those that deal in physical consumable goods, can leverage the popularity of live streaming to create immersive and entertaining events that draw in customers and even lead to increased customer retention.