<p>How the American Kennel Club grew its online audience to 6 million viewers in just 4 years.<br />In addition to the broadcasts from the competitions, the online platform includes photos and videos that can be shared on social networks, as well as instructions on how to embed the broadcast on other sites. </p>
<p><strong>ORLANDO/CENTRAL FLORIDA</strong><br />When the AKC National Championship, presented by Royal Canin, takes place on Saturday and Sunday at the Orange County Convention Center, organizers expect nearly 6 million people to watch dog shows online. The increase in audience began at 1.3 million when broadcasts became possible in 2012.<br />Let's face the obvious: dogs are at the heart of this event, and there are about 5,000 of them, to be exact, so the spectacle is there from the start. But also videographer, B Live, has implemented special design solutions that have contributed to this rapid growth.<br />This year, B Live is building a team of 70 people and 7 cameras on site for the event. In addition to the broadcast, which will begin with the qualifiers on Friday and continue until closing on Sunday, B Live is also hosting a live broadcast on FidoTV and recording a 3-hour program that will air on the Hallmark Channel at the end of January. Russell Kai, B LIVE's C.E.O., shares with BizBash three strategies that have helped them grow their audience online, and that can be applied to broadcasts of any kind of event if it needs to make it popular. </p>
<p><strong>It should be easy to find.</strong><br />"I think it's a big mistake that a lot of people don't even try to control the viewing habits of the audience, but just put the broadcast on the site," says Kai. Many people are still captive to the old mindset, thinking, "We want them to come to our site." However, the Internet is not quite like that. As for AKCs, the trick is that they can be seen everywhere. We have our own platform for online broadcasting. This allows us to create a single code line for the event (a small line like when you share a YouTube video on your Facebook page) and it can be forwarded to anyone, and people can share this link directly on our website by clicking the "share" button. For example, the Doberman Pinscher Club from Michigan can easily start broadcasting on their website. Branded content is saved... But we don't force anyone to look at a place they might not know about. In addition, we can track how many viewers have come, and from which specific location. I see a huge difference here to put up a link and let people find it by managing ads on social media, rather than just saying, "Come in at 7 p.m. and click on the link." I don't think that will work in our new world." </p>
<p><strong>Sharing should be easy. </strong><br />"We've created a lot of entertainment tools that allow viewers to share photos and certain video frames on social media. For example, when a group is judged by judges of, say, the Toy Group, then within minutes that information about the Toy Group can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, anywhere, and that brings thousands of people to the broadcast. So creating entertainment tools that allow people to share content efficiently, easily and quickly is important," he says.<br />He continues: "What we've also learned is that instead of 5,000 photos that can be shared, we select more photos that sync with the video. So if you're watching the Toy Group, we have a photographer connected to our system and taking close-up shots of the lap dogs. If the content that can be shared is linear, and it's beautiful and carefully curated, then we see that it's shared a lot more than thousands and thousands of photos of each dog. Not only do we post our own photos, but we can also add photos taken by amateurs if they post them with the official hashtag. Then everyone who sees them and is fascinated learns about the event in this way – thanks to the power of social media, and in this way, obviously, a huge number of viewers are attracted." </p>
<p><strong>Should be mobile-friendly. </strong><br />"We have to make sure that the technology we use works smoothly on mobile devices. That's one of the reasons why the audience has grown so much," he says. "Our video player, as we call it, is fully responsive. It detects the type of device and automatically resizes the video to fit its screen. You don't just get video on your phone, you get a full suite of tools for networking. Mobile responsiveness is critical." </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bizbash.com/3-key-tactics-to-draw-viewers-for-your-live-stream/new-york/story/33287#.WwL8HHdeNp9">Original article</a></p>
