ACCURATE LOG ACQUISITION IS THE FIRST STEP TO UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS
SoftBank is the core company in the SoftBank Group’s information and communications business. It was the first carrier to introduce the iPhone to Japan, and its “Father” TV commercials have made it well known to the general public. On the other hand, it is also active in the B2B business. In addition to corporate contracts for communication lines, it is also involved in the solution business, which uses AI, RPA, IoT, etc. to solve various issues for customers, and has achieved significant growth in recent years.
Makoto Tajima, Manager of the Event Promotion Section, Experience Department, Marketing Communications Division, Corporate Marketing Headquarters, says, “With the call for work style reform, sales representatives have to meet with customers in a limited amount of time. In order to further expand our business, we needed a way to use digital to get to know our customers and link that to smooth sales activities.”
The company screens customers’ issues in advance using digital technology, and then makes proposals that can pinpoint and solve customers’ issues. In order to establish this new sales style, a system that can collect information on potential customers on a wide scale is an important part of the process. This is why the company decided to actively use video. They decided to carry out live video streaming at their annual event, SoftBank World.
“At past SoftBank World events, we received a lot of feedback from people who wanted to attend but couldn’t because of geographical or time constraints. So last year we expanded the scope of our live streaming, but we had a problem with not being able to capture video viewing logs” (Mr. Tajima)
CAPTURING ACCURATE AND DETAILED LOGS WITH BRIGHTCOVE
Since we need videos that sales representatives can send to customers or play back during business negotiations, the marketing side will also prepare content that can respond to those needs.
Makoto Tajima
Manager, Event Promotion Section, Experience Department, Marketing Communications Division, Corporate Marketing Department, SoftBank CorpAt the 2018 event, live and on-demand streaming was implemented. However, while it was possible to obtain website visit logs, it was not possible to tell whether the customer had actually watched the video. As a result, it was not possible to meet the requirements necessary for digitizing sales, which is to collect a wide range of customer information. Therefore, SoftBank World 2019 decided to adopt Brightcove’s Video Marketing Suite as a video platform that could solve this issue. Using Brightcove, it is possible to obtain detailed logs such as the number of views, viewing time, and date and time. In addition, it was decided to adopt other systems as well. Using Brightcove, it is possible to obtain detailed logs such as the number of views, viewing time, and date and time. In addition, it is possible to obtain and analyze more detailed viewing data by combining it with other systems.
SoftBank World 2019 actively promoted the live streaming of videos. Although the number of visitors did not change, the number of registered users increased by 1.4 times, and the videos recorded more than 100,000 views. It is thought that many customers thought, “If I register, I can watch videos” and “I can participate in the event in real time while staying at home”. On the day of the event, a total of 37 live streams were broadcast, including the keynote speech and sessions. After the event, 35 of these were made available on demand as an archive.
In addition, several other types of content were prepared for the event, including case study videos and videos for small and medium-sized businesses. Ms. Asami Shirasaka of the Communications Department, Communications Promotion Division, said, “It was effective to be able to see how people were watching each piece of content. The information about which videos were watched and how much was valuable.”
UTILIZING MULTIPLE ADVANCED FUNCTIONS
This was the first time they had used Brightcove Live for live streaming, but the operation was flawless. Ms. Waka Saito of the Communications Department, Communications Promotion Section, revealed that “actually, I first used the Brightcove management screen on the day of the event. Above all, the user interface was very easy to understand, so even though it was my first time, I was able to operate it intuitively”.
To achieve this, they rehearsed thoroughly behind the scenes. While the staff were busy preparing for the event, the engineering team worked closely with multiple outsourcing companies. To ensure that the live broadcast went smoothly, they obtained the event timetable in advance and took the time to prepare for it. At the same time, they also set up a process for the video archive distribution, where the filming company would encode the video and upload it directly to Brightcove. This minimized the workload for the event staff. The number of man-hours required for tasks such as setting thumbnails and tags was also greatly reduced, as these could be easily shared within the Brightcove environment.
In addition to improving internal processes, the company also increased the convenience for customers. They tried to use as many of the convenient functions for customers as possible. For example, adaptive bitrate, a function that allows videos to be delivered while continuously optimizing the quality to the user’s network and device, was highly evaluated.
SoftBank is planning to continue to actively utilize video in the future. Shirasaka says, “Video content needs to be easy to understand and convey information in a short amount of time. I myself want to study even more than before and actively develop better content.” Tajima says, “The ideal video is one that can be understood in one and a half minutes. Videos that sales representatives can send links to customers or play during business meetings are in demand, so the marketing side will also prepare content that can respond to those needs.”
