Archives par mot-clé : video

Saudi government says it will allow women to drive

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Women in Saudi Arabia will be permitted to drive in the kingdom, according to a royal decree issued in Riyadh on Tuesday that overturned one of the most widely criticized restrictions on human rights.

The decree, signed by King Salman and broadcast on state television, said that the “majority of senior scholars” had deemed the change legitimate under Sharia law, and ordered applicable government ministries to make whatever legal adjustments are required to implement it by next June.

The change aligns Saudi Arabia with virtually every other country in the world, including other conservative monarchies in the Persian Gulf region that have long allowed more freedom for women.

It was unclear how the permission to drive would relate to other remaining restrictions, including laws requiring women to be accompanied by a male “guardian” when leaving their homes.

Several prominent female Saudi activists had spent years publicly protesting the driving ban, posting videos of themselves driving on Saudi roads or headed toward its borders. The videos garnered hundreds of thousands of views and quickly landed the activists in prison.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud speaks at a ceremony on Sept. 20. (Bandar Al-Jaloud/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the activists, Manal al-Sharif, was arrested in May of 2011 as a grassroots Saudi campaign to overturn the ban gathered momentum, and spent nine days in prison. “As a result of my protest, I was threatened – imams wanted me to be publicly lashed – and monitored and harassed,” Sharif wrote in a first-person account of her arrest and exile from Saudi Arabia, that appeared in June in the New York Times.

Other activists also faced long term harassment for defying the ban. Loujain al-Hathloul, who was detained for 73 days in 2014 after attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the UAE, was rearrested earlier this year and held for several days. Shortly before her arrest, she said in an interview with the Post that she had not tried to drive since her arrest three years ago.

On Tuesday, following the news that the ban had been overturned, Sharif, in a Twitter post, wrote that “Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop.”

Hathloul’s reaction was more concise. “Praise be to God,” she wrote.

Asma Siddiki, an educator at King Abdullah Economic City, said the issue was not the top priority for Saudi women but had become “symbolic.”

“We enjoy some rights that other celebrated democracies do not enjoy and yet everything was brushed under the all- encompassing question of the right of women to drive,” she said. “I feel ecstatic that it is about to become a moot topic.”

“I am also quite relieved,” she added, “that I, not my husband, may be the person who will teach my children how to drive, being a better driver, in my opinion.”

Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute of Gulf Affairs, a group often critical of the Saudi leadership, said the decision reflects the influence of reforms pushed by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

“This shows his stamp,” Ahmed said. “The ban was increasing unpopular and difficult for the ruling family to justify. It was inevitable that it would be lifted someday. Now was the time with the Saudi economy struggling with low oil prices and the monarchy facing some internal pressures.”

Last year, the well-known Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, who is a member of the royal family, declared that the kingdom’s refusal to allow women to drive was draining billions of dollars from the sagging economy.

A new government plan has called for increasing the role of Saudi women in the economy, including boosting their participation in the workforce, from 22 percent to 30 percent by 2030.

Last month, a woman was appointed the chief executive of a major Saudi bank — a first in the country’s history. That came a few days after Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange appointed a woman as its chair.

Sahar Bahrawi, novelist also lives in Jiddah, said the announcement “means the world.”

“It means we obtained our right for mobility thanks to our king. Now we are really free , we are really celebrating,” she said. “We are equal to all the women around the world.”

Loulwa Bakr, a senior financial adviser who also lives in Jiddah, said she was “just happy that I no longer have to tell my 7-year-old to stop ogling at women driving in Europe because yes, it’s normal and okay for women to drive!”

“One small pedal for Saudi women, one giant leap for women kind,” she said.

Brian Murphy in Washington, Souad Mekhennet in London, Kareem Fahim in Istanbul and Sudarsan Raghavan in Cairo contributed to this report.

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The ‘very big ocean’ between here and Puerto Rico is not a perfect excuse for a lack of aid

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Twice on Tuesday, President Trump offered an excuse for why government aid to Puerto Rico has been slow to arrive after Hurricane Maria: Puerto Rico is an island.

“It’s very tough, because it’s an island,” Trump said during a meeting with members of the House. “In Texas, we can ship the trucks right out there. And you know, we’ve gotten A-pluses on Texas and on Florida, and we will also on Puerto Rico. But the difference is, this is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean. And it’s a big ocean; it’s a very big ocean. And we’re doing a really good job.”

Later, during a brief news conference, he repeated the assertion.

“Frankly, we’re doing — and it’s the most difficult job because it’s on the island — it’s on an island in the middle of the ocean,” he said. “It’s out in the ocean. You can’t just drive your trucks there from other states.”

That’s true. Instead, supplies must be transported by airplane or ship instead of by truck. But that’s still not a great excuse for why the island is awaiting supplies.

FEMA is flying C-17 cargo planes into Puerto Rico, bringing food and water. An update from the agency on Monday indicated that 148 airlifts from eight planes had delivered 44,177 pounds of relief supplies and cargo to both that island and the Virgin Islands.

That’s important. But it’s not a lot of cargo. In January, a cargo ship operated by the U.S. Navy delivered supplies to researchers in Antarctica totaling nearly 7 million pounds of supplies.

So couldn’t the government have either sent supplies in advance (as it did for Texas and Florida by truck) or sent cargo after the fact that could have gotten to Puerto Rico by now?

The answer is yes and yes.

To the second question first. The ship-tracking site MarineTraffic.com provided The Washington Post with data on two ships that left the continental United States after Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and which either have arrived or will soon arrive there. The first is a cargo ship — the truck of the sea, if you will — named Perla Del Caribe. It left Jacksonville on Sept. 22 — two days after Maria landed — and arrived in San Juan on Tuesday afternoon.

The second is a tanker, the Overseas Long Beach, which left Houston late on Sept. 21 and was to arrive late Tuesday night.

In other words, ships loaded with supplies could have been in Puerto Rico by now even if they hadn’t departed the mainland before the storm struck the island. The trucks, if you will, could have driven there by now.

But the government could also have stationed ships closer to Puerto Rico in expectation of needing to offer aid. By Sept. 16, the National Hurricane Center was already expecting Maria to hit Puerto Rico “as a dangerous major hurricane” — only a week after Hurricane Irma brushed past the island, killing three. Ships with supplies could have been stationed nearby.

Isn’t that dangerous? Ships avoid being in the direct path of a major hurricane for obvious reasons, including that a ship called the El Faro sank during Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. But as Popular Mechanics explained in 2014, mariners are prepared to seek out safe ports as needed or to move out of the storm’s most dangerous path.

“If a ship is in the ocean, you’re going to have heavy weather,” chief meteorologist at Ocean Weather Services Fred Pickhardt told the magazine — noting that ships often operate on tight schedules that make days without progress an economic challenge. (Even the company that owned the El Faro told CNN last year that it wouldn’t demand that its replacement vessel necessarily avoid a hurricane that was approaching but that it had “great confidence” in its captain.) Our government supply ships, of course, would not feel the pinch of needing to stick to a schedule and could presumably wait out the storm in a safe location nearby.

Many ships did just that as Maria approached.

This, too, would have required preparation on the part of the government, as well as foresight as to how much damage Puerto Rico might incur. But, again, that’s what Trump’s administration did with its trucks, as he noted on Twitter before Hurricane Harvey hit Texas.

These are complicated calculations that appear much easier in hindsight. It is not the case, though, that there was no other option for Puerto Rico than what it is experiencing right now, no matter what the president might argue.

Senate GOP abandons latest effort to unwind the Affordable Care Act

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Senate Republicans decided Tuesday not to hold a vote on unwinding the Affordable Care Act, preserving the landmark 2010 law for the foreseeable future even as they suggested they may withhold crucial funding for it.

The move leaves the GOP — once again — short of fulfilling a signature promise, which some Republicans worried could inspire a backlash among their base heading into the 2018 midterm elections.

Several senators said they instead plan to move onto other issues now that the party’s latest proposal, authored by Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.), had failed to garner sufficient support

“Where we go from here is tax reform,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after holding a closed-door policy lunch with members of his caucus.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers voiced little interest in shoring up the existing ACA insurance market, sowing apprehension among insurers and state officials just weeks before consumers must start enrolling in plans for next year.

While some GOP lawmakers expected consumers could experience major problems in the months ahead, they argued that the ongoing instability would backfire on Democrats and build momentum for the ACA’s eventual repeal.

“I personally think it’s time for the American people to see what the Democrats have done to them on health care,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). “They’re going to find they can’t pay for it, they’re going to find that it doesn’t work. . . . Now that will make it tough on everybody. Maybe that’s what it take to wise people up.”

Wednesday is the deadline for insurers to sign contracts with the federal government so that they can sell health plans on the ACA marketplaces for 2018. Many companies are hiking these rates by double digits, but they have suggested they would curb such increases if they had assurances that the federal government would provide cost-sharing reduction payments for all of next year. Those subsidies provide discounts to lower-income customers for their health plan’s deductibles and other out-of- pocket costs.

Republican leaders could call on Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to revive negotiations with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on a bipartisan package to stabilize the current insurance marketplaces. The pair had appeared to be reaching an agreement on a plan to guarantee the cost-sharing subsidies for at least a year in exchange for limited waivers to give states more flexibility in how they spend that money. Those talks stalled when Alexander stepped aside to allow GOP leaders to focus on securing votes for Graham-Cassidy.

“I would imagine that Senator Alexander is going to continue to work on that, and hopefully Senator Murray will as well,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Tuesday.

At the moment, the Trump administration is only covering cost-sharing payments on a month-to-month basis; a White House official confirmed Tuesday that it had made a payment for September. Asked what the president intended to continue making payments going forward, the aide said officials have not yet decided what to do.

Trump has suggested on several occasions that if a replacement bill does not pass Republicans should let the current system fail, forcing Democrats to negotiate.

It is unclear how much appetite there is for a stabilization bill among Republicans in the Senate, let alone in the House. Aides to House GOP leaders said they did not see a bill providing billions in ACA subsidies as viable in the lower chamber, and that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) had conveyed that to GOP senators.

Democrats, meanwhile, reiterated their interest in striking a deal Tuesday, with Murray saying that while “damage has been done” by delaying an agreement, “let’s pick back up right where we left off, and let’s do it right now.”

“The clock is ticking, Democrats are at the table, and I hope Republican leaders will now allow us to get back to work on lowering costs for patients and families and stabilizing the markets,” the senator said. “We don’t have a minute to spare.”

Some congressional Republicans — such as Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who represents a swing district — echoed that call.

“I think the time for partisan health-care reform has passed, and we should focus on a bipartisan package that provides some regulatory relief, especially on the employer mandate,” Curbelo told reporters, “and also guarantees [cost-sharing subsidies] for the most vulnerable people.”

Lanhee Chen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said in an interview that he had initially hoped the Graham-Cassidy bill would have allowed Republicans to move past their policy divisions on health care.

“I thought at least every Republican, or every conservative, would agree with the idea that when it came to health care, it would make sense to give states the freedom and flexibility to pursue a path that would work best for their residents,” said Chen, who also directs domestic policy studies at Stanford University’s public policy program. “That was a principle I was pretty certain could garner the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate.”

But even that sort of consensus seemed elusive, Chen said, and the fact that Republicans are rushing to pass the bill by the end of the month has produced “a flawed process” that has allowed some critics to sidestep more serious questions, such as the long-term sustainability of the Medicaid program.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Trump said he was “disappointed in certain so-called Republicans” who would not back the Graham-Cassidy bill.

The president declined to speculate Tuesday morning on whether he wanted lawmakers to actually vote on the measure, saying, “We’ll see what happens.”

“It’s going along and at some point, there will be a repeal and replace,” Trump added. “But we’ll see whether that point is now or whether it will be shortly thereafter.”

[The Cassidy-Graham bill probably won’t become law. And more than half of America is good with that.]

Two GOP senators — Rand Paul (Ky.) and John McCain (Ariz.) — already had come out last week against the measure and were not swayed by a new draft that emerged after the weekend. Monday evening, after the Congressional Budget Office projected that “millions” of Americans would lose insurance if the Graham-Cassidy bill was enacted, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced that she could not support it.

Republicans hold a 52-to-48 advantage in the Senate; they can lose only two votes from their party and still pass legislation with the help of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Pence.

A fourth Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), indicated through his aides Monday that he would not back the bill in its current form because it would not go far enough in repealing the 2010 law.

Kelsey Snell, Amy Goldstein, David Weigel and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

Video marketing prep for great holiday results

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Summer is officially over, kids are back in school, and it’s time to start diving into holiday planning. Brands can avoid the rush of the holidays by doing some of the legwork now. At Brandlive, my employer, we assembled some of the key details to start considering today — even if your potential holiday video marketing efforts are still a few months out.

What would your customers find useful for the holidays?

What will resonate with your target customer for the holidays? Will they want to sit back and watch videos or lean forward and participate fully in a live event? What problems do they face, and what video approach would best solve those?

Gift ideas and inspirations are great opportunities to give them a way to ask questions and participate in a live video event with real depth and meaning. But if they would just want to see holiday feel-good content, then highly produced video content may be the solution.

By anticipating customers’ questions and problems that come with the holidays ahead of time, it’s easier to create video marketing that people want to watch and that will be effective. But proactively addressing concerns creates more value for the video later on as well.

Unique live video opportunities

Some companies have vibrant marketers or chief executives who can effectively connect directly with consumers through various social platforms. Those individuals may have followings of their own and can draw an audience with ease. Live video can be extremely agile, allowing them to reach an audience, interact and solve their problems in real time.

But sometimes generating interest in a video event needs a more notable third party, which can also lend some additional validation to your marketing. That’s where an influencer can come in.

While influencers can be valuable assets to campaigns, their time is also easily booked up — especially come the holidays, with every brand looking for the right recipe to connect with consumers. If you know who you want to utilize, even if you haven’t planned the whole event yet, book them now!

Make your list and check it twice

Need a set? New video recording equipment? Baskets of swag to send to influencers? As your plan unfolds, identify what needs to be purchased, built, created or sent well in advance.

Then, create realistic goals for when each of those micro-projects must be completed. All of those elements are essential to your event going off without a hitch. Don’t pass up the benefit of the long ramp you’re currently working with (which will make everything a lot easier in the days leading up).

Embrace a holiday (brain)storm

You have time until your holiday video event, but these months can be used to continue refining your ideas and run-of-show as much as possible. The more information you have now, the more buttoned-up you’ll actually be when the event goes live. Start taking a crack at a rough script and enlist other points of view to make sure early plans are resonating beyond your own thought bubble.

As a marketer, it’s unlikely you’re an army of one. So ask around for what others have seen in holiday videos that have kept them watching. What products or services need to be front-and-center, and what are creative ways to lead customers to spending money with you as as a direct result of the event?

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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North Korea says US ‘declared war,’ warns it could shoot down US bombers

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NEW YORK/SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s foreign minister said on Monday President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserved the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. bombers even if they are not in its air space.

Ri Yong Ho said a Twitter message by Trump on Saturday, in which the president warned that the minister and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer” if they acted on their threats, amounted to a declaration of war.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on Monday denied the United States had declared war, calling the suggestion “absurd”.

Speaking earlier in New York, where he had been attending the annual U.N. General Assembly, Ri told reporters: “The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country.”

”Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.

“The question of who won’t be around much longer will be answered then,” Ri added.

On Saturday, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighters flew east of North Korea in a show of force after a heated exchange of rhetoric between Trump and Kim over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

“That operation was conducted in international airspace, over international waters, so we have the right to fly, sail and operate where legally permissible around the globe,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning said on Monday.

North Korea, which has remained technically at war with the United States since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty, has been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland and conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test this month.

FEARS OF MISCALCULATION

Pyongyang, which has pursued its missile and nuclear programs in defiance of international sanctions, accuses the United States of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.

However, recent rhetoric from both sides has been unusually harsh, raising fears of miscalculation that could have massive repercussions, even though U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed the administration prefers a negotiated solution.

Related Coverage

  • North Korea moving airplanes, boosting defense after U.S. bomber flight: Yonhap
  • China’s U.N. envoy says North Korea, U.S. rhetoric ‘too dangerous’
  • Notion U.S. has declared war on North Korea is ‘absurd,’ White House says

The latest round of heavy verbal salvoes began when Trump threatened in his maiden U.N. address last Tuesday to “totally destroy” North Korea, a country of 26 million people, if it threatened the United States or its allies.

In an unprecedented direct statement on Friday, Kim called Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” he would tame with fire.

Kim said North Korea would consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States and that Trump’s comments had confirmed Pyongyang’s nuclear program was “the correct path”.

Ri told the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” Trump called Kim a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

On Twitter late Saturday, Trump replied: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”

On Monday, White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster defended Trump’s rhetoric, saying he agreed with the U.S. president that the risk was that Kim Jong Un might fail to realize the danger he and his country were facing.

McMaster voiced confidence that the United States could, for example, impose a military blockade if it chose, perhaps even as a part of a multinational effort. But he acknowledged risks of escalation with any U.S. military option.

“We don’t think there’s an easy military solution to this problem. There’s not a precision strike that solves the problem. There’s not a military blockade that can solve the problem,” he said, adding that ultimately it would come down to an international effort.

Still, McMaster told a conference hosted by the Institute for the Study of War, Washington was concerned a nuclear-armed North Korea capable of hitting the United States was likely to engage in “nuclear blackmail,” for instance to try to achieve its goal of getting U.S. troops off the Korean peninsula.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said it was vital Seoul and the United States handle the situation “with astuteness and steadfastness … to prevent a further escalation of tension or any kind of accidental military clashes in the region which can quickly spiral out of control.”

“There cannot be another outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula; the consequences would be devastating,” she told Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

CALLS FOR RESTRAINT

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the most senior serving U.S. official ever to visit Pyongyang, said it was “important to lower the temperature” of rhetoric.

“I‘m kind of concerned about accidents of some kind that might happen,” she said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the only solution to the crisis was a political one.

“Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

China, North Korea’s neighbor and main ally, which has nevertheless backed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, called for restraint on all sides.

“We want things to calm down. It’s getting too dangerous and it’s in nobody’s interest,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told Reuters.

“We certainly hope (the United States and North Korea) will see that there is no other way than negotiations to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula … The alternative is a disaster.”

China’s said it was vital that everyone implement all North Korea-related U.N. resolutions, which call for both tighter sanctions and efforts to resume dialogue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking to British Prime Minister Theresa May by telephone, said he hoped Britain could play a constructive role in achieving a peaceful solution via talks, Chinese state media said.

Defense experts said North Korea would have difficulty shooting down a U.S. bomber with missiles or fighter planes given its limited capabilities, and if it tried and failed, would appear weak.

“It is unlikely to take such a risk,” said Bruce Bennett of the Rand Corp think tank. “So this sounds like another attempt by North Korea to ‘deter by bluster’ U.S. actions the regime does not like.”

Ri warned on Friday North Korea might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean, in what would be North Korea’s first atmospheric nuclear test. Experts said such a move, while perhaps not imminent, would be proof of North Korea’s ability to successfully deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Christine Kim in Seoul; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom, Idrees Ali, Doina Chiacu, Phil Stewart and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Zhu Zhang in Beijing, Elizabeth Piper in London and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Writing by Philip Wen and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Grant McCool and James Dalgleish

Help slow to arrive in Puerto Rico in aftermath of Hurricane Maria

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A pair of satellite photos captures the dire situation in Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. One photo, from July, shows the island brightly lit. The other, taken Sunday, shows Puerto Rico and surrounding islands in darkness.

With nearly all the power out, many are trapped. Help is slow to arrive.

« Where’s the Army? » one woman asked.

170925-en-begnaud-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-01.jpg

Photo shows Puerto Rico before and after Hurricane Maria swept through the island.

More than 1,000 people slept in the airport overnight waiting for a flight. They had nowhere else to go. There were no cots or water. Children were bathed in sweat as parents tried to keep them calm.

« We’re fed up. This is going to be a riot here, » the woman said.

Another woman said her mother needs dialysis and she was waiting at the airport for more than 20 hours.

170925-en-begnaud-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-04.jpg

People stranded at an airport in Puerto Rico as the island recovers from Hurricane Maria.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello says he’s pleaded for more money from FEMA for help. So far, $1 billion was earmarked for recovery. But it’s not apparent here yet.

« The quantity of aid that comes to Puerto Rico needs to be consistent with the aid that would be provided anywhere else in the United States, » Gov. Rossello said.

Puerto Rico has been in the dark since Hurricane Maria slammed the island last week. At least 85 percent of the power lines were knocked out and it may be months before they are repaired.

The head of Puerto Rico’s Telecommunication Alliance wrote to President Trump on Monday, warning that things will get even worse unless there is fuel to supply generators.

170925-en-begnaud-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-07.jpg

Power lines down in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria slammed the island.

At a press conference Monday, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert defended the government’s response.

« President Trump remains completely committed to the response and recovery efforts on Puerto Rico and will remain so until Puerto Rico is fully recovered, » Bossert said.

U.S. military helicopters and aircraft are distributing food and other relief supplies to cities and towns around the island who have been waiting for days.

Hurricane Maria

Hurricane Maria

Powerful hurricane tore through the Caribbean and made a direct hit on Puerto Rico

TVPage, PowerReviews Partner To Enable Interactivity Within Marketing Videos

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Through the partnership, brands and retailers will be able to add interactive calls-to-action to their sales and product marketing videos. This includes directing viewers to ask questions if a video isn’t providing an answer to their questions.

“This partnership represents a powerful combined commerce solution,” said Allon Caidar, CEO of TVPage. “By embedding ‘Ask a Question’ buttons in product and marketing videos, merchants can expect significant increases in engagement and conversion.” 

Refereum Transforms Game Marketing and Engagement; Advised by Twitch and Unity

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Traditionally, game companies spend exorbitant amounts of money on marketing channels that often prove inefficient. Meanwhile, Twitch and YouTube personalities produce content about video games that is now more popular than televised sports, but they have no way effective way to work directly with game developers at scale. The Refereum cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology to bypass traditional advertising companies and complex legislative and geopolitical restrictions, shifting over $100 billion in advertising revenue from corporations to distribute to individual game players.

By cutting the marketing middleman, Refereum directly rewards influencers and gamers for promoting and playing video games — something otherwise unattainable for most influencers.

Refereum is working with Twitch, the most prominent influencer gaming platform; Unity, the world’s most used game engine; and Ambisafe, which has secured cryptocurrency projects like Tether and Chronobank. Refereum is backed by a team with years of experience at top-tier game and tech companies such as Zynga and Google, with veteran analysts, developers, business development managers, and marketers leading the project.

On November 13th, Refereum will put 30,000,000 RFR utility tokens available for sale, at an initial rate of $1 per with early adoption discounts. The engineer of the Smart Contract managing the ERC20 tokens is none other than Oleksii Matiiasevych, the white hat hacker who saved millions in July’s multi-sig exploit. Interested buyers, game developers, and gamers can now subscribe to the Refereum.com newsletter for future news and announcements.

Learn more about Refereum at: https://Refereum.com
Read whitepaper at: https://Refereum.com/pdf/RefereumWhitepaper.pdf

Media Contact
Contact Name: Dylan Jones
Contact Email: [email protected]
Location: San Francisco, California

The Impact Of Live Streaming On Influencer Marketing

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Live streaming can greatly benefit the use of influence marketing.

Influencer marketing is a common method for reaching highly engaged online audiences, but many companies are still trying to fine-tune the best methods for cashing in on influencers and their popularity. Live streaming offers a fresh and effective way to pull influencers into your campaigns. When well-trusted influencers and compelling live streams come together, it’s almost impossible for audiences to look away. Discover some of the fascinating ways that live streaming is shaping the face of influencer marketing campaigns.

Make Influencers More Accessible To Audiences

Live streaming allows viewers to engage with popular influencers on a new level. An undeniable thrill exists to getting a celebrity or other popular influencer to respond to your tweet or comment. That sense of excitement amplifies when you get a live response to your questions or comments. Live streaming gives a face and voice to the content, items that are lacking in written forms of marketing.

Live streaming also trumps pre-recorded video when you need to pack a personality-driven punch. Scripted videos are just that — scripted. In a live stream, you have an added sense of uncertainty and anticipation because you don’t know what will happen next.

Influencer Brian Fanzo gave a compelling example of how conversations can derail in a live video stream. Fanzo was attempting to give a backstage tour via live stream when viewers began steering the conversation toward his smartphone. Adapting quickly, Fanzo went with the flow and said, « We started talking about technology because that is where participants wanted to go. » Working with an influencer for live video marketing campaigns makes both the host and your brand more accessible to audiences in an authentic and compelling way.

Create Content With Quantitative ROI

The ROI of influencer marketing is often difficult to measure. However, live streaming is one area where you can get measurable results that offer valuable information for crafting future campaigns. By the third quarter of 2015, year-over-year ad views had increased 113 % for live video. In 2016, 81% of internet audience members viewed more live content than they did the previous year. By 2021, the live streaming industry could reach $70.05 billion.

Live streaming is an outstanding way to reach the online audience. The technique has massive appeal for viewers, drawing them in far more than traditional online videos. Videos on Facebook Live get viewed for three times as long as a pre-recorded video.

At first glance, live streaming may seem like another form of entertainment, but the possibilities go much deeper. Companies can use powerful influencers and live video to access audiences in many diverse industries. Twitter streamed more than 600 hours of live video in the fourth quarter of 2016. Of these hours, only 10% were entertainment, while 38% concerned news and politics, and 52% involved sports

Build Trust With Viewers

Live video comes with a generous helping of transparency. Your influencer’s voice will ring truer in a live conversation with fans than it does in a blog post. Viewers can engage with your product or service and the influencer in open conversation handled in real time.

If you’re looking for a compelling way to build trust with your audience, a live video is a great place to start. Offer a behind-the-scenes tour of your offices or production facilities. Invite an industry influencer to interview some of your staff members in a live conversation with questions and comments from viewers.

Provide Cost-Effective Access To Video Marketing

If you’re looking for an affordable way to add video to your marketing campaign? Professionally produced videos can be staggeringly expensive. Even the DIY approach takes time and video editing software. Those two elements are part of the reason why influencers love live streaming so much. All you need is a solid internet connection and quality smartphone to live stream video.

Tony Wang, co-founder of agora.io says using an influencer for your live stream adds to the value of your low-cost endeavor. « Influencers offer instant access to their highly engaged audience, » he says. « While a live stream hosted exclusively in-house will reach your own fans and followers, working with an influencer will expand your reach without leveraging the massive expense of creating a highly produced video. »

Create Hosting Opportunities For Popular Events

Working with influencers and live media streams, you can add live hosts to your events with minimum production or preparation costs. When NBC launched Hairspray Live, the network engaged 20 influencers to help hype the event. Some of these popular names hosted the event through Facebook Live while it was airing on television.

Adding an influencer stream to your event offers engaged fans a fun new way to take part in the action from a remote location. It also builds awareness of the event among those who didn’t know about it. Live streams appear at the top of social media feeds, so users receive 200% more notifications for live streams than for other activity.

Allow Influencers To Fine-Tune Marketing Strategies

Live streams give smart influencers a wealth of new opportunities for successfully promoting your brand and driving conversions. When you’re producing a scripted video, blog, or other static media post, you can edit to your heart’s content, but you’ll have to cross your fingers and hope for the best when you finally post your piece.

“In a live stream influencers can respond compellingly to feedback from the audience, » says attorney Timothy Abeel who uses live streaming. « They might answer questions, ease concerns, or simply use the viewers’ comments to make snap decisions about which direction to take as they tour your facility or show off new products. There’s nothing like offering the opportunity for potential buyers to ask their trusted influencer to demonstrate a product feature live. When the influencer responds to the viewers’ interests while keeping your company front and center, you have live media gold.”

Live video is a powerful medium that can find a place in any online marketing campaign. Adding an influencer to the mix will only make your posts more powerful. Bringing a trusted face and name into an authentic live video will allow you to reach your audience in the most personable way possible.