Salesforce and AWS recently announced a customisable direct-to-consumer (D2C) offering for next-generation video streaming and monetisation that is scalable and easy to deploy. The joint offering provides content distributors with real-time viewer data and feedback to better understand how audiences interact with their content, such as where they click and pause. The partnership combines technology from both Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) platforms. It leverages Salesforce’s end-to-end subscriber lifecycle management solution, powered with artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled personalisation, customer data and analytics, and AWS’s media, data, analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities.
Building and scaling a profitable D2C streaming service that helps content distributors manage the customer lifecycle remains a complex task. Attracting and retaining a diverse audience while delivering consistent, high-quality video content represents only a few of the challenges content distributors face today. To help alleviate some of these pain points, the Salesforce and AWS D2C offering combines high-quality video streaming technology with unique viewer data and feedback analysis tools to help content distributors deliver more personalised viewer experiences. This supports targeted marketing, intelligent content recommendations for audiences on a per-viewer level, configurable product bundles, and more.
“The Salesforce and AWS relationship brings together a comprehensive, industry-specific media offering designed for video and live streaming services. This allows content distributors to enhance their capabilities while also helping them rapidly launch new service offerings, such as subscription packages and product bundles,” said Christopher Dean, VP and GM, Media and Entertainment and Media Cloud, Salesforce. “Together, we’re providing a rich set of scalable content tools and AI-driven subscriber journeys to further help studios, streamers, publications, and other distributors quench consumers’ thirst for personalised content.”
Direct-to-consumer video subscription offering from Salesforce and AWS offers unique benefits to content distributors
The global offering provides the following features and enhancements to content distributors:
- More Integrated, Personalised Experiences: Content distributors can personalize viewer experiences while driving new subscriber acquisition, generating incremental revenues while increasing customer loyalty, retention, and support. For example, a subscription streaming service can recommend upcoming pay-per-view content, such as a professional car racing championship special. This personalises content experiences for a car-loving subscriber while integrating new content delivery models – like live streaming – on top of existing subscription services.
- Increased Retention with Additional Insight into Viewer Intelligence: Content distributors can gain deeper insight into subscriber engagement with content such as clickstream actions or likes and dislikes on specific content recommendations served up to a subscriber. Access to these insights help inform marketing campaigns, ultimately helping to convert them to longer-term subscribers. For example, a fitness video service notices that a subscriber’s engagement is beginning to fade. The fitness service’s marketing team can then serve up new classes from that subscriber’s favorite instructor to drive new engagement while reducing churn.
- Configurable Platform to Easily Support Innovation: Content distributors now have a view into the entire subscriber journey and engagement with their content from start to finish. As a result, a content distributor can introduce content-driven commerce experiences and targeted ad placements to enhance their monetisation efforts. For example, a brand can place one of its relevant products on a video stream, enabling the viewer to purchase that product at the same time they’re watching a video.
“As development continues, Salesforce will continue to work with AWS and inspire the industry to consider deeper integration between the subscriber lifecycle and D2C video delivery, identifying and engaging audiences to make monetisation simpler and more cost effective,” said Dean.
Salesforce and AWS technologies are already helping drive innovation and transformation at some of the world’s most recognised brands – including NBC Universal – to increase customer loyalty and engagement and reduce D2C streaming service ownership costs.
Together now, this combined offering will enable content distributors of all shapes and sizes to build innovative, scalable, and profitable offerings for audiences to help meet consumer demand for content.