We had the honor and privilege of producing Brightcove’s PLAY 2021, a two-day global virtual event that reached over 6000 attendees, supported over 40 speakers, and presented more than 60 sessions across three different time zones. This year’s PLAY virtual event united marketers, publishers, OTT providers, HR managers, C-level execs, influencers, and video aficionados alike for two jam-packed days full of learning, networking, and of course -moments of inspiration!
If you couldn’t attend but are ready to transform your business with video, read on for our key PLAY 2021 takeaways.
Executive Keynote: The Future of Connection
To formally kick off PLAY 2021, Brightcove CEO Jeff Ray welcomed attendees across the globe as they tuned in to explore the power of video, encouraging them to push the boundaries of what’s possible during his executive keynote session, The Future of Connection.
There’s no denying it – our lives depend on connections. They are essential and today we need more meaningful connections more than ever before.
So, what bridges the connection between you and your audience? It’s video. Video connects us when we need it the most. But not all video is the same.
“Push the boundaries of what’s possible with video. Video that means business.”
JEFF RAY, CEO OF BRIGHTCOVE
Session Spotlights
There were so many amazing topics and sessions to tune into, but here are a couple that really stood out:
How Akamai Connects Their Global Workforce With Digital Events
In this breakout session, Brightcove CMO Jennifer Griffin Smith sits down with leaders from Akamai’s Global Events team to hear how they navigated the shift to digital and found greater success in their internal event programs.
With more than 9,000 employees working across 40 locations, Akamai relies heavily on internal events to bring its people together. With such a distributed workforce, it’s always a challenge to think of new ways to keep their community engaged. This became even more important as employees became more isolated from their teams during the pandemic. So, when they had to pivot their annual meeting from in-person to virtual, they saw an opportunity to ensure the Akamai community had the same experience regardless of location. The challenge they faced as an industry leader in content delivery was finding the right tools and the right platform that would enable a high-quality, stable streaming experience.
“We’ve found that 62 percent of our people are engaging with our live sessions, which is about 10x the number that are engaging on-demand after the fact.”
SIMON GERZINA, SENIOR MANAGER OF GLOBAL EVENTS & DIGITAL PRODUCTION AT AKAMAI
What was key to their virtual event success? Tune into the full session on-demand to find out!
All Things Video Marketing With HubSpot and Wibbitz
Another favorite session featuring HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar and Wibbitz CMO Hilary Kay dives into all things video marketing. While many are familiar with HubSpot, the leading marketing automation platform that coined the term “inbound marketing,” some may be less familiar with Wibbitz – a quick and easy-to-use online video creation software that gives you the freedom to create short-form video online.
Kipp and Hilary share their experience and insight into how to stay ahead of ever-changing video content trends, why brands and media companies are becoming too similar, and what opportunities are ahead in 2022.
When asked how he embraces emerging video content trends, Kipp suggests keeping things ‘different but familiar.’ The content should be different than anything else that’s out there, but familiar enough that it’s not jarringly different so that people can organize it in their heads.
“Don’t get lost in the sea of sameness. Deliver the story in a very different and remarkable way. It’s all about highly produced content that’s very vivid aligned with the brand – more like a in depth video commercial vs. 90 second explainer video.”
KIPP BODNAR, CMO OF HUBSPOT
Exciting Announcements from Brightcove
Last but certainly not least, we would be remiss not to mention some exciting new announcements shared by the Brightcove product team.
Introduction to Brightcove Marketing Studio
Tired of too much investment and not enough return when it comes to your video marketing strategy? Lucky for you, Brightcove now has a solution for that which was just announced during PLAY 2021! Visit To learn how you can leverage Brightcove’s Marketing Studio and get more from your video investment, visit Brightcove.com/studio.
What is CorpTV and Why Do You Need It?
At OVATION, we’re constantly encouraging our clients to ‘Think like TV.’ And since our friends at Brightcove agree with this philosophy, they’ve now launched a new way to deliver marketing videos, product announcements, training programs, and move through Brightcove CorpTV. If you want to see CorpTV in action, check out Brightcove’s very own branded channel, PLAY TV.
Ready to discuss ways you can use platforms like Brightcove and event production talent like OVATION to leverage the power of video? Contact us today and let’s start the conversation.