Beatrice Leung, Head of Communications at LiveLike and Founder of SozoSnaps
Hey here!
It’s time for our weekly Live Chat! Today, we have Beatrice Leung, Head of Communications at LiveLike and Founder of SozoSnaps, as our guest!
Here’s more from Beatrice:
What do I do
Hello friends! I’m the Head of Communications at LiveLike, a VR platform that brings game day action to the home of fans. Also the Founder of SozoSnaps (recent new endeavor), where we help you with event based marketing campaigns. One of our secret sauces? We design your Snapchat Geofilters. Outside of work, I blog with one of my best friends, Liz, about our lives and fun shenanigans: mindfulmiles.us.
My Story
Born on the island of Saipan, communities were in my life before I even understood the word itself; and has stuck with me since. I’m a world traveler with a huge sweet tooth and big heart. Always on the hunt for the latest apps and must-haves in life.
Fun Facts/Others
Chemist made Marketer, and occasionally a Law School wannabe. Once a seventh grader told me, my outfit was on fleek (is that word still cool?)
(There are a few topics regarding VR I might not be able to answer as fully as I’d like to right away. But I’ll give you my two cents on it and if needed will find you a better answer after!)
Hey Beatrice! Thanks for joining us today! 😊
Sure thing! Thanks for having me friends.
Snapchat
I’m super curious about the story behind SozoSnaps! Would you mind sharing more about it? — Alfred Lua
Not at all, Alfred Lua. I love Snapchat, most of my friends will tell you it’s my obsession. A few weeks ago at a birthday party, I noticed almost everyone shared the event on their story. A thought came to mind, how cool would it be for us to have our own Snapchat geofilter. Voila, researched it a bit further and found out that’s actually an option. But the thought of designing it yourself can be a little scary so I want to help!
I founded a company that helps small businesses with social media marketing while I was in college and found out that it isn’t always necessary for them to post content everyday. Event based marketing campaigns might be a more powerful alternative, in which Snapchat geofilters also work very well. So Sozosnaps is here to help create event based material for both businesses and personal events.
Oh that leads me to the next thing. I wanted to give away two free Snapchat geofilters to the community. Send me a Snapchat (hellofrombea) about how you use the medium (e.g. vlog style, photos, comedy, storytelling, singing, etc) and I will randomly choose two lucky winners!
And if you didn’t make it in the draw but still want one DM me, I’m doing a huge beta discount.
Okay back to questions.
Question about Snapchat — obviously it’s a super popular consumer social channel right now, but why do you feel like it’s important that businesses get involved too? — Joshua Price
I believe businesses should be where their customers are. And with Snapchat there is a unique culture, it’s less formal and often more authentic; which could be very valuable for brands. People love hearing from other people, a personal connection with the brand can be built through Snapchat. Imagine the local shoe shop that has a funny charismatic sales person you love working with, they’re now on Snapchat and sharing stories with you before you’re next purchase. It creates a sense of loyalty and forms a stronger connection/impression than the ads you might see.
Do you feel Snapchat is stronger when it’s still an individual’s (an employee’s) voice, rather than seeming to come from the business? e.g. a quirky salesperson? — Sami Grady
Hmm that’s a good question. I think the employees are what makes the business a business. They’re often the face of it as well, therefore using their individual voices create a strong connection. That being said it seems less relevant to a large brand (to use often). Lots of larger brands have blown me away with what their design team can create, intuitive animations can really tell a good story on Snapchat.
Do you think partnerships with big event production companies would be in your future? Sorry if that’s so specific…my background is heavy in event planning and I can totally see this service being useful! — Sami Grady
Absolutely Sami, I love collaborations and think we have lots to learn from each other. How do you see something like this being used with big event production companies?
I am picturing organizations and event production companies that plan trade shows or industry events all year, all over the country/world…to have an “in” with them would be awesome. On the flip side, there are small community groups that would benefit from a geofilter but don’t know the first thing about making one e.g. the town of 10k people I’m in now hosts a big international bike race, a 4th of July Celebration, a Pumpkinfest etc. and it is mostly led by an office of two non-tech savvy women (I used to work there 😉) — Sami Grady
Those are some great thoughts, Sami. I’d love to chat more about it! I’ve been thinking about reaching out to companies that host races and such.
Virtual Reality
I’m extremely curious about the current VR scene! like, SUPER exciting! haha I’d love to know how they started in that space and how hard are they finding it. — Diogo Neves
I joined the company after chatting with the TechStars team, I love VR as a new medium and am a huge sports fan so LiveLike seemed like a great match. The team is amazing and I’m so happy to be part of it.
With a new medium comes new opportunities and new obstacles to overcome. Limitations we’ve encountered are resolution, cameras, and other types of equipment. But then there’s also learning how to develop for this new space! The hardest thing I believe is not having examples to learn from, a lot of the things we’re building no one has done before but hey that’s also one of the most amazing parts of it all.
Awesome to have you here Beatrice! I’ve just given LiveLike a quick glance on Google, I’ll be sure to check it out on my Samsung VR when I get home (if available in the UK).
Apologies long-winded question coming up, I feel the context may help you answer. 😄
In the UK, premium broadcaster Sky was very quick to jump on the 3D bandwagon, pushing the platform before 3D TV’s had become affordable and mainstream, launching 3D channels, and convincing pubs to publish in 3D. They moved too quick and while they still use 3D well, it is too much less fanfare and with much less advertising than before. This has perhaps made Sky and other networks more cautious of VR — wrongly so in my opinion -while VR shares some of the same problems as 3D, it is far more immersive and has many more innovators pushing it along. With that in mind:
When do you think watching VR content will become mainstream and widely supported in sports, entertainment and documentaries? — Chris Joyce ⚡
Great question, Chris! Google has announced that by the end of this year there will be a gearVR like quality headset for all Android phones. In my opinion, that’s HUGE! Everyone with an Android phone can then have access to an immersive VR experience.
The google cardboard is becoming a more commonly seen item as well, with the NYTimes giving away millions of them, it really shines light to the industry. I believe within 5 years, a VR headset will not be a stranger to most of us, and with that more content is only to follow. P.S. We just announced a collaboration with Sky this week!
Here’s an article you might like!
Awesome, I’ll give that a watch, I like the fact the Man City match will be trialed in VR, I think it’s odd people at the stadium will be trialing it. I know they’ll get a better view etc, but a restricted view and being in sync with fans is part of the matchday experience, you risk losing those with VR. — Will definitely work for those watching from home, will be difficult to send out match related tweets 😝 — Chris Joyce ⚡
We’re definitely creating the platform for fans to enjoy at home, don’t want to take away from the stadium experience! The live tests on site really help gather feedback and test things. We’ll be integrating a hashtag feed option in the suite, tweeting is to come soon. It’s much harder to type in VR XD.
Looking back…and looking forward
What accomplishment are you most proud of from the last year? — Sami Grady
This has been the biggest growth year for me. It may sound a bit vague but I’m extremely proud of how confident I’ve become. My first panel, first time hosting an event, reaching out to people I admire. Stepping into a room and feeling like I can have my head up, comfortable to reach out and introduce myself has been something I’ve been nervous to do for many of years, now it’s natural!
What’s your plan for the next 2–5 years with your SozoSnaps project and life in general? — Kat Loughrey
My plan for Sozosnaps is to eventually develop into a platform where people can post their marketing campaign needs and designers can accept the jobs (not bid) kind of like the way Uber manages it with drives or TaskRabbit. Also having a web app that can guide users to do it themselves, templates, suggestions and etc. Canva is a great one right now, but I’d like to see snapchat geofilters as an option and also some added suggestion features that guide the user.
Thank you for today’s live chat, a big thanks to all those who contributed too. Great detailed answers and rather than multiple one-on-one discussions I believe we genuinely had a group live chat which is quite the feat! I look forward to seeing more of your insights in the community and the Snapchat geofilter. — Chris Joyce ⚡
Woop! Thanks for this enriching hour, Beatrice Leung! What Chris Joyce said! All the best with your ventures at LiveLike and SozoSnaps! I’m personally so excited for SozoSnaps! 😊
Big thanks to you all for attending and asking great questions too! 😊
Feel free to stay around to chat but no obligations at all! — Alfred Lua
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