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AOL opens live-streaming destination, Build Studio, in New York


The new BUILD Studio encompasses 13,412 square feet and is designed to shoot in 360Âş video, and will look to manifest AOL?s goal of putting fans ?closer to today?s culture by connecting the most compelling, interesting and influential creators in the world with their fans.? The series?produced in New York City and London?will stream over 75 live events per month, with more than four hours of live programming each day on a mobile-optimized Web site.

?The BUILD Series is a very different format than traditional user-generated content.? said Jesse Chambers, vice president of monetization at AOL. ?We produce video of the highest quality, using a combination of broadcast TV and film cameras to create compelling visuals that are often only seen in film and commercial photography.?

?Since we primarily shoot web- and mobile-based content, we can create programming that feels more like film, and less like TV and gives us the opportunity to create content tailored to the platform it is being consumed.?

Build Studio
Located at 692 Broadway in New York, the Build Studio will be AOL?s main producer of immersive celebrity content, primarily in the form of socially-directed interviews. Build Series guests will take questions from the live audience or from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or from the Build series application, where users can also watch live interviews, browse clips and set reminders for upcoming events on the Build Studio ledger.

The studio is also a bald attempt at courting the millennial market, who are seen to be especially amenable to the persuasions of infuencers and celebrities. 


?We always want to be looking at what's happening in pop culture now, as well as what is next for future innovators,? said Suzanne Lindbergh, executive producer of the Build Series. ?To date, The BUILD Series has drawn Oscar winners and nominees like Julianne Moore and Ryan Gosling; Grammy winners such as Elton John and John Legend; Tony winners like Kristin Chenoweth; Olympic athletes including Lindsey Vonn; renowned chefs like Mario Batali; best-selling authors such as Nicholas Sparks and fashion designers like Rebecca Minkoff, among many others.?

?Thursday night?s launch event featured an interview and performance by Kat Graham. As the first guest of the new studio, Kat reflected our intent to create social-first content that resonates with millennials.?

Marketing opportunity
The Build studio represents a confluence of oft-divergent strains of culture, and, if things go according to AOL?s plan, could be a heady nexus of celebrity, content, and marketing. Its success will largely be determined by how well the former and the latter fit together.

Whether 360-degree video, with its less-than-optimal viewing experience even assisted by apparatuses such as Google Cardboard, will grow beyond a fad is also undetermined. Any lags in progress for the platform is not for lack of trying, as brands have been betting heavily on immersive content in the past few months: E! News also recently premiered a pilot of how it would leverage celebrity-centric immersive platforms with the addition of red carpet-focused episodes of its Snapchat show The Rundown, as well as live 360-degree immersive video during the Golden Globes (see story). 

And Twitter has also been clear in its faith in immersive video as a hallmark of its mobile video strategy. The social media platform is fresh off of announcing that it will be offering the ability to record live video in an immersive 360-degree format to ?select partners? of its streaming application, Periscope (see story). 


?Thursday night?s launch event officially marked that we?re open for business,? Mr. Chambers said. ?The Studio enables us to provide experiential opportunities to authentically integrate the brand into the studio, and continue our mission at AOL of building brands people love. 

?Brands can be incorporated into the BUILD Studio in a number of ways, whether by displaying imagery on the front window of the building or on the screens throughout the space; sponsoring products used in the studio, such as beverages or beauty items; or reserving the downstairs room as an event space, which can accommodate everything from a large cocktail party to an intimate dinner.?

?We?re in conversations with brands to create customizable, authentic and innovative ways for them to engage with their audiences through BUILD, which is why we felt it was important to understand and experience the space. We?ll be sure to tell you more once we?re able to share the details.?