Executives from Walmart, iHeartMedia and TalkShopLive discuss the secrets of livestreaming and its original influencers
More highlightshts from Variety’s Executive Interview Studio, presented by Canva, during this year’s Advertising Week in New York City. EVP of digital marketing at iHeartMedia Jeff Cucinell sat down to reveal how much they trust iHeartRadio’s personalities and how early radio was essentially the first influencers.
Meanwhile, Bryan Moore, CEO and co-founder of TalkShopLive, spoke with Justin Breton, director of brand experiences and partnerships at Walmart, to explain this fast-growing new livestream shopping experience. And despite the household names associated with the brand, Moore warns that sometimes all you need is a folding table and a great product.
TalkShopLive reveals what fans are actually looking for on the streaming platform
TalkShopLive combines livestreaming and home shopping and has already hosted big names such as Dolly Parton, the Jonas Brothers, John Legend, Anna Wintour, Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.
But before Paul McCartney told listeners to buy his talk, Walmart fully embraced the platform. Breton talked about how Walmart was the first brand to integrate with TalkShopLive, kicking off its foray into TikTok. “Their technology allowed us to provide our customers with a shopping experience not only on walmart.com, but beyond walmart.com, delivering on the idea of meeting customers where they were online, that shopping experience and a sense of frictionlessness .”
Moore highlighted how this livestreaming technique negates a TV commercial because it adds a new dimension of engagement: “One of the things that is so different from home shopping on linear television that we experience together is that people can participate in the video while it is live, right? The content also changes in real time based on what people want to see and why they want to see it.”
iHeart Media’s Jeff Cucinell discusses innovation, audience reach and the power of radio personalities
Cucinell spoke with complete confidence in the power of the iHeart Radio brand and its 850 radio stations, which reach millions of Americans across the country. “We have local markets that conduct groundbreaking interviews every day. We have celebrity guests on our podcast, people at the top of the culture.”
He continued, “Whether that’s Jay Shetty having a conversation with Shawn Mendez, or whether that’s the ‘All the Smoke’ crew with Kamala Harris on the podcast. How can we use all that great content and share it with the power of our brand?” Its purpose lies in trusting the brand’s influence as it moves into new media, especially visual media like YouTube.
Another hot topic in the radio world is podcasting, of which Cuncinell said: “Before social media platforms existed, you had an authentic voice on an authentic platform, radio, speaking to communities. The radio personality is the original influencer.”
The stable and trusted platform understands its position as a major distributor of podcasts: “They are thousands of podcasts in our ecosystem, each with a unique and diverse voice that focuses on developing those voices and sharing them with the right audiences. That’s really what we’re focusing on. as a podcast publisher.”
