Influencer Orchestration Network™

Is Kanvas the Right Streaming Platform for Influencer Marketing?

A new player in the live-streaming app world is armed with features that will appeal to creators and brands alike.

By @erburgess

(photo credit: Guess)

While live-streaming apps started garnering national attention earlier this year with Meerkat’s debut at the SXSW conference, Twitter’s Periscope has dominated the space. With instant access to Twitter followers and more corporate muscle, Periscope quickly grabbed the headlines and added users but not all brands have signed on right away. That could change with Kanvas, AOL’s photo and video sharing app that has now added live-streaming. They’ve joined the fray with marketing-friendly tools just in time to launch a campaign with clothier Guess.

Kanvas has some features missing from its competition that make it a more attractive notion for brands as well as social media creators interested in adding new elements to their live-streaming content. Kanvas allows people to live-stream what they’re doing from their phones as on Periscope or Meerkat, but they can also add filters and graphics to those videos like on Snapchat. Unlike either Periscope or Snapchat, people can add these animations while a video is streaming live so that viewers could watch them as they trace out a drawing. Additionally, Kanvas contains GIF-making abilities to make it easy to create and immediately post animated GIFs as one would on Tumblr.

Kanvas even contains an in-app currency that users can earn by sharing their Kanvas posts on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Kanvas money can then be used to buy stickers and filters to enhance future posts on the platform. Kanvas also plays nicely with messaging apps, allowing people to send private streams or animated gifs through these systems. Like other platforms, Kanvas also offers verified accounts, although they call them “Kanvas Official,” to encourage brands and celebrities to claim the Kanvas account with their name.

Guess obviously saw the potential of the platform and used Kanvas to promote their #GuessAllAccess campaign by live-streaming one of their events. Kanvas provided for Guess a branded live-stream promoted across both companies’ social accounts and including a branded filter for Guess to use throughout the live-stream.

“Kanvas is signing brands because they’ve added the whimsy and fun of the Snapchat experience to this category, allowing people to stretch the creativity of mobile streaming,” says Caroline Collins, Associate Director of Social Strategy at Ayzenberg.

While Kanvas looks to be mostly targeting the teenage market with doodles and stickers, the partnership with Guess indicates that they may be looking to work with brands and reach a broader demographic. Kanvas has been quicker to the market with features that appeal to both brands and social media creators that are interested in their work being part of influencer marketing campaigns for products and services that line up well with their content.