As times are changing...

Over time, however, we drifted away from solely catering to physical event experiences and turned our focus more and more to digital forums. It became clear that most audiences of today are no longer in the event venue itself, but are listening or watching from afar. For our customers, online participants make up a substantial proportion of their audience and with the rise of virtual & hybrid events due to COVID19, that proportion has only grown.

With new circumstances come new sets of challenges: In a world where most audiences are online and billions of hours of content is uploaded each day, how can event creators make sure their audience is engaging with their content? How can rights holders activate their brands in a way that is not simply ignored? How can organizations & HR-Teams cut through all the distractions, build strong employee relationships and create a vivid company culture despite operating from a distance? And finally, how can we make millions of "virtual events" feel engaging and not like just another live stream? 
 

...so are we.

Stagecast 3.0 specifically caters to online audiences: Stagecast Activities are brand-able, interactive experiences that keep audiences engaged and can be shared or embedded in any channel - All virtual event & meeting platforms, Social Media, Live Streams, Podcasts and of course in-person events. Stagecast equips event creators with digital activities and gamifications - live quizzes, votings, selfie collages and much, much more - and thereby provides a new, powerful tool to activate brands, build communities and engage audiences. Stagecast 3.0 is packed with a ton of features that make creating engaging online and offline events easier than ever.

Please find a full list of new (and upcoming)  features at the bottom of this post.

‍

1. An entire new user interface

Sometimes, you got to go back to the start and re-iterate some of the design choices made. We did exactly that and launched a whole new Stagecast console user-interface. Beautiful in design and utterly practical at the same time: You will love working in the new console, setting up your activities and sharing them from here with your audience.

Some of the highlights are: 

• Live Previews ("Presenter View" & "Participant Mode") - allows you to immediately see and test your activities.
• Live Edit - make changes in your activities live and on the fly, even if the activity was already started.
• Prizes, CTAs & Logo Banners - Outsourced from the rest of the activity setup, you now always see what you have already added. ‍
• Customizable welcome screen - Customize the "empty" room screen that participants see when they join your room and no activity is live.
  ‍

‍

‍

2. Improved prizes

We have learned over the years that adding prizes to activities is a massive engagement driver and key-differentiator of Stagecast compared to other engagement & interaction platforms (We proofed that adding prizes boosts engagement by over 220%!) So, we decided to improve prizes in Stagecast 3.0, made them easier to create and added a bunch of new features.
‍
Some of the highlights are: 

• New win criteria - choose from "Top Ranking", "Reach Score" or "Completion" when adding prizes to your activities.
• Simple setup & editing - three simple steps to add a prize: Choose win criteria, add prize information & set up the prize fulfillment.
• Prize fulfillment - You can now collect winner data right in the Stagecast platform, without having to link to an external form (external form option is still available).
  ‍
  ‍

‍

3. Enhanced data analytics

"Measure" is one of the four key value propositions of Stagecast. So, making data more accessible, easier to read and greater in detail was a no-brainer when redesigning Stagecast.
‍
Some of the highlights are: 

• New activity analytics - Receive aggregated data in the "Room Analytics" and specific performance data in the "Activation Analytics"
• New metrics - get insights about more detailed metrics, such as "number of questions answered", "time spent in activity" or "number of call-to-actions clicked" and much more.
• Download reports (coming soon)- Download data reports as CSV files and import them directly into your CRM system or other analytics platforms.

‍

‍

‍

4. New activities

We improved the existing activities and even added new ones to the portfolio!
‍
Some of the highlights are: 

• New Mosaic Collage - Let your audience take photos, which will be displayed in a branded photo collage and will reveal a custom mosaic image.
• Set number of tries - In competition based activities, such as the Speed Quiz or the Whack-A-Mole activity, you can now limit the number of tries per participant.
• Streamlined branding options - in each activity you can now set a branded header image, background participant & presenter view image and change the color scheme (light or dark).

‍

‍

5. Activity Templates (coming soon)

Stagecast activities are customizable - so customizable, it can sometimes be overwhelming to understand the sheer number of possibilities available. Worry not - we hear you. Templates are about to arrive to the platform and will help you craft beautiful activities with splendid content in no-time.
‍
Some of the highlights are: 

• Christmas Templates - perfect templates for your Christmas team events.
• Team Meeting Templates - Templates to turn your team meetings into two-way conversations.
• Many more - there will be activity templates for many, many different use cases. Check some of them out here.

‍

‍

‍

6. Transparent & flexible pricing

We understand that organizing events and working with (live) audiences is not always as predictable as one would wish. That's why we made Stagecast's pricing even more flexible and transparent. In Stagecast 3.0 you see exactly what you are paying for and can add volume to your account exactly when (and only if) you need it.
‍
Some of the highlights are: 

• More affordable yearly plans - Sign up to Stagecast for an entire year and save over 36%!
• Flexible pricing - purchase participant credits only when you need them.
• Transparent by design - right in the console interface, see exactly how many participant credits were used and when you purchased new ones.
  ‍

Learn more about how participant credits work here and view our pricing here.
‍

‍

‍

And these are just some of the features in the new release - find an extensive list of the new features below.

‍

‍

There is a lot more to look forward to beyond the release of Stagecast 3.0. Over the course of the next months, we will gradually introduce new features, such as new call-to-action templates, custom-crafted activation templates, an all new loyalty program and much, much more. Find an updated list here. Stay tuned!

‍

Did not find what you were looking for? We got many more articles in the Stagecast blog. Why don't you take a look around?

‍‍