Video cloud service Brightcove has announced that Sydney Festival has selected the platform to improve its user experience through online video content.

Brightcove will do so by removing third-party branding and pre-roll ads, as well as adding autoplay functionality, ahead of the event in January.

Leveraging the Brightcove video platform to host and publish video content, Sydney Festival will be able to seamlessly integrate brand-consistent video content across its website homepage and hub pages.

Prior to using the Brightcove platform, the festival hosted videos on YouTube and embedded them into its website for event promotion. By migrating to Brightcove, Sydney Festival now has complete control over the video viewing experience.

This includes the ability to embed hero videos, which serve as headers across the homepage and act as visual previews, a key element of Sydney Festival’s updated website.

Through the Brightcove video platform, Sydney Festival has access to real-time video analytics to measure and report on the performance of its video content.

Tina Walsberger, head of marketing and customer services at Sydney Festival, said: “Sydney Festival is an annual three-week take-over of our amazing city, filling it with high-quality art and big ideas.

“Video plays a crucial role in getting people excited about what’s coming up and visually communicating what each individual event has to offer.

“Brightcove has provided an integrated video solution that allows us to track our videos across platforms, while also eliminating third-party branding.

“The autoplay functionality enhances the look and feel of the overall site, which is important to attracting audiences and keeping them engaged for longer.”

Brightcove’s vice president for Australia and New Zealand, Mark Stanton, said: “While video platforms like YouTube offer an easy fix for publishing video online, they come at a price – and that’s control over the user experience.

“Brands don’t constrain themselves to predefined website templates, so why treat video differently?

“Free video players disrupt the brand experience and are designed to drive the audience back to their platform. They also provide limited analytics and insights, making it harder to measure success and adapt to what is working and what is not.

“For brands like Sydney Festival, where online content is an important part of attracting audiences and ultimately driving sales, having video seamlessly integrated into the overall digital experience in a controllable, brand-consistent way is hugely important.

“We look forward to working closely with the organisation in the lead-up to and following the festival.”