Meet Leone Crescenzi, CEO & Founder at SaaS Start-Up: Palco

Palco is a UK-based SaaS startup specialising in digital entertainment and engagement. Through interactive live shows and software tailored to their specific organisational needs and aims, we help brands improve their audience engagement and activate their communities.
 
 

 

 How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
I have dedicated my entire career to the entertainment industry, working in both film and tv; from marketer to tv producer and celebrity consultant. In doing so, I was lucky enough to work with some of the world’s most recognisable talent for both shows and social media campaigns.

However, over recent years I began to see how engagement with live shows on tv was falling while comparable shows on digital platforms like Twitch, Instagram and Facebook were gaining serious traction. I saw brands spend years building their audience, but struggle to ‘activate’ that community and engage them fully.

Creating Palco was my response to this – a way to help media companies win the streaming war – with audience engagement central to my vision. I wanted to take examples of audience comments and reactions on live streams to the next level. I knew there was the technology capable of delivering what I envisioned, and felt the time was right to take a leap of faith. Coupled with other offerings like our trivia game, by combining more traditional media like tv with interactive elements borrowed from casual gaming, we can give audiences the chance to not only view but affect the content they are watching.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
With so many organisations in a state of flux, the pandemic undeniably slowed down our progress in some respects. But the time it afforded us enabled us to improve and refine our software even further.

We’ve also built up an exciting pipeline of brands eager to use our products to engage their audiences – especially after such a long time when the pandemic was the only thing on people’s minds. Although we’re not out of the woods yet, it definitely feels as though there is a renewed sense of optimism and people are ready to engage with new and exciting media.
 

What can we hope to see from Palco in the future?

 
We’re keen to show our digital products can be used in any sector or context, so we’re offering our trivia game for free for six months to a UK charity keen to engage its supporter base.

We’re also going to be launching a new eSports show – Split Screen – in partnership with Cookies Digital and hosted by footballing legend Alessandro Del Piero. The potential applications for what we are almost endless, so it’s an exciting time and we can’t wait for what opportunities we’ll come across in the future.