Twitch is an online video-based streaming service that allows users to record themselves playing video games, podcasts, music or making general videos while an audience watches and even engages through a live chat feature. Loyal fans can subscribe to their favourite streamers and for a small fee, they can gain access to a variety of perks. These can be anything from new stickers and badges, along with ad-free viewing. Donations can be given to streamers too, often allowing for a personalised message to be written that would pop up on the stream with a question, suggestion or simply just appreciating the streamer.
Twitch is thriving! Just look at the stats:
- Over 15 million active daily users
- An average of 44 billion minutes watched per month
- At any one point, there is an average of 997,174 viewers on Twitch, a significant increase from 101,775 viewers in 2012.
To understand whether Twitch is the ideal platform to include within your marketing strategy, you first need to understand its users and its audience. So, who watches Twitch?
This platform targets a fairly young, predominantly male audience. Here’s a rough overview:
- 55% of twitch users are aged 18-34
- 71% of all viewers are aged 18-49
- 85.1% of viewers are male
The biggest Twitch streamers
To understand how businesses can utilise Twitch, we need to get to grips with the streamers. Anyone can stream on Twitch, so it’s important to do your research and find those who share the same values or interests as you, so any collaboration is aligned with your brand.
Here are some of the biggest streamers on Twitch…
Ninja > 14.7 million followers
Perhaps the biggest and most recognised name on Twitch, and perhaps even the gaming industry; is Ninja. His success took off when he started streaming the game “Fortnite” with his exceptional skill and engagement with the audience. Soon, Ninja was a viral sensation, and even those who had never played Fortnite had heard of him. Even though Ninja no longer uploads videos to Twitch, he still has the greatest following on the platform.
Tfue 8.2 million followers
Another exceptionally skilled player with the game “Fortnite”, Tfue is a streamer, who joined the Faze clan’s Fortnite team, a famous professional team that is involved in many tournaments. In one tournament of a duos game, where two people play in a team, Tfue and his teammate won $510,000.
Shroud > 7 million followers
Shroud is another well-known figure in the gaming industry and is one of the most skilled too. He has had a professional career playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive among other games. He also no longer uploads videos to this particular platform but maintains his position in the top three streamers with the greatest following.
Harnessing Twitch power
Twitch is a great way for you to reach out to new potential customers. Being a digital platform, getting your brand on it could be a great idea for your digital marketing.
Tfue, for example, has been seen to wear shirts with the “G FUEL” logo on it – one of the most popular energy drinks among the gaming community. Sponsorships like these help businesses like G FUEL gain more customers while supporting streamers like Tfue in their passion.
Ninja is sponsored by Red Bull – the most popular energy drink manufacturer. Red Bull has even made a can with Ninja’s face on it – and Ninja’s fans loved it. These cans had a limited supply, and much hype was created around them.
Influencer marketing is big. Influencers can be separated into two types: micro-influencers and macro-influencers. Twitch streamers don’t have to be hugely popular as those with fewer followers can have a more engaged community, so it’s worth doing some research into both the streamer and their audience.
Micro-influencers
These influencers have a smaller following – they tend to have less than 10,000 followers, but they are often incredibly loyal. Working with a micro-influencer is often a great choice as they’re seen as being more authentic.
Another benefit is that micro-influencers are cheaper to work with.
Macro influencers
Macro influencers are well known by tens of thousands, potentially millions of people. These include the likes of Ninja, Tfue, and Shroud. Often, macro-influencers are regarded as celebrities.
Using a macro influencer is a great way to gain visibility and awareness, with a much larger audience. Macro influencers are often also more flexible when it comes to things like social media posts – brands can give them exact instructions, and they are more likely to follow them.
Working with macro-influencers comes at a cost – they tend to be a lot more expensive to work with than micro-influencers due to their ability to reach a much larger audience. This makes them more suitable for bigger businesses with a higher budget.
Getting in contact
Websites like Twinge allow you to find streamers and provide details about the number of view and followers streamers have, ratings and much more. Once you’ve found a streamer you want to make contact, consider the best options. Micro-influencers are fairly easy to get in contact with. Simply messaging these influencers on their social media can be effective as it usually goes directly to them rather than through to a management team, which can be the case with macro-influencers. As such, it’s recommended to email macro-influencers.
Now let’s look at some strategy’s businesses use with Twitch streamers to market their brand.
Marketing opportunities
On-stream branding
Streamers often have a preferred layout they use. They may have the stream as the main part of the screen and a live chat running down the side. This is called a stream overlay.
There is a lot of free space where a brand can place banner adverts. Look at this example, a Twitch streamer who goes by the name Myth.
This stream was being watched by around 8,000 people. To the top right of the stream, you can see “Legion, by Lenovo”. Lenovo Legion is a sub-brand of Lenovo that sells high-end gaming computers and laptops. Already this brand is being exposed to thousands of people.
Under the branding, there is also a promotion code. This is because this partnership between the streamer and Legion would have involved Lenovo giving Myth a unique promotional code that his viewers can use to get a discount, making it more likely for the viewers to purchase something from Lenovo. Effectively, Lenovo can reach a big audience, and to ensure that they can effectively make sales, they are offering a promotion code. Plus, using this code also usually gives commission to the streamer, so loyal fans feel as though they’re supporting their favourite streamers. This is also known as an affiliate deal, where the revenue is shared based on the results the streamer drives to your business.
Paid sponsorship/Sponsored
Some streamers prefer to utilise products on a stream. This is very similar to a football sponsorship contract – where businesses will provide the kit for a football team to utilise during matches, for example, the Emirates and Arsenal sponsorship, which is worth $280 million.
Another major way of utilising Twitch streamers is through paid sponsorships. You pay them, either with cash or supply them with products and they promote your product or service through their streams and social media. They could be seen to wear or use your products, provide a demonstration or review and even run a competition.
A great example of a paid sponsorship on Twitch was when EA sponsored “Roryplays”.
The sponsorship required Roryplays to play a new EA game, “The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs”, to promote it. It was a two-hour session in which she played the game and discussed it. Furthermore, she talked about EA and their generosity towards her.
Interactive stream giveaway – KFC
A fantastic example of an interactive stream giveaway is when American fast-food chain, KFC, partnered up with a Twitch streamer known as DrLupo, famous for playing “Player Unknown’s Battleground” or just “PUBG”. A game where 100 people are placed in a world with nothing. They have to collect resources and eliminate other players to be the last one standing and win.
KFC decided to do something more interactive – every round that DrLupo won, viewers could comment “winner winner” on the live chat, resulting in their comment turning into a chicken wing. This automatically entered them into a gift card giveaway for each round.
The “winner winner” was a pun reference to the phrase “winner winner chicken dinner”.
Twitch can be a great way to market your business and services. With thousands of potential influencers to work with and the ability to get your brand in front of a large engaged and targeted audience, the opportunities are massive! If you want to find out more about influencer marketing or any of the service we provide, get in touch with us today.