It is every brand’s dream to have their product or service be promoted in front of a large global audience of their target customers. For brands that have already started marketing on twitch, this dream is turning into reality.
What is Twitch?
Twitch is a live streaming website owned by Amazon that launched back in 2011. It allows people to create and share content in real time to audiences around the world. A live stream includes 3 main components:
- The content creator – also known as the broadcaster or streamer.
- A live video feed – this is the content being shared by the streamer. This can include a wide variety of activities, including video games, music, sports, etc.
- The audience – also known as the viewers, these are the people that are viewing the content from the streamer in real time. The viewers are able to interact with the streamer through a chat room that is built into each streamer’s broadcast.
Why Advertise on Twitch?
For many of its early years, Twitch was a website that was used exclusively for streaming content revolving around video games. Because of this, Twitch was plagued with video game stigma that kept many advertisers away. Only certain brands that were able to cater to individuals that were labeled as ‘gamers’ were willing to advertise on the website.
However, much has changed since then, and Twitch has since moved away from only allowing video games to be featured on their website. Now, users are able to share just about any kind of content they wish, so long as it follows the website’s terms of service.
While each video game has its own unique category on the website, there are also categories unrelated to video games, including but not limited to:
With the rising popularity of these categories, Twitch is starting to entertain a wider variety of consumers. The video game stigma that once plagued the website has all but faded away. Now, many brands are beginning to understand the potential that Twitch holds.
In fact, Twitch boasts some impressive statistics, many of which have advertisers licking their lips:
| 1 trillion minutes watched in 2020 | Users accessed Twitch from over 230 different countries | 21% of users between ages 13-17 |
| 30 million average daily visitors | 50% of users between ages 18-34 | 1.4+ million average concurrent website viewership |
Some of the brands that have already started taking advantage of Twitch advertising include:
- Old Spice
- Logitech
- Chipotle
- KFC
- Red Bull
Twitch is a versatile platform and it offers each of these brands a unique way to market their products or services that best allows them to reach their target customer.
Types of Marketing on Twitch
Traditional Video Ads
Like many other platforms with video-watching capabilities, Twitch typically runs ads by default on the streams of content creators who use their platform.
Additionally, content creators who have a large enough following and are partnered with Twitch are able to choose when to run ads on their streams.
Twitch sees a majority of the ad revenue generated by this, but the streamers also see a small percentage as well, based on the scale of their viewership.
Common practice has many streamers running a set of ads on their channels around once per hour. Typically, when users are forced to watch a set of ads, it is met with resentment and sometimes even leads the user to leave the website entirely.
However, because each content creator is able to develop their own community of followers and fans, many viewers are okay with watching ads, knowing that it supports their favourite content creators.
Affiliate Marketing
Many brands choose to partner up with streamers they know will regularly hold a large amount of concurrent viewers. These partnership deals generally involve:
- Paying the content creator a financial sum,
- Offering free use of products/services,
- Supplying a customized referral code which usually grants a discount when used.
In return, advertisers will have:
- Their logo visible on the live streams to all viewers that are watching,
- A link to their website on the streamer’s channel.
- The streamer occasionally promote the product/service verbally, helping to keep it top of mind to the audience.
Some examples of affiliate marketing on Twitch include:
- Logitech, computer hardware and software company, has teamed up with popular streamer Shroud, known for playing various first person shooter games. Shroud has over 9.3 million followers and 19,000 average viewers.
- Red Bull, a popular energy drink company, teamed up with streamer Ninja, also known for playing first person shooter games. Ninja has over 16 million followers and 5,500 average viewers.
- Old Spice, a male grooming products company, partnered with streamer Tyler1, known for his popularity in the game League of Legends. Tyler1 has over 4.3 million followers and 26,000 average viewers.
You can learn more about affiliate marketing here.
Influencer Marketing
Perhaps the most trendy form of advertising on Twitch at the moment is influencer marketing. Brands have realized that each individual streamer can largely impact the decisions their fans and followers make, and want to use this to their advantage.
The idea behind it is simple – if fans see their favourite streamers using a product or service, they will be more likely to use it themselves.
Sure enough, this idea proved to be true once it was put into practice. Here are some statistics provided by Twitch, that shows why more and more brands are using influencer marketing:
- 62% of viewers engage with esports and gaming personalities daily
- 70% of viewers offer monetary support
- 64% of viewers purchase products recommended by influencers
One of the most popular instances of influencer marketing was when Uber Eats partnered with Twitch streamer Ninja in 2018, who was well known for playing the battle-royale style shooter game called Fortnite.
In the game, 100 players are pitted against each other and tasked with being the last person to survive. Uber Eats decided to offer Ninja a challenge – each additional player he eliminated increased the discount of their promotion by 1%.
Ninja ended up getting 25 kills and securing a 25% discount code for his followers. The promotion, which was originally planned to last for 3 days, was so successful that it reached the maximum code redemptions in just 1 day.
For tips on how to make influencer marketing work for your brand, click here.
Conclusion
Twitch has been growing at an exponential rate over the last few years, and recent growth can be largely credited to the coronavirus pandemic. Some noteworthy statistics from last year include:
- An increase of over 3 billion hours watched from the first quarter of 2020 to the second quarter.
- Twitch controlled over 67% of total market share compared to its main competitors YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming.
With that being said, it is clear that there is serious marketing potential available on Twitch. Advertisers are not limited in their approach either – with many different options to choose from, including traditional video ads, affiliate marketing, or influencer marketing.
It is important to remember that advertising on Twitch may not be for every brand, and you must still conduct standard market research to ensure that Twitch is the right place to be advertising your product/service. Some important things to note include:
- Demographic of the website. Around 65% of users are male and 35% are female. Over 70% of users are between ages 13-34.
- Average concurrent viewership of streamers you partner with. You want to ensure your brand is seen by as many eyes as possible.
- Language of streamers your partner with. Twitch entertains a global audience, so you need to make sure you are catering to your specific target customers.
- The category that streamers you partner with typically frequent. For example, a streamer that is popular in the music category is most likely entertaining people with different interests than a popular streamer in the sports category. Be sure that your marketing goals align with the appropriate audience.
References
https://twitchadvertising.tv/audience/
https://videogamesstats.com/twitch-stats-facts/
https://twitchtracker.com/shroud
https://twitchtracker.com/Ninja
https://twitchtracker.com/loltyler1
https://influencity.com/blog/en/twitch-the-big-bet-of-influencer-marketing-in-2021/
Biography
Mike Duff
I am an intern at the International Institute of Digital Marketing™. Born and raised in Canada, I am a fitness & health enthusiast, dog lover, and avid fan of both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Blue Jays. LinkedIn: Mike Duff