In 30 seconds:
- If you’re looking to reach Generation Twitch, gaming influencers are a great place to start.
- But Twitch’s reach extends beyond the gaming industry, welcoming all sorts of artistic and informative content creators.
- For real-time engagement with a responsive, young audience, it’s more than a good idea to consider Twitch influencers as part of your marketing strategy.
Embracing Twitch influencer marketing is a killer way to ace your competition.
But if you’re new to the world of gaming (and/or to the world of influencers), it can be tricky to know where to press start.
We’re here to help.
Twitch is the one of the best streaming platform out there. Acquired by Amazon in 2014, Twitch is an interactive live-streaming service focusing predominantly on video games. It’s also home to a range of other streaming content, covering everything from music to travel to DIY crafts. Twitch also streams major “traditional” sporting events, including Premier League football, NBA, and UFC bouts.
What differentiates this as an influencer marketing platform is that it’s always live (unlike YouTube, for example, where live streams are just one option).
So, the magic words here are “skill”, “interactivity”, and “live”. Audiences are there to engage with skilled people in real-time — equal parts intimacy, intensity, and intrigue.
Billions of hours of Twitch are watched worldwide every year. And it’s still growing.
The best way into this expansive market is through the people who already have sway on the platform. With this in mind, we’re going to take you through the what, whys and how of creating a Twitch influencer marketing campaign.
Let’s dive in.
What Is Twitch Influencer Marketing?
Like other forms of influencer marketing, this digital strategy involves partnering with someone who has pull. But unlike other avenues, it’s not about relying on pre-recorded images and video content — you and your influencer are going live.
Twitch influencers interact directly with their fan base in real-time.
And that fan base has the potential to be massive — the platform has over 30 million daily active users.
Why hire a Twitch influencer for your brand?
Well, the stats say it all:
84% of users say that showing their support for their favourite Twitch streamers is part of the experience.
And 76% appreciate brands that help their heroes achieve success.
And this is even more significant because:
69% of Gen Zers actively avoid ads — so it’s simply not effective to market to the younger generation using yesterday’s tools.
They will, however, take recommendations from those relatable voices who are authorities on topics they care about — and they love interacting with them through live video.
The reality is, younger audiences listen to influencers when it comes to deciding how to spend their money — so much so that as many as 92% of all Gen Z adults say that recommendations from social media influencers are the most important drivers of their purchasing decisions.
In this 2021 research, it was found that young audiences were looking for six primary factors from their relationships with social influencers, namely:
- Information sharing
- Cool and new trends
- Relaxing entertainment
- Companionship
- A way to pass the time and alleviate boredom
- Information seeking.
If done right, Twitch influencers offer an ideal meeting point for these factors.
Plus, their audiences are huge. (Top Twitch channels like the one that belongs to the famous Ninja have in the region of 18.5 million followers.) Successful Twitch influencers boast an engaged, built-in community, just waiting with bated breath for their favourites to ‘Go Live!’
So popular is the kind of interaction that the platform provides that it’s birthed a term that connects it to this generation. Heard of ‘Generation Twitch’? They’re Gen Zers — and those that fall on either side of the age brackets but are swayed by them — supremely connected to the digital world, highly influential, and with some serious buying power.
And don’t think it’s only the youngest of internet users that are tuning in. The demographics may surprise you. In fact, the bulk of its following (approximately 49.7% in May 2022) falls in the age group of 25 to 34. Yep, those are millennials.
How can brands market via influencers on Twitch?
The most obvious products to market to Twitch audiences are games themselves. (In our article, Gaming Marketing: Top Marketing Secrets for Game Developers, we take you through exactly how to successfully market your game on various social media platforms, including Twitch.)
There are two types of streamers to partner with — variety streamers and one-game streamers. As the names suggest, variety streamers play multiple games, and one-games streamers tend to hone their craft on one specific game.
Influencers that are variety streamers are perfect if you’re looking to market a new game they can showcase for you. (One-game streamers tend to be more appropriate for non-gaming brands — but there are no hard-and-fast rules here.)
Gaming company Ubisoft, for example, famously partnered with Twitch influencer LIRIK (Saqib Ali Zahid) to market their shooter game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege. Great move — because LIRIK has in the region of 2.9 million followers.
He played the game while interacting with his audience, informing them about the different elements of the game and answering their questions. So how successful was this partnership? Well, it generated 124K hours watched and 68K peak viewers.
The word from Fanbytes Senior Account Manager Dan Jerome is that “it’s hard to overstate the impact of Twitch on gaming marketing. Gaming influencers are a huge component of gaming marketing, and Twitch’s live-stream capabilities mean followers feel even more connected to them, as they can interact in real time.
“The rise of Twitch just goes to show that the future of gaming and influencer marketing is about interactivity and ephemeral moments.”
So yes, gaming companies and Twitch influencer marketing are certainly a great fit. But this is not the only industry that can benefit.
It’s not hard to see, for example, how a food delivery service would pair very well with the world of gaming. DoorDash seized this opportunity, hosting a gaming tournament on Twitch called Battle of the Brands. Each brand (including KFC, TacoBell and Dunkin’) was represented by a Twitch influencer — and they went head to head in a MultiVersus battle, hosted by none other than esports caster, Chris Puckett. The champions received cash prizes and DoorDash gift certificates. Winning concept.
It’s important to note that Twitch influencer marketing is by no means only available to the big guns. Small businesses can also play this game. Finding micro-influencers that are on their journey up is both cost-effective and has huge potential for scalability. Through various promotion types — including product unboxings, giveaways, shout-outs, and sponsorships — budgets of all sizes can find a line for this marketing strategy.
Twitch influencer marketing: tips for best practice
# 1. Understand Twitch target audiences
Twitch audiences, of course, skew young. Over two-thirds are under the age of 35, and only 3% over 55. Another thing to consider? 8 in 10 Twitch users identified as male. (That’s of July 2022.)
Although other kinds of content are on the rise, the service is still mainly for gamers. (It’s not hard to see then why gum brands, for example, are ideal fits for Twitch.)
But while this is all important info to have, it doesn’t have to be limiting — and a diverse set of brands have already discovered how to think beyond these bounds. Understanding that they are likely to find the next generation of luxury car buyers on Twitch, for example, Lexus has got in on the action.
The other thing to consider is that new types of content from creators like travel vloggers and DIY crafters, come with their own unique audience sets — so it’s really about finding out where your brand fits.
# 2. Twitch advertising comes after entertainment
Remember why your audience is on this live-streaming platform. While they may be open to engaging with advertising that’s relevant to their needs, they’re first and foremost there to have fun and feel connected to a community. Marketing has to fit into that, rather than being the focal point.
# 3. Pair with the right influencers
There are over 7 million global streamers on Twitch. So, where do you even start?
First up, Twitch is separated into categories to make the platform easily navigable for its users. The ‘Games’ category is subdivided into tags, usually related to genre. (You can check out TwitchTracker to see what is currently most popular.)
A category called IRL is now broken into 13 directories:
- Just Chatting (This is a very popular — and rather broad — category that is less about interacting with a specific piece of content and is, as the name suggests, a place for just chatting. Those chats can be between streamers and streamers, or streamers and their audiences.)
- Science & Technology
- Art
- Sports and Fitness
- Talk Shows and Podcasts
- Makers and Crafting
- Tabletop RPG
- Music and Performing Arts
- Special Events
- Food and Drink
- Beauty and Body Art
- Travel and Outdoors
- ASMR
Your first port of call is heading into the ones that have the potential to align with your brand.
Then take a look at the data. Metrics that you’ll be able to access right off a streamer’s page include:
- Followers
- Live views — how many unique visits a streamer’s page has received.
- Video on Demand (VOD) — from past videos, you’ll be able to see when a specific broadcast happened and how popular it was
- Peak concurrent viewers — the highest number of Twitch viewers at one time
You can find this info manually or use a specialised tool to help. (Pro tip: If you’re looking to find TikTok influencers, our in-house tool Bytesights gives us the information we need to grow any campaign.)
Once you’ve narrowed it down, it’s time to get watching their content to see if they’re a good fit.
Finally, reach out to them. We’ll take you through how to do that in our article, Influencer Outreach: 5 Tips for a Successful Strategy.
# 4. Get creative
The really fun part about this kind of marketing is that you can really go anywhere with it. Provided you understand your target audience and what your influencer has to offer them, you can get as creative as you like. Don’t be afraid to make non-linear connections and think far outside the box. (Think Lexus and DoorDash!)
Marketing in this medium is still defining itself — and you get to be part of that process.
Twitch influencer marketing: the bottom line
This platform comes complete with a young, super-engaged audience who is intent on seeing their favourite streamers succeed. They want to learn, be entertained, and connect in the moment in a way that feels genuine and direct. All of this makes Twitch feel custom-built for influencer marketing.
Don’t let your Twitch influencer marketing campaign be an NPC — that’s a non-performing character, if you’re new here — in your strategy. There’s simply no reason to lag behind.
And if you need some help along the way, get in touch. Just chatting with you sounds awesome to us.
If you’re new to the world of gaming marketing, or would like to expand your knowledge, head over to these articles to learn more. As an influencer marketing agency, we are experts at this, after all:
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