Barely 10 years after its launch, Twitch has become one of the main platforms for multimedia consumption, mainly in terms of video streaming. So much so that this Amazon-owned platform has gradually become one of the main competitors of YouTube. Twitch has provided a new marketing opportunity and we have prepared a small guide for you to learn a little more about this platform, including the users who interact with it and how you can integrate it into your digital marketing strategy:
How Twitch works
There are several ways to access the platform. The first is to simply go directly to the official Twitch website from any electronic device. Secondly, as it is a platform owned by Amazon, you can actually access Twitch via Amazon TV. Once you have found your way onto the app, you can find a wide variety of content for free. That said, you can also access premium channels by paying for Twitch Prime, this allows the subscriber to financially support content creators and interact with them in a variety of different ways.
User profile
When designing and establishing a marketing strategy, it is very important to select the right audience we want to target along with their tastes, preferences and attitudes towards the platform. By doing this we can figure out the type of user profile we want to target.
Although it started out as a platform focused on video games, Twitch has broadened its scope to include video broadcasts with a wide range of content, from e-sports to travel tips, cooking content and book clubs, meaning that the types of consumers found on the site have also diversified.
The average Twitch user is a millennial and centennial (aged between 18 and 34). In addition, 65% of the audience is male and 54% work full time. If you are interested in targeting these target audiences, then you should definitely include the Twitch platform in your marketing strategy.
Why Twitch is useful in a marketing strategy
- The platform currently has over 17 million daily visitors, so it can be really useful for generating brand awareness. Moreover, the pandemic has caused it to grow at an even faster rate, so the trend is expected to continue positively.
- Despite its growing popularity, this channel is less saturated than other social networks that have been active for longer, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This means that fewer brands and companies are using Twitch to advertise, and therefore users are more likely to pay attention to a brand’s promotions and ads.
- Live video generates a great deal of interaction with users as the use of chat allows for continuous interaction between the content creator and their audience. This creates a closer relationship between the two, thus creating a community.
As the platform is booming, its audience is growing exponentially day by day, reaching an increasingly broad and varied sector of the population who are watching a wide range of different channels. If a brand is able to adapt to these new forms of communication, it will attract a greater number of users, who in turn will consume the brand’s content.
How to use Twitch in Your Marketing Strategy
Advertisements through partners or sponsors
Partners or Sponsors are content creators with a certain reputation, who have a large number of followers on their channels and who also publish a high rate of quality content. Twitch rewards these streamers with the possibility to insert a maximum of 8 minutes of ads on their channel. Depending on the time of the stream, three different types of ads can be seen by users: pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll. Pre-roll is defined as short ads (approximately 30 seconds) prior to the broadcast of the content, mid-roll is defined as ads that are displayed during the broadcast (unlike what happens on YouTube, streaming content is not paused, but played simultaneously and the streamer is minimised) and post-roll is defined as ads that are displayed at the end of the live stream.
Influencer marketing
Spreading brand awareness through influencers or well-known personalities is very effective, as these individuals have a lot of influence over their followers. Therefore, you should identify which streaming channels and which influencers are related to your brand (both the product itself and the different values and objectives of the company or organisation) and take advantage of the influence that these content creators have over their viewers.
Virtual events
Last but not least, there is the possibility of participating in online events. There are two main possibilities here. The first is to create your own event on Twitch, i.e. to stream your own content on the platform and promote your brand. The other option is to sponsor an event or a specific streamer participating in an event. As with influencer marketing, it is essential to carry out an exhaustive search and select the content creator that best identifies with the brand, and promote any product or service of interest through them.
Keep in mind that positioning yourself correctly on the networks and adapting your strategy to your target audience can help you gain a competitive edge over other brands and companies in the sector, so being updated on the trends and the needs of both consumers and the market in general, will allow you to develop an effective and profitable strategy.