How Brands Can Be Successful on Twitch in 2021

Twitch, Amazon's live-streaming giant that they purchased in 2014, is a platform primarily for users to consume gaming-related and adjacent content. Creators typically interact with their fans while simultaneously playing video games and tend to cultivate a loyal following due to the intimacy of their interaction with each other. The content has evolved beyond gaming, touching upon creative pursuits like music and art and cooking, and other IRL content in recent years.

Twitch has retained its spot as the primary streaming platform after a wild year, representing more than 90% of the market share for streams with almost 20 billion hours watched in 2020 – doubling that of the previous year, a boom attributable to the pandemic and massive lifestyle changes it brought about.

While there is a substantial audience on Twitch, there is also an enormous amount of content being created and consumed. A brand must formulate a sound strategy to build credibility in the space, attract a fervent following and succeed on the platform.

SUCCESS ON TWITCH

A legitimate Twitch brand presence requires a considerable amount of bandwidth and a deep understanding of the space, including knowing whether or not your audience is actually on the platform. The majority of Twitch's audience is younger, with 16 to 24-year-olds making up 41% of the site's users, and you need to ensure that you even have an audience there before you ideate further. Gaming also reigns supreme, making up an overwhelming majority of content consumed, so be sure you are ready to be tangentially related to that vertical when considering a presence.  

IS YOUR BRAND READY FOR TWITCH?

Here are some tough questions to ask you are considering starting a Branded Twitch account:

• Do you have the bandwidth and resources for the large investment required to have a viable Twitch presence?
• Are you ready to compete and cut through the noise against millions of hours of organic content created every month?
• Are you prepared to work/ do you have the budget to work with higher-cost Twitch influencers?
• Are you ready to face an audience demographic that is more discerning when it comes to pandering?

IF YOU ANSWERED YES, KEEP THESE IN MIND

If you believe there's a space for you to carve out, follow these three fundamental principles.

• Authenticity: An understanding of the people and subcultures that make up Twitch translates into a sense of belonging to the community. When activating, ensure that messaging and activation speak to your audience (hint: don't be too brand-focused). Show them you get them.
• Consistency: A regular presence on the platform keeps the audience coming back for more. Posting once a month isn't going to cut it. It would help if you established a regular content cadence to make an impact.
• Personality: A tangible representation of the brand allows for an audience to relate and form an affinity. Not necessarily a host, but rather how the brand synthesizes authenticity with the brand's core tenets to feel more organic.

A CASE STUDY: WENDY’S

A recent example of a brand that does well on Twitch is Wendy's. One of their streams involved them playing the previous game of the moment, Among Us, with their characters named after menu items while promoting their new bacon pub fries. What’d they do right?

They know they have an audience on Twitch. They were able to authentically imbue the activation with their irreverent personality that is consistent across their social media presence. Their team knew the ins-and-outs of the game, the parlance of their audience, and the freebies for gamers certainly didn't hurt.

Whatever the category, whether it’s fast food or gaming, brands can succeed on the platform by committing to it with authenticity, consistency, and personality.  

Questions? Drop us a line at Hello@praytellagency.com

Sigvard Alarcon is a strategist with a focus on consumer behavior, trends, and technology. He is one of the founding employees of Praytell, starting as a community manager to now leading the Paid and Analytics team across Praytell’s numerous clients within the portfolio.