Do you know Twitch? Very popular with Millennials, this social media has more than 15 million daily active users (streamers and viewers combined). It is also attracting more and more businesses. Especially since the start of the health crisis! But why are so many brands moving to this platform? Would you also be interested in integrating it into your social media strategy? If so, how to proceed? We answer all your questions on this trendy social network!
Feedback on a real success story
To start well, let’s remember that Twitch has been around since 2011. At the time, it was a simple Livestream platform (live video) dedicated to e-sports and video games. Three years later, millions of people were already gathering there to watch the shows of their favorite streamers. A remarkable growth that quickly captured Amazon’s attention! After a fierce fight against Google, the e-commerce giant bought the platform in 2014, for the “modest” sum of $ 970 million.
Since then, Twitch’s success has grown, in particular, thanks to:
- the appearance of the Pulse feature in 2017. By making it possible to publish statuses in a news feed, it transforms Twitch into a real social network ;
- the regular addition of new themes on the platform. Cooking, artisan jewelry, camping, educational programs: today all subjects (or almost) are available on this platform!
Twitch quickly rose to rank among the most frequented social networks by 13-35-year-olds. This is why big brands like Kellogg’s have already been interested in it for a few years, Not to mention politicians like Édouard Philippe or even Donald Trump who have participated in Twitch lives since 2019 to reach the new generation!
“Three differentiating criteria are of great interest to us on Twitch:
there are as many communities as there are streamers, the interactivity and the capacity of these streamers to speak directly to their audience is a unique case, the Livestream offers a certain spontaneity, even magic that we lose elsewhere. “
Nicolas Borri, Head of Marketing – France at Kellogg’s
Twitch breaks all records in 2020!
If Twitch’s success was already impressive before the crisis, it has grown even stronger under its action. Indeed, according to Streamlabs & Stream Hatchet’s 2020 reports on the Livestream industry:
- Twitch surpassed 3 billion viewing hours in the first quarter. A historic record, which he broke in the second quarter with more than 5 billion hours of viewing! That is an increase of 83.1% compared to the second quarter of 2019;
- in the third quarter, there was a slight decrease in the number of views (- 377 million) as on other streaming platforms. But Twitch remains the undisputed leader in the sector, accounting for more than 91% of hours viewed, across all platforms. He even offers himself the luxury of setting a new record of hours streamed! These indeed exceed 205 million in the third quarter.
At the same time, more and more brands are turning to Twitch to keep in touch with their customers despite the lockdowns. EDF, Xiaomi, or even Fortuneo: so many companies that made their big debuts on the platform during the crisis!
How to explain the boom of Twitch during the pandemic?
Twitch is without a doubt THE social network for live events. Focused only on live shows, it gives pride of place to spontaneous and warm exchanges between streamers and their community. The scripting of the programs is reduced to a minimum, there is no possible “cut-off” in the event of an error, the steamers react in real-time to the comments of the cat. All this helps to create a climate of authenticity and to strengthen the attachment of viewers to their “star streamer”. This was already the great strength of this platform before the health crisis, it is even more so today! It is no wonder that Internet users are turning towards it en masse to quench their thirst for social interactions …
As for brands, they see Twitch above all as an excellent tool for:
- build strong bonds with their customers despite social distancing. We are thinking, for example, of Xiaomi France, whose program “Le Jeudi C’est Xioami” replaces the usual large gatherings of the brand. Ultra popular, the show combines games, discussions on high-tech news and interviews;
- collect live reactions from customers and prospects to refine their marketing strategy;
- maintain their flagship events in a digital form. For example, Burberry’s Spring / Summer 2021 fashion show, broadcast live on Twitch on September 17, 2020. Shot from multiple angles of view thanks to the Squad Stream feature, which allows 4 streamers to broadcast simultaneously within a single window, it offered an immersive experience to viewers;
- promote their new products more easily to the younger generation. It is understood that the latter is often resistant to traditional advertising broadcast on radio and television, considered too intrusive!
Is this social network right for your business?
If you work in the video game industry, the question does not even arise. Twitch is the leading network for this market, well ahead of its direct competitors like YouTube Gaming Live. Even if your activity touches closely or remotely the world of music and “traditional” sport! Indeed, these two sectors are experiencing strong growth on the platform because:
- musicians (eg: the SOFI TUKKER duo) and DJs have found Twitch an excellent fallback solution following the closure of nightclubs and the cancellation of concerts. This phenomenon is so important that music is seriously competing with video games;
- top athletes like F1 driver Lando Norris are opening more and more channels. In the “traditional sport” category created in July, you will also find NBA content or even martial arts fights. Here again, this is a direct consequence of the health crisis: an alternative had to be offered to spectators who could no longer attend the events in person. Moreover, the platform also took the opportunity to relaunch its official TwitchSports channel, offering exclusive content (ex .: behind the scenes of a competition).
That being said, Twitch now attracts very different audiences, from cooking enthusiasts to fans of beautiful cars! However, what they have in common is that they are quite young. This platform will therefore be of particular interest to you if you are targeting 13-35-year-olds, who alone constitute 67% of the available audience. All the same, knowing that most of the other users are between 36 and 49 years old. Also, remember that the audience is predominantly male BUT more and more women are joining Twitch every year!
How to deploy your strategy on Twitch?
Partner with a good influencer
On this platform, all brand initiatives (or almost) rely on influencers. Logical, when we know that Twitch influencers generally have a very high engagement rate! Indeed the followers are anything but passive. They do not hesitate to take out paid subscriptions to a channel to obtain benefits such as exclusive emoticons or the removal of advertisements during the stream for example. But also (and above all) to support their favorite streamer! They have a real attachment to him and often tend to follow his recommendations.
New to influencer marketing? In this case, we recommend that you first use a specialized tool like Social Blade or Modash. It will help you identify the most relevant Twitch influencers for your business. Secondly, we invite you to:
- follow the lives of the selected candidates. This is to verify that their “style” corresponds to the image you want to return;
- make sure that they are not linked to any particular scandal.
Note that these tips apply to absolutely all social networks!
That being said, you can also go through an influencer marketing platform to find good influencers. Indeed, more and more of them are offering partnerships with Twitch streamers: for example N@tividi and Influence4You.
Focus on the main techniques to use on Twitch
Depending on your needs and budget, you can consider different approaches to Twitch. Among those that give the best results are:
- the “shoutout”. In this case, the influencer is simply talking about your brand or one of your products during their stream;
- unboxing, where the influencer unboxes one of your products live and shares their “hot impressions” with the community.
Another good practice but which often requires more budget: the launch of a program, ideally animated by a very popular streamer. This regular meeting will allow you to forge solid bonds with your community and to talk about your company’s values. It is therefore certainly the format to favor if you want to strengthen your digital customer relationship strategy and your brand image. By the way, you can also talk about your new products and services … But without doing too much either. Indeed, viewers are primarily looking for content:
- entertaining;
- informative;
- and if possible exclusive!
On this point, the educational program “Guess Watt” launched by EDF is a good source of inspiration. Launched on Twitch in October 2020, it is already a huge success with 13-18-year-olds, their parents, and their teachers! Led by the Poulain Brothers, influencers specializing in Tech and the sciences, it tackles the energy transition and renewable energies in a fun way. Fun tutorials, quizzes, immersion in EDF production sites: everything is done to capture the attention of followers, who were even able to “visit” the Romanche-Gavet Hydroelectric Power Station 48 hours before its official inauguration!
Don’t want to start a regular show? In this case, consider a gamification campaign. The more fun, original, and interactive it is, the more chances it will have to seduce Twitch users!
Two successful gamification campaigns on Twitch to inspire you
Our first example dates from 2015 but is still a reference on this platform. This is the “Old Spice Nature Adventure” campaign. Launched by the American brand Old Spice, specializing in men’s skincare, it allowed “to take control of a man for 3 days”. Concretely, a man had to spend three days in the woods and Twitch users would use the chat to ask him to do this or that action. Between the actors in animal costumes and the talking trees, the environment strongly encouraged delusional actions such as “massaging the deer with the new Old Spice cream” for example. Not to mention the Homeric fight against the bear on the second day!
Results? 2.65 million views in total with 1.4 million chatters actively participating in the adventure. A masterstroke for the brand’s first Twitch campaign!
Another good example of gamification is the 2019 “Porsche Formula E unlocked” campaign. In practice, the famous car manufacturer organized an interactive game area on Twitch to announce the launch of its new Formula E. For 4 hours, viewers were able to help pilots Neel Jani and André Lotterer find the single-seater, hidden in the Porsche premises in Ludwigsburg. With 1.3 million spectators and more than 85,000 messages posted in the chat, the event was a great success!
What about commercials in all of this?
Of course, you can also serve ads on Twitch before the video starts, directly during the stream, or just after it ends. But to achieve good results, you should keep their intrusiveness as much as possible. All the more so if you are targeting gamers! As a general rule, they do not appreciate a commercial distracting them when they follow a thrilling game.
A point that the Rosbeef agency! understood perfectly. Indeed, she designed a hard-hitting Twitch campaign specifically targeting gamers in October 2020, for the launch of Fortuneo’s new FOSFO bank card. In order not to break the immersion of the spectators and to develop a feeling of complicity with them, she chose in particular:
- broadcast announcements BEFORE the start of the live or during breaks for e-sport events;
- to favor short messages;
- to adapt its message to different communities of gamers, using vocabulary specific to each game.
For further…
If Twitch doesn’t have the power of Facebook (yet?), This growing medium is well worth your attention if you are targeting the younger generation. However, keep in mind that a successful social media strategy usually relies on multiple social networks. All the brands we mentioned in this article have combined their efforts on Twitch with communication campaigns on YouTube, Twitter, or TikTok. We can only advise you to do the same!
You do not yet master the basics of social media? Rest assured: today you will easily find training courses focused on social networks. But given the health context, give preference to online training! With them, you will be able to improve even during periods of confinement.