How Twitch’s unique community experience provides a valuable space for brands

16 August 2021 | By: Matt Miller, Sr. Editorial lead

At just 20 years old, Sam “DuckyTheGamer” Hatch has amassed an audience of 392,000 followers on Twitch. Each day, they tune in as he livestreams mobile games like Fortnite Mobile, Minecraft and Clash of Clans.

“Twitch offers a really great opportunity to connect and engage with my audience on a real-time basis,” Hatch said in a conversation with Sarah Iooss, Twitch’s Head of Sales for the Americas, at Mobile World Congress 2021. “I’m able to respond to comments that I normally would probably have never had the chance to, and I’m able to build a relationship with my audience and my fans that can’t be matched anywhere else.”

This is all thanks to the unique community experience of Twitch, where an average of 30 million viewers tune in daily1 to see creators livestream games, podcasts, makeup tutorials, sports, concerts, cooking shows and more. But viewers aren’t just passively watching – each day, more than 68 percent of viewers chat with the community.2

With this kind of live, two-way conversation, Twitch cultivates an interactive and participatory entertainment that is increasingly popular among adult Gen Z and millennials. By collaborating with creators on the service, brands are able to connect with the deeply engaged and tight-knit communities on Twitch.

A picture of Sarah Iooss

Sarah Iooss, Twitch Head of Sales, Americas

Humanizing marketing through trusted creators

As Iooss explained at Mobile World Congress, an effective way for brands to connect with customers is to “humanise the recommendation and have a trusted influencer or community guiding the endorsement”.

According to recent research from Twitch Research Power Group, 46% of Twitch viewers have bought something after seeing it promoted by their favourite Twitch creator.3 The research also shows that 39% of viewers would consider their favourite creator a friend.4

Twitch offers a number of features that help creators and viewers build this interconnected community. Twitch Chat allows creators and viewers to communicate in real-time. Meanwhile, viewers and creators can also use Emotes, Twitch-specific emoticons that viewers use to express themselves in Twitch Chat. Viewers can also support their favourite streamers through monthly channel subscriptions, also known as “subs” and Bits, a virtual good you can buy on Twitch that give you the power to “cheer” and support streamers.

The ability to connect with and contribute to a community on Twitch helps to build trust between creators and viewers. This presents an opportunity for brands to meet customers in spaces relevant to their interests where they’re already active participants.

Connecting your brand with the right creator

Having built his own community on Twitch, Hatch has cultivated brand partnerships with Samsung, GFUEL and other companies. What’s important to him is linking up with a brand he trusts and will gladly share with his viewers.

“The main thing I look for is to just see if the brand and I have something in common. If I use that product on a daily basis, then I’m already going to have a great relationship and experience with this product so that way I can convey that to my audience,” Hatch said at Mobile World Congress. “It’s really hard for me to deliver an authentic message about a product or service if I don’t have previous experience with it. So I definitely look for some sort of overlap.”

Hatch also noted that creators and influencers are eager to work with brands they love. “When a brand that I use on a daily basis reaches out to me to work with them, there’s really no better feeling,” he said.

Creators are at the heart of Twitch. They produce the content that keeps their fans coming back for more. With that in mind, any brand collaboration with a creator needs to speak authentically to their community. Creators are experts on their own communities, so brands should trust them to produce the content that will best resonate with their viewers.

With these kinds of possibilities to reach engaged communities, Hatch said there are numerous opportunities for brands and marketers to work with creators on Twitch. From gaming to cooking to music and sports, Twitch has a vast breadth of specialised, passionate communities where brands can find the perfect fit.

“Twitch has an awesome variety, which I think can only play into strengths of [brands’] marketing strategies,” he said.

Sources:

1 Twitch internal data.
2 Twitch internal data.
3 Twitch Research Power Group (RPG): Social Media Behaviour Survey, 2021.
4 Twitch Research Power Group (RPG): Social Media Behaviour Survey, 2021.