Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million, and since then the platform has come a long way. Twitch has almost 7 million users. As a result of Covid, viewing time has increased by 83.1%, and some shows are achieving audiences that are similar to television, with several hundred thousand viewers.
Twitch and its uses
Originally, the streaming platform was dedicated to gaming, with streamers filming and broadcasting their games live. This remains an important part of the platform, but it’s no longer the most-watched type of content today. In fact, in 2020, users from all horizons connected to the platform, including art, music, ASMR, role-playing games, travel, cooking, sports… And the most watched category: just chatting (discussion between the streamer and his audience).
In addition to live broadcasts, Twitch’s unique feature is the ability to chat live with the broadcaster/streamer. This proximity creates communities and federates around a person or a group.
55% of viewers are aged between 18 and 34, and 80% are men, although this figure is gradually declining.
How companies use Twitch
Creating branded channels
Twitch is extremely competitive, and having hundreds of viewers already represents a sizeable audience. It’s rare for streamers to exceed 1,000 or 2,000 simultaneous viewers.
Twitch is no exception to the social networking rule: people are more inclined to follow personalities than brands, and on Twitch this is even more striking. Brands find it hard to gather people around their live shows. If they manage to gather a large number of people, it’s thanks to e-sports competitions or by sharing new products. For example, the Burberry fashion show for the 2020 collection. Or Porsche, which organized an interactive escape game via Twitch to announce its arrival in Formula E. This live game perfectly understood the platform’s codes, adding interactivity via chat. The audience played the role of an investigator, and each person could vote for the next action, with the most votes going to the action completed. This live event attracted over a million viewers.
Brand channels in France:
- The PSG channel, which organizes after-football programs and live commentary on matches, sports sessions…
- Xiaomi France (Chinese cell phone brand), organizes radio programs with its viewers, or product presentations.
- Les Numériques, a company bringing together tech journalists to test and share good deals.
So how can brands exist on Twitch?
Are partnerships the gateway to Twitch for brands?
To benefit from both a large, engaged audience and a good image, brands go through influencers, but we prefer the term content creators for this platform.
Reality TV influencers vs. content creators
Brands use sponsorship to get on Twitch. By law, creators are obliged to mention sponsors explicitly. More often than not, brands are mentioned and displayed several times during the live show. Brands with larger budgets can take the partnership a step further by organizing a themed live stream for a few hours.
Is sponsorship the only way to reach a substantial audience on Twitch?
The platform is opening up more and more to the general public, and it’s possible to find CEOs, politicians and company managers taking part in talk shows. The downside is that these profiles are mostly very tech, political, celebrity or video game-related.
Like :
- Jean Massiet‘s political show Backseat
- Pop Corn, Domingo‘s talk show, which mainly features actors, content creators, animators/presenters, sportsmen and sportswomen, but sometimes people specialized in specific fields such as science, tech… However, these subjects must be easy to understand: we don’t sell our product, we can talk about it by way of example, but above all we explain the arrival and possibilities of a new technology.
- This is also the case for Micode‘s Underscore_ program, which popularizes technology to make it accessible to as many people as possible. This talk show talks about tech, IT, development, AI and entrepreneurship in these fields.
Twitch codes:
On Twitch, you don’t have to be a CAC40 CEO, the King of England or Mbappé to relax! We’re all friends. The programs are based on TV codes, but all exchanges are based on Internet codes. Discussions are light-hearted; 2 or 3 jokes and irony are welcome, and if the subject is complicated, we make it easy to understand . As for dress code, forget the 3-piece suit. Suit jacket, denim shirt, canvas pants are pixel 😉
All in all, Twitch is an interesting social network for B2C companies in the tech, relative gaming, entertainment, sports and food sectors. Other sectors are possible, but they’re less obvious for reaching an accessible, profitable and distensible target.
As for B2B on Twitch, it seems complex, with some companies like Elgato sponsoring or partnering with streamers. But this type of brand is relative to streamers, offering webcams, green backgrounds. In short, equipment for streamers.
