Since announcing its Australian in-house sales team late in 2019, Twitch has launched a number of successful campaigns for brands looking to tap into its audience.
5 Gum, Audible, KitKat and even Burberry have been able to use Twitch to either connect with a unique audience or live stream content in a new way.
And while it might not come as a surprise that brands from FMCG, fashion and technology verticles have advertised with Twitch, financial services currently represent the fastest-growing category on Twitch.
“Obviously when you think about Twitch as a service, you straight away think it would be the endemic clients, the entertainment, gaming, and technology solutions,” Twitch head of sales for Australia and New Zealand Ricky Chanana told B&T.
“We have done a really good job in educating the market over the past 18 months that Twitch is not just a gaming-led service, it’s far greater.”
With advertising on Twitch continuing to expand, the entertainment service teamed up with private health insurer ahm to help the insurer build a connection with a new audience and build credibility in the gaming space.
“ahm wanted to basically create and connect with an audience which is hard to reach via traditional channels,” Chanana said.
“And they wanted to have an understanding of how they can meaningfully connect and talk about something which is sometimes a complacent topic – a private health fund.”
Twitch also provided ahm with the opportunity to reach a younger demographic, who might currently treat private health insurance as an “afterthought”, said Chanana.
To build out the campaign, ahm wanted something that leant into its company messaging of making things simple.
As a result, ahm sponsored Twitch streams, which are at the centre of what makes elite gamers good at what they do.
“For ahm, it was a very fresh approach to basically create a fun, tongue in cheek nod to how celebrities and athletes notoriously protect the physical assets most important to them and their careers,” Chanana said.
The first half of the campaign featured Australian streamer Reapz, who highlighted the “game-winning fingers” he uses on a day-to-day basis.
Results show a 15 per cent increase (from the benchmark) in viewers tuning in to Reapz, and 21 per cent increase in minutes (from the benchmark) watched of the sponsored stream.
Finding the right influencer
One of the key factors behind the success of the ahm campaign was ensuring the brand message was delivered by the right influencer.
And it was no coincidence that Reapz was selected to work with ahm.
Twitch has a stringent approach when it comes to partnering brands and influencers. For starters, influencers must first hit a specific threshold in terms of viewership figures.
Influencers can then work with Twitch either as an affiliate or partner.
As a partner, Twitch will verify that the creator follows brand guidelines and is brand safe for any potential advertisers.
Twitch’s partnerships team then works with these influencers to identify brands they might be interested in working with, as well as brands they are looking to stay away from.
“I think in the end, the best part is that the partnerships team will have a catalogue of all the content creators that work,” said Chanana.
“We work along with that and get the best outcome for the customer and us.”
