The gaming industry is the largest entertainment industry in the world. So how can you plug in and play your best strategies when it comes to video game marketing?

The most effective way to game right now is through streaming. And nobody does streaming better than the broadcasting giant, Twitch. 

However, not everyone is as tech-savvy as the social influencers that use Twitch daily. That’s where Gameplan comes in. Let’s look at how Twitch’s new ad services will level up your branding in the biggest industry ever. 

Plan for your brand

Twitch recently launched Gameplan – a global ad assessment programme that certifies you as a streaming platform professional.     

Gameplan’s goal is to perfect brands’ understanding of live streaming. As a result, your online advertising on Twitch will 1-up and increase overall audience reach. 

But there’s more! The training programme will also educate brands on the wonders of immersive and interactive campaigns on Twitch. So not only will you understand Twitch, you’ll master its range of experimental marketing! 

Gameplan features nine courses and an assessment: 

Once completed, the shiny star of certification will be yours to show off! Your brand will be an official Twitch pro – which will present you as an all-knowing genius in live streaming marketing. Humble bragging is almost permitted.    

Want to dive deeper into Gamplan’s services? Twitch held a one-hour launch event promoting the course – which you can watch here. 

Branding to the next level!

Andrea Garabedian, global head of sales marketing at Twitch, highlights why Gameplan is an important tool for your game marketing. Her statement: 

“Viewers on Twitch are more likely to trust and interact with brands when advertisers are invested in understanding our community. Twitch Gameplan provides context and best practices to ensure that brands can foster genuine engagement on Twitch.” 

But the fun doesn’t stop there! As we mentioned earlier, Gameplan certification allows for a bunch of best practices for online marketing: 

• Levelled Up Advertising

Creativity is key for advertising, especially with the rise of TikTok and native content more popular than ever. 

Through Gameplan, you’ll learn how to create campaigns that immerse users through interaction – resulting in higher audience engagement.      

• Brand Growth

Twitch is a trendy place; new games live stream daily, gaining huge watch time numbers from varying niche audiences. 

From Fortnite to Among Us – it’s essential to keep track of what people are playing and catering your ads towards them. Gameplan will make sure you’re producing campaigns that deliver for your clients or follow your brand’s goals. 

Yeah, we’re gamers 

Brands are already gaining great experience (or XP for all you cool kids out there) in live stream marketing via Twitch.     

PepsiCo, for example, promoted its limited-time Brisk product through an online tournament of Rocket League. Whilst ads for Brisk ran through the matches, Pepsi also created a car, themed off the product to play in the leagues. 

By creatively standing out and immersing the brand within the culture, Brisk became the talk of the Twitch. Brisk even received organic taglines such as “Take the risk, drink the Brisk” from audiences. When you make it as a meme, you’ve made it. 

However, you don’t have to go crazy with your campaigns. Sponsoring content can be as easy as having your brand appear on stream. A great example of this is when EA collaborated with Twitch streamer, RoryPlays.  

Though Rory has a slightly smaller audience (with 23.3K as of now), EA sponsored her live stream when playing their additional content expansion for The Sims 4. They overlaid the EA logo onto the stream and asked if Rory would verbally promote the brand.  

Working with micro-influencers is a fantastic way to spread brand awareness, as their audience is dedicated and eager to listen. 

Influencer marketing is super important when marketing online. If you’d like to read more about influencer marketing and how it can improve brand recognition –  read our blog here!  

Twitching for something new? 

Dan Holland, executive vice-president of Dentsu Gaming, highlights the importance of keeping up with new advertising platforms in the gaming world. His statement: 

“Audiences are migrating to the new platforms, channels and spaces, often at a greater pace than our industry keeps up [with] – we need to be able to understand these platforms inside out to ensure our brands show up in a genuine, authentic way.”

Audiences certainly love Twitch – the stats prove it! 

• 140 million monthly active users in 2022
• 71 million hours of content viewed every day 
• More than 2.2 million users make the most of the stream feature every month
• In 2020, audiences consumed 18.6 billion hours of content.
• In 2020, the Twitch advertising revenue was $750 million

Though the core demographic of Twitch consists mainly of male users, 73% of which are under 35, that doesn’t mean the platform solely caterers to them – nor is it entirely a gaming platform.  

Twitch offers a variety of streaming categories, from gaming to podcasts and “just chatting”. These options are great for e-commerce brands that want to establish an online identity naturally to audiences.

Also, categories are insanely open due to hashtags being available for all content. Educational services such as universities could easily create rooms for online tutoring or promote webinars through the hashtag education. 

Additionally, Twitch offers trending topics as a category. Recently, the platform promoted International Women’s Month, giving female streamers the spotlight on Twitch’s landing page.

Ready, set, stream!

Twitch (or streaming in general) is not only a new avenue to explore in advertising; it’s a service to get involved with creatively.   

Through active communication and fresh creative ideas, audience engagement is at peak performance on platforms like Twitch. 

Other platforms, such as Meta, have begun restricting audience targeting options. Twitch, however, welcomes advertising for all audiences. Due to the nature of live content, it’s easier to monitor and report unethical advertising.  

We love seeing platforms embrace new ways to engage and diversify advertising for audiences. And with Gameplan – you’ll be the master chief of live streaming in no time!  

If you’d like advice on supercharging your live streaming efforts or want advice on how to Twitcherfy your content – contact our team of professionals now!