PR and marketing opportunities via streaming on Twitch
Sanni Halttunen – Senior Account Manager
When the Flourish team visited TwitchCon Amsterdam in July 2022 we gathered some incredible insights that can be applied to other brands in terms of how streaming is becoming a marketing tool of the near future. In this article, Senior Account Manager Sanni gives her take on the PR and marketing opportunities via streaming.
How to get games, money and opportunities
We’ve seen the rise of influencers and how influencer marketing has become a multi billion industry in the past decade. Just like other social media platforms, Twitch relies on relatable personalities and authentic content, which is down to streamers and their skills to engage and retain their audience, and essentially grow their channels and become Affiliates and Partners*. A big part of this journey is to open up opportunities within PR and marketing, and start monetising your time as a content creator.
A panel discussion How To Get Games, Money, and Opportunities gathered PR agencies and streamers to discuss some of the stepping stones for sponsorships, and top tips to get brand collaborations. It really comes down to personality and relationship skills from both sides – for creators to be proactively approaching PR agencies, be authentic and approachable, and to make sure their email addresses can be found on their channel info. LinkTrees and MediaKits are typically used to showcase your work and content, but interestingly, the personality and active, engaged community is often more important than CCV stats. Your USP is rarely truly unique, so it’s essential your personality comes across, and you explore different ways to demonstrate how you engage with your community.
How to get games, money and opportunities
We’ve seen the rise of influencers and how influencer marketing has become a multi billion industry in the past decade. Just like other social media platforms, Twitch relies on relatable personalities and authentic content, which is down to streamers and their skills to engage and retain their audience, and essentially grow their channels and become Affiliates and Partners*. A big part of this journey is to open up opportunities within PR and marketing, and start monetising your time as a content creator.
A panel discussion How To Get Games, Money, and Opportunities gathered PR agencies and streamers to discuss some of the stepping stones for sponsorships, and top tips to get brand collaborations. It really comes down to personality and relationship skills from both sides – for creators to be proactively approaching PR agencies, be authentic and approachable, and to make sure their email addresses can be found on their channel info. LinkTrees and MediaKits are typically used to showcase your work and content, but interestingly, the personality and active, engaged community is often more important than CCV stats. Your USP is rarely truly unique, so it’s essential your personality comes across, and you explore different ways to demonstrate how you engage with your community.
Income generation from streaming
When it comes to the money, it’s important to be realistic of the requirements and pay – are there links, CTAs, mentions, cosplay, etc. The current industry standard is CCV* x 1.25-2 x sponsored hours. Sometimes you won’t get paid for game keys from smaller production companies, but will just benefit from the early access to the game – it’s just important to make sure both parties are aware of the terms and get value from the collaboration, whether it’s monetary or otherwise beneficial.
*CCV = concurrent viewership
There are PR and marketing opportunities via streaming for streamers of all levels, and you can find the right collaborations throughout your journey as a streamer. The panel recommended to retain the relationships by sharing thoughts and debrief after the collaboration, streamers to show interest towards the brands and their latest news, and keep in touch with the PR and marketing teams to keep an eye out for any future collaborations.
Streaming for PR agencies vs Brands
For PR and marketing agencies, it’s important to be personable and approach the streamers with clear objectives and reasons why they think the streamer would be a great fit. What exactly you’re after – and what are the shared values why you think the streamer and her/his community would benefit from the sponsorship/collaboration. Ultimately, it needs to be a beneficial deal for all parties to make it work. There are websites which will help you shortlist relevant streamers, such as Sullygnome, which shows a list of games and which streamers have been recently playing them.
For agencies and brands wanting to break into Twitch, it’s also essential to review streamers’ other social media channels. The communities often exist beyond the Twitch platform, but streamers will continue sharing their content on Twitter, Instagram and Discord pre-and post streaming. For example, GeekyCassie started her collaboration with makeup giant Anastasia Beverly Hills based on her Instagram, where she is getting ready for her Twitch live streams. In this way the brand can make a great, authentic entry to Twitch and maximise it’s potential as a marketing platform, without being in the gaming industry.
Income generation from streaming
When it comes to the money, it’s important to be realistic of the requirements and pay – are there links, CTAs, mentions, cosplay, etc. The current industry standard is CCV* x 1.25-2 x sponsored hours. Sometimes you won’t get paid for game keys from smaller production companies, but will just benefit from the early access to the game – it’s just important to make sure both parties are aware of the terms and get value from the collaboration, whether it’s monetary or otherwise beneficial.
*CCV = concurrent viewership
There are PR and marketing opportunities via streaming for streamers of all levels, and you can find the right collaborations throughout your journey as a streamer. The panel recommended to retain the relationships by sharing thoughts and debrief after the collaboration, streamers to show interest towards the brands and their latest news, and keep in touch with the PR and marketing teams to keep an eye out for any future collaborations.
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