Platforms such as Twitch and YouTube streaming bring billions of hours watched annualy and a younger, more focused demographic that offers at the moment, probably the rising start of online advertising, streaming ads.
For example, two years ago, more than 80% of Twitch viewers were male, 55% falling in the age range of 18-34. One year later, while the general viewership increased by a large margin, the male segment amounted to just over 65%, while more than 70% of the users fell in the age range of 18-34. While most of the streaming giants are gamers, and you might fall in the trap of thinking that gamers are nerds and they might not care about your product, you should also consider that their demographic is pretty diverse and segmented. Stereotypes do not apply here anymore. Most of the people that engage with live streaming platforms are also more familiar with researching and appreciate consumer-friendly propositions.
If your business aims to deliver services or products to a younger audience that is self-aware, then streaming platforms can provide to be more beneficial for you long-term than any other advertising solution. Of course, this isn’t an easy task as you do need to understand the average user of both Twitch and YouTube at the very least. But once you make your own research and you understand what’s going on here, you’ll find yourself wanting to invest everything in this new wave of influencers and target their audience.
The benefits of live streaming, generally speaking, include among others, better relationship building, increased credibility and consumer trust, improved ROI if you’re streaming yourself, as well as increased proxy interaction with your targeted audience. This allows for incredibly successful campaigns of brand exposure, especially if you decide to invest in sponsorships towards specific influencers that have a following which covers a huge chunk of your targeted audience.
You can diversify your advertising by even taking in consideration factors such as language, streamer/influencer activity, viewer political/social sentiment, streaming channel aesthetic, streaming categories and affiliate products and brands which you do not want to be associated with or that are in direct competition with your business.
But how can you actually advertise your business on these streaming platforms besides the more standard text, image and video ads which Twitch recently have made mandatory on every stream at every hour? As long as your business allows it, one of the better ways to do it is to stream yourself. Create a project around a personality of your choice that aligns with your values and wishes and craft a schedule. If you don’t want to get bothered with regular streaming, then you can still invest in streaming as a cheaper option for the following methods of raising awareness or promoting your products:
Announcements – Forget news/blog articles and social media posts and schedule a streaming event for a 10-15 minutes presentation. This showcases a modern ability to relate with a younger audience.
Q&As & Customer Support – Why have your visitors and users read a bunch of explanations and stats and waste their time typing back and forth when you co do all of that in a live session, every now and then, at an advertised hour, increasing your likeability and the consumer trust.
Interviews – Find people in your branch or influencers and craft 30 minute long interviews that can tackle subjects from the same industry that your company is part of.
Event streaming – Especially during a time of incredible unpredictability, live-streaming events like a release of a product or a industry panel talk, creates another way to interact with your audience and even grow your audience by attracting interested people which in return will appreciate your commitment.
And these just are just a couple of ideas that when tweaked and polished, can really provide an avenue of success which you’ve never even considered before. Of course, it isn’t without risks. You do have to be committed. You do need to flexible. You need to show empathy and value. But you also need to not over-plan it and just focus on having fun. If you enjoy what you’re doing, then your audience will reach out to you on its own.
Streaming platforms are starting to enter the mammoth level of marketing interest. They generate so much engagement with targeted audience that they simply cannot be ignored anymore. Brand and product exposure through Twitch earning hundreds of millions of dollars for companies worldwide. Not to mention, streaming is not gaming-specific anymore. Radios, live events, talk-shows and podcasts, tourist vlogs and even chess grandmasters, all moved their business on streaming platforms. And since the new wave is still new and fresh, the earlier you jump ship, the higher chance of you making a big impact with less investment.
