Over the past decade or so, live streaming through the biggest platforms like Twitch has found a huge amount of success with the biggest names on the platform bringing in thousands of viewers per day, some even hitting tens or hundreds of thousands of bigger occasions too. Unsurprisingly, it has become a huge platform for advertisers and marketers to target with all of the eyes and the thousands of viewer hours it provides, but it has also done something very unique to marketing too particularly for the target market for gaming which tends to be aimed at – but which have been the biggest? Let’s see live streaming bringing unique opportunities for marketing.
A live look at new releases – Perhaps the biggest has been within the potential to give a live demonstration of a new release early, and this is why gaming has been the prime target. The broadcasters can be given special access to new games early and livestream for a number of hours to an audience, even genres not particularly promoted in the past with the likes of gambling through slots for example have found opportunity – it gives the target audience a live look at the game to decide whether or not it is for them, and many developers have found that after a livestream a lot of attention can be generated from even a shorter livestream than can typically be generated from an ad for example.
A paved way for early releases – In the same space, early releases and pre-ordering have become extremely common too – this in itself is a very unique opportunity for marketing, more content creators will pick up early release options and it starts a chain reaction, without even having to pay for content to be covered there’s suddenly thousands of hours’ worth of gameplay available for viewing and provides a lot more coverage than what could otherwise be generated through other media including television.
Product placements and endorsements – Typically through digital media, product placement and endorsement have been a great way to get noticed – a small nod through a TV show for example. Livestreaming has provided an opportunity much like that found in gaming where a broadcaster can show off a product through their stream, it has helped big esports teams in marketing for example by showing off merch like jerseys as the players would wear them through multiple streams, generating interest and sales, but also through many other different placements and endorsements much in the same way too.
It’s still relatively early days for online streaming in general as only the past five or so years has it been gaining the huge amount of traction it has now, but there are so many unique opportunities being presented that it seems to be the next big tech area for marketing, and all of the options it comes with.
