Tag: Twitch

Carl’s Jr. Updates Its Ad Creatives With A Twitch Livestream Of Explosions

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Carl’s Jr., notorious for some of its provocative and exploitative ads, is looking to update its brand image by promising its future commercials will focus on “food, not boobs.” The fast food chain chose to broadcast that creative transformation on Twitch with a tongue-in-cheek demolition session of the props featured in its previous ads. The branded livestream took over Twitch’s homepage on Saturday, April 8 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. EST, and featured the chain’s fictional founder Carl Hardee Sr. and his son obliterating bikinis and tanning oil with the help of YouTube stars “The Slow-Mo Guys.” The experience also takes advantage of Twitch’s interactive features, allowing the audience to chime in during the live broadcast to help the characters choose their methods of destruction.

What Brands Need To Do
This is not the first time Carl’s Jr. has leverage Twitch’s platform to reach consumers in its online campaigns, as the company has hosted branded gameplay sessions with influencers and teamed up with Vice to create live commercial breaks. With 9.7 million daily active users, Twitch is a formidable force in online media that most brands have yet to tap into.

In recent years, the competitive gaming industry has grown into a media opportunity that brands should not ignore. Some early-adopting brands, such as Coca-Cola and Geico, have been sponsoring eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience. More brands should consider leveraging sponsorships and branded live streams to reach the growing number of viewers on eSports streaming sites.

Source: Creativity Online

Facebook Live Challenges Twitch By Adding Support For Gameplay Broadcast On Desktop

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook is one-upping Twitch by expanding its live video capabilities to all desktop users. Previously, only Page owners can start a live broadcast from a desktop device. Now, any Facebook user can go Live directly from Facebook’s desktop website via their webcam, or hook up their professional equipment and software to the desktop devices for a more polished livestream. This also means users can now broadcast gameplay from their computer, which will put Facebook Live in direct competition with Twitch.

What Brands Need To Do
As formidable as Facebook’s massive user base may seem, Twitch doesn’t have much to worry about in the short term as it will take considerable time and efforts for Facebook to cultivate a vibrant gamer community that Twitch has already locked in. Nevertheless, this move signals Facebook’s recognition of esports and the big media opportunity it presents. If it can continue to improve its Live video product to accommodate gameplay broadcasts, the social network might just carve out a space for itself amongst the fierce competition between Twitch, Ustream, and YouTube Gaming.

As companies race to capture the young, male-skewing eSports audience, brands, especially those seeking global recognition, need to start leveraging the massive reach of eSports events and platforms via sponsorships and ads.

 

Source: The Verge

 

Twitch To Start Selling Games On Its Site This Spring

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Twitch is ready to take the logical expansion from streaming video gameplays to selling video games. The company announced on Monday that it will start to make game titles available for purchases later this spring. The company will be working both big-name and indie game publishers for the launch, including Ubisoft, Telltale Games, Digital Extremes, Hi-Rez Studios, tinyBuild, Paradox Interactive, Trion Worlds, Vlambeer, and others.

Once Twitch users make a purchase, they can play the game via Twitch Launcher, a software for that Twitch Prime customers uses to redeem games and loot codes. They can also opt to download and play the games through existing developer and publisher-operated services, including Uplay.

What Brands Need To Do
This move will no doubt open up a new revenue stream for Twitch while also setting it up for competition against other game marketplaces like Steam and Valve. While this may not be a common marketing ploy, several QSR and CPG brands have worked with video game publishers to develop games that incorporated their brand IPs. For brands, this means they will soon have a new platform to sell and promote the branded video game content they own.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Amazon Launches eSports Tournament For Casual Mobile Gaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon Appstore launching a new eSports tournament named Champions of Fire International for casual mobile gamers, as the ecommerce giant aims to bring eSports into mainstream consumer consciousness. The one-day tournament is scheduled for December 2 in Las and will feature sixteen gaming celebrities to battle over five popular casual mobile games such as Disney Crossy Road, Pac-Man 256, and Fruit Ninja. The event will be streamed live via Twitch, a popular eSports streaming site Amazon acquired in 2015. In addition, a two-hour special of the tournament will be broadcast nationwide by the CBS Sports Network on December 12.

What Brands Should Do
By extending eSports from desktop PC games to casual mobile games, Amazon is introducing the the world of competitive gaming to a wider audience, which should help Amazon drive more viewers to Twitch. The eSports industry has enjoyed rapid growth in the past few years, transforming from a nerdy niche into a legitimate new media segment that commands millions of eyeballs and drawing considerable attention from media companies and marketers.

Previously, Turner Media added eSports programming to primetime on TBS in an attempt to broaden its reach. Some early-adopting brands, such as Coca-Cola and Geico, have sponsored eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience. As media companies race to capture the vast eSports audience, brands, especially those seeking global recognition, should consider leveraging the massive reach of eSports events via sponsorships and ads.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Twitch Launches Unblockable Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Popular live-streaming site Twitch is launching a new video ad product that aims to circumvent ad-blocking software. Taking a page out of Facebook’s playbook, Twitch is now making its video ads indistinguishable from the site’s regular content so as to bypass detection by ad-blockers. The Amazon-owned site acknowledges in a blog post that it is “well aware that many dedicated Twitch viewers” use ad blockers but insists its platform will stay “agnostic” toward ad-blocking.

What Brands Should Do
This new ad product highlights the ongoing push-and-pull between consumers’ increasing avoidance of ads and digital platforms’ need for monetization. While this initiative should boost the viewability of Twitch’s video ads, brands looking to reach the young Millennial audience on Twitch may also consider native advertising such as the live, in-stream branded content that Carl’s Jr. tried with Vice Media.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

Vice Broadcasts 72-Hour Twitch Livestream With Live Ads From Carl’s Jr.

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
To promote the launch of its video gaming-focused channel Waypoint, Vice Media hosted a 72-hour gaming marathon on Twitch over this past weekend. Starting Friday at noon, the Waypoint live stream ran on Twitch’s front page and featured gamers, musicians, and other guests playing 72 games over three straight days. Notably, the live stream also included live sketches sponsored by Carl’s Jr. as its brand mascot “Happy Star” interacted with the guests, handed out burgers, and performed funny stunts during breaks.

Although this marks the first time Vice Media tried live advertising on Twitch, Carl’s Jr is no stranger when it comes to sponsoring live broadcasts on Twitch. The quick-service restaurant chain hosted a 2-hour event on Twitch as part of its #UltimateCarePackage campaign, where guests played Call of Duty Black Ops III with in-game brand integrations and ate some Carl’s Jr burgers.

What Brands Should Do
Such experiments show how brands can leverage this type of in-stream branded content to reach the growing number of viewers on eSports streaming sites. In recent years, the competitive gaming industry has grown into a media opportunity that brands should not ignore. Some early-adopting brands, such as Coca-Cola and Geico, have been sponsoring eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience. More brands should consider leveraging the massive reach of eSports events to reach consumers via sponsorships or, as in Carl’s Jr.’s case, in-stream content integration.

 

Source: Variety

Header image is a screen capture from Waypoint’s Twitch Livestream

Twitch Incentivizes Users To Watch Ads With Virtual Rewards

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Popular gameplay live-streaming site Twitch has started testing a new way to incentivize its nearly 10 million daily active users to watch ads. U.S. viewers can now choose to watch a sponsored video or fill out a short survey in exchange for some “Bits,” a virtual currency the company introduced in June to enable users to tip their favorite broadcasters. Previously, users could purchase 100 Bits for $1.40.

What Brands Should Do
Twitch is commendable for taking an innovative approach to counteract the prevalent usage of ad-blockers in the gaming community. This initiative should make it easier for brands to reach the much-coveted young Millennial audience on Twitch, offering an example of how media owners can deal with the rise of ad-blockers by improving the ad experience and proposing a value exchange to their audience.

For more information on how brands can deal with the increasing consumer aversion toward ads, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Engadget

Twitch Goes Ad-Free For Amazon Prime Members

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is once again expanding the perks of its Prime membership to include ad-free viewing on Twitch, the leading gameplay streaming site that Amazon acquired in 2014 for $970 million. In addition, Amazon is tapping into the gaming community on Twitch to sell more video games by offering discounts and special offers on copies sold on Amazon.com.

What Brands Need To Do
According to Amazon, Twitch has close to 10 million daily active users, and over 15,000 broadcasters on Twitch have signed on to the company’s partnership program to monetize their streams on a revenue-sharing basis. The move to support ad-free viewing on Twitch is one of the latest examples of media companies catering to consumers’ growing aversion to ads, which pushes brands to explore other forms of advertising, such as branded live content or sponsored gaming events, to reach Prime members on Twitch.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

Facebook Challenges Twitch With Blizzard Integration

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following the launch of an eSports network and programming on Facebook last month, popular video game maker Blizzard is forging a bond with the social network by integrating Facebook’s login and Live video features into its PC games and online gameplay service Battle.net. This integration allows players to easily start broadcasting their gameplay on Facebook. Although Battle.net added support for Twitch last September, this will no doubt put some pressure on Twitch as Facebook gears up to compete for the game streaming market.

What Brands Need To Do
Given Facebook’s massive user base, its newfound interest in gameplay streaming should come as an auspicious sign for the gaming industry. Quickly growing from a nerdy niche to a legitimate new media segment that commands millions of eyeballs, the gaming industry has enjoyed rapid growth in the past few years. Meanwhile, Facebook has been making a strong push for its Live video product in the recent months, so it makes sense for the social network to tap into one of the most popular content segments in live streaming. For brands seeking to connect with a young, male-skewing audience that video games typically deliver, this provides a new channel to reach a wide audience. Therefore, now is the time for brands to include video game streaming and eSports as part of the media strategy via relevant sponsorships.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Turner’s ELEAGUE Captures Huge Audience During Opening Week

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
ELEAGUE, the professional eSports league co-owned by Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG, enjoyed a successful opening week. The new eSports league’s tournament, which started on May 24, has generated 150 million gross minutes of video consumption and garnered over 710 million impressions on Twitter so far. We wrote about ELEAGUE’s live-streaming deal with Twitch last week, and ELEAGUE has consistently ranked as the top channel on Twitch since launch, with an additional 3.6 million video views from its Facebook Page. The league’s broadcast on Turner-owned TBS channel averaged 509,000 total viewers during its first primetime telecast, a respectable number for a basic cable channel on a Friday night.

What Brands Need To Do
The impressive audience that ELEAGUE delivered during its opening week shows the vast potential of the competitive gaming industry, which has quickly grown into a media opportunity that attracts a massive audience and generates billions of dollars in recent years. Some early-adopting brands, such as Coca-Cola and Geico, have been sponsoring eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience. Therefore, brands should consider leveraging the massive reach of eSports events to reach consumers via sponsorships and ads.

 

Source: ELEAGUE


Header image is a promotional image courtesy of e-league.com