How Your Brand Can Work With Streamers?

Streamers – they choose how they play and what they play. They make their own schedules and choose how they want to work. On top of that – they have a strong following behind them. And yet, putting “pro” next to a “streamer” is not an exaggeration anymore. The landscape has changed, with the live content creators becoming reliable and effective collaborators to promote your brand.

1. Should your brand work with streamers?
2. What’s professional about streaming?
3. The power of streamers’ communities
4. How to promote your brand natively?

Should Your Brand Work With Streamers?

Let’s get this misconception out of the way first: streaming is not only about gaming.

It’s a specific form of creating content using live broadcasting of what a streamer is up to at the moment. While very often providing commentary for their actions and interacting with their audience in real life. Although the popularity of some streaming platforms, like Twitch, stems from the ever-growing popularity of gaming, they are becoming outlets for the creators to show their lifestyle.

Streaming itself is a lifestyle nowadays. Having a look around Twitch’s library, you can see one category that rarely leaves top 5 in viewership… “Just Chatting”, which just a part of the IRL (In-Real Life) type of content – with others being, for example, Art or Talk Shows… even Food & Drink. Streaming platforms are making sure that they can provide space for everyone.

From your brand’s perspective, this is a great opportunity to boost sales via tailored influencer marketing. You can either pick those streamers whose categories fit your target group’s interests best and collaborate in creating a compelling message – you know you have a great product for their audience, and they know how to reach them. Even better, you can work with a platform like inStreamly. We partner with thousands of streamers that can join your campaign and promote your brand to their strong communities.

What’s Professional About Streaming?

While it is a way of life – for many it is also a way to make a living. What might look like a dream job from an outsider’s perspective, involves a lot of planning, rules and self-discipline. The streaming boom noticeable in the last years made the scene a highly competitive one.

Now, live content creators have to professionalise themselves to stay relevant and on a level that allows them to generate income. Here are some distinctive elements that should help you distinguish a professional streamer from a casual one:

• Schedules – planning when and what type of content they will go live with helps streamers build a returning viewer base by adjusting to the schedules and expectations of their desired target group. Also, willing to trade their “freedom” for a higher chance to make it is a good sign a streamer is taking their craft seriously.
• Affiliations – there are streaming organisations associating rosters of up-and-coming and already established channels. Although they are a great opportunity to boost one’s recognition, in return they expect certain results, motivating streamers to stay at the top of their game.
• Partner statuses – platforms have set up partner programs for creators willing to make the most out of streaming, income-wise. To reach it, however, streamers have to meet a set of requirements – like average daily viewers, total broadcasting time. As it requires a lot of dedication, it is a good indication of a streamer’s attitude.
• Their team – streaming platforms are making their best effort to be inclusive, welcoming and friendly for all. That means streamers are expected to behave themselves, but also to keep their community in check. Making sure the rules are not broken in the stream’s chat. It’s becoming more difficult the bigger the channel grows, sometimes requiring the creators to HIRE moderators.

The Power of Streamers’ Communities

One of the biggest factors of game streaming success is how strong is the community behind a streamer. Depending on what they stream, what games they are known for, or their attitude towards gaming, they will cater to different types of people – from casual watchers to e-sports fanatics; from chilling types to loud and crazy entertainers.

The difference between a viewer base and a community is that the latter can become involved in shaping their favourite channels. Taking on jobs of their moderators and community managers, designing fanart or even fully-fledged stream layout designs. Sometimes even completely voluntarily! Levels of engagement between streamers and fans are almost nowhere to be found outside streaming platforms. There is, after all, a difference between engaging someone to see a photo and watching someone stream for hours long.

If your brand relies on influencer marketing or wants to include it in its strategy, then streaming platforms should be one of your key marketing channels. The power of streaming personalities and the following behind them, combined with screen-time they can get (Twitch users watch 95 minutes per day on average, which is a stat most likely to keep growing) form a potent landscape for your brand’s recognition to flourish.

How to Promote Your Brand Natively?

It Doesn’t Matter Your Brand’s Sector, the Gaming and Live Streaming Field Should Be Explored by Any Brand That Wants to Communicate With Gen Z and Improve Their Marketing ROI. If you want your brand to achieve success on streaming platforms there is one ground rule there should be no exceptions from.

Stay authentic. Tuning in to a stream for fans is like visiting a friend – and you wouldn’t like them screaming a product’s name into your face. Watching Hearthstone streamer Thijs’s broadcast, for example. You will notice a glass-door minifridge sitting in the far corner of the room, with familiar Red Bull cans peeking from inside. And that’s it. There’s an instant connection between the brand and the streamer, with no mention at all. If someone asks what This favourite flavour is, they will, of course, get the answer.

The upside of this approach is that it is immune to adblockers of any kind. And delivers campaigns with superior CTR and ROI. With inStreamly you can work with hundreds of streamers at the same time. This enables your brand to successfully reach its audience. See for yourself how we have helped global brands to run successful marketing campaigns with streamers in our case studies.