How is live streaming and gaming taking over the world and how to use their potential?
In recent years, gaming and live streaming have evolved dramatically, grown and became a power that marketers should no longer ignore. Especially in 2020.
How has the livestreaming market changed in recent years?
A handful of facts.
It could seem to the untrained eye that not much has happened yet. Across the world, including in Poland, gaming and live streaming flourished and became something permanent in our lives:
2 million people watched the Fortnite Championships at one time
Amazon bought Twitch for $1 billion
CD Project, a Polish game producer, is currently worth 37 billion PLN and is the company with the largest capitalisation in the country
The Call of Duty series began in 2003 and its popularity grows with each subsequent release. Even if we consider that players in 2003 were only 18, they are now 36!
The largest company in the world bought a streaming platform, and in Poland the biggest player (pun intended) is a game producer. But that’s not all...
Things have also change from the perspective of gamers and streamers
2018 was the year of new faces
This year, Twitch itself has 70% more streamers than the previous year. The number of viewers per year is about 25% more. Games aren’t the only thing that's streamed. The “Just Chatting” category has gained a lot of new supporters, showing that it's not just gaming that we're living on Twitch.
2019, i.e. new livestreaming platforms
Last year we witnessed the explosion of new live streaming platforms. They were created by online monopolists such as Facebook and Google. Mixer also appeared, which unites global streamers who broadcast in English.
In 2020, our lives moved online out of necessity
The situation in which we found ourselves in the second quarter or 2020, forced us into other ways of communication. People are herd creatures - they are looking for community. Despite the fact that we could not see each other live, we could meet online.
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Marketing also had to change tactics
This year, many innovative ways of reaching audiences took place, through the use of live streaming and gaming ideologies:
Formula 1 announced the esports Grand Prix
NBA announced a new format for esports games
Polish football moved to the world of FIFA
Travis Scott played a concert on Fortnite
And these are just a handful of events that took place in the first half of this year! Each step of the way we heard about music artists who, when forced to cancel concerts, organised events on streams to be closer to their fans.
Livestreaming platforms are becoming more and more popular
In the search for intimacy, we reinvented live streaming platforms. What made Twitch so popular in recent months and set it apart from, for example YouTube, is the sense of community. Users do not join the platform just to watch clips, but mainly because they want to connect with their community through live chat. The community surrounding the streamer is often more important than the content itself.
A complete mindset change
These changes that have taken place will probably not be forgotten, and will serve as the trigger for subsequent changes. Live streaming will flourish and undergo a metamorphosis. People have realised how interesting this space can be and learned new ways to promote themselves or their brands.
Marketing in 2020
Streamer’s viewers will become a target group that many will want to reach. Until now, it was inaccessible and closed to marketers, and they were reluctant to tap into it. The brands are finally discovering the potential of streamers and are more eager to learn how to reach them.
Live Streaming, the new television?
More brands will want to tap into live streaming and start advertising there. We will see more concerts and sports events move online to reach new audiences who aren’t interested in attending events in person.
How can this potential be used?
In May 2020 alone, Twitch broadcast almost 7.4 million streamers around the world. This is a dizzying number considering that the viewers greatly outnumber the streamers. This shows what a huge new market gaming and live streaming can be for brands.
Micro-streamers as the future of marketing
This term has been known to us for several years, but in a slightly different form. We talked about micro-influencers a long time ago, when it turned out that advertising with them is more effective than with large content creators, because their community is more strongly involved in their content. Exactly the same applies into to smaller streamers, who often have closer, more intimate contact with their viewers, and thus - the audience trusts them more.
How can brands use this?
By entering the world of gaming and working with streamers, the brand can build a real bond with the audience. Chat, community - everything happens in real time - these are the elements bonding the viewer with the streamer more strongly than with any other influencer. By understanding this relationship, the brand is able to gain a lot and engage with this seemingly inaccessible group.
What tools can brands use to reach streaming audiences?
First of all, working with streamers and communicating through games. In this way the brand shows the gaming community that they understand them.
In addition to standard collaboration, various technological tools and solutions have been created that support the brand in communicating with players. One of such tools is inSTREAMLY, which facilitates communication with many streamers simultaneously by creating dedicated displays published in streams.
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