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5STREAMING AS A FAVORABLE FIELD FOR DIGITAL MARKETING
Abstract
The relevance of the problem is determined by the development of the newly appeared field for digital marketing - streaming-platform. The article is aimed at the consideration of the statistical data demonstrating the efficiency of the promotion through streams, for example twitch.tv. The applied method of the research of this problem is the analysis: comparative analysis, factor analysis, analysis of statistics. The authors suggest the division of the streaming channels according to their attractiveness for advertisers, the ways of the brand integration into the stream and the steps of the most productive promotion. The authors consider the indicators to assess the profitability of the advertising campaign through the streaming-platforms for further control. The applied strategies in the framework of the Twitch are considered. The material of the article can be useful for commercial organizations when planning and conducting advertising campaigns.
Keywords
marketing, digital marketing, advertising, advertising campaign, broadcast, broadcasting, broadcaster, streaming, twitch, streamer
AUTHORS
Georgy V. Rozhkov
Graduate student of Economics Tula Branch of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Tula, Russia.
53, Lenin Prospect, Tula, 300000, Russia.
E-mail: gosha.rozhkov@mail.ru
Oksana N. Mishchuk
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Assistant Professor, Tula Branch of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Tula, Russia.
53, Lenin Prospect, Tula, 300000, Russia.
E-mail: oksana_mishchuk@yahoo.com
1. Introduction
Nowadays digital technologies are a decisive factor in the successful promotion of any company giving obvious competitive advantages (blog.ringostat.com). Social success determines the company's success on the market (Gel'fond, Mishchuk, Miroshina, 2018). The criteria of success and the ways of its achieving depend on a society (Gelfond, Mishchuk, Miroshina, 2017), but the criteria of success in business are unique to some extend. Without using digital marketing it will be extremely difficult for modern companies to reach their audience, which spends a lot of time surfing the digital space. The search for new ways of communication with the consumer is one of the principal tasks that marketers have to solve today.
Streaming platforms, the most popular YouTube and Twitch, have become the newly discovered goldmines for digital marketing. Streamlabs published a quarterly report where experts showed the interesting statistics about the leading streaming platforms. Thus, in 2017 YouTube active streamers grew by 343% over year, while Twitch grew by 197%..
Streamlabs has seen a steady 25% rise per year since 2016, so we will definitely see another rise in 2018 (blog.streamlabs.com).
The world-renowned brands are familiar with Twitch.tv. They know that Twitch is not only a platform for conducting and watching online broadcasts, but also the main communication platform with gamers, because it is too hard to reach this type of audience through ordinary marketing tools. Twitch is called the TV of the future, and the economic effectiveness for advertisers is much more higher compared with the promotion in social networks or other marketing platforms. In the USA major FMCG brands such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Mars and others have been actively promoting on Twitch for a couple of years.
The report says that today Twitch has 15 million daily active viewers who spend about 95 minutes watching live games and over 2.2 million creators share their games live on Twitch monthly. At the same time, according to the results of September 2017, 81.5% of the Twitch users are men (55% at the consumer age between 18-34). And the Twitch users are ready to accept advertising: 82% say that sponsorship is good for the gaming industry, 80% are ready to sponsor a specific gamer or team (twitchadvertising.tv). According to Similarweb for September 2018, 862 million visits per month worldwide was recorded on Twitch. Compared to December 2016, this figure was 524.4 million, the growth was 64.5%. Russia ranks second in traffic (the USA - 20.98%) - 6.64%. So, our country generates 57 255 392 visits per month (similarweb.com). In Russia the promotion on Twitch attracts the manufacturers of accessories for gamers, game developers, online stores and Internet providers.
The figures presented above demonstrate that the platforms for online broadcasts are a favorable marketing field. To ignore this innovative opportunity is to miss the chance to attract an additional audience to the brand.
2. Results
Streamers can be divided into 3 categories:
1. Top streamers with hundreds of thousands audience;
2. Middle streamers with audience up to 50,000 followers;
3. Beginners with audience up to 10,000 followers. There are beginners who are ready to advertise for free (barter) or at a low price.
The benefits of advertising on Twitch:
1. Feedback: you get questions, comments or requests while broadcasting (intervolga.ru);
2. Native advertising: the opportunity to integrate advertising into the main content of the broadcast;
3. A variety of advertising forms and wide price differentiation.
Here are the steps to help you choose the right place to advertise:
1. Shortlist.
Compile a list of streamers whose audience trusts their channels and they are suitable for placing your advertisements. Do not try to publish ads with the help of top streamers. Based on the price to quality ratio, it is correct to choose someone less popular, as the former may have too much advertising and it can disturb confidence of viewers.
2. Analyze the selected channels.
You can ask for broadcast statistics from the channel owner (cossa.ru). Pay attention to such indicators as average and maximum number of viewers, unique viewers and unique chatters, average chat messages, new subscriptions and followers.
3. Evaluate the content.
Evaluate the channel, its quality, uniqueness, advertising sharing. Determine what form of the stream and what game is suitable for the most effective placement of your advertising.
4. Send a request for advertising.
Try to provide a detailed offer in the first message: it will allow the streamer to evaluate this own capabilities and to give a cost estimate of the advertising.
The main ways of the brand integration are:
1. "From above": through Twitch advertising possibilities;
2. "From below": through the streamers.
The first option is a cost-based model suitable for the world leading brands such as Procter & Gamble, HP, Nintendo and others. The advantage of this type of advertising is a maximum reach of target audience. It can help well-known brands remind the consumer of their brands. The disadvantages include the high price for this type of promotion and the availability of Adblock that allows users to skip advertising.
The second option is more accessible and effective for most advertisers. Working directly with streamers allows to gain advantages of using Twitch as a media channel. It ensures the advertiser a deep involvement and a high conversion audience into the target action. Moreover, the advantages of this type of promotion can be called relatively cheap advertising compared with the first option (but it depends on the popularity of the streamer and the type of advertising). It is a great benefit for the audience that they do not need to wait for the end of advertising and the beginning of broadcasting.
The essential ways to integrate advertising through streamers are:
1. Integration into the content;
2. Integration into messages from donators;
3. Integration into the channel description;
4. Integration into "background mode";
5. Integration into chatbot;
6. Integration into the title of the broadcast.
The integration into the content is the most common way to promote a product or service. Despite the fact that viewers immediately guess advertising, this method is quite effective. The main thing is to provide the streamer with a clearly organized speech and choose the right time for the integration, when the broadcast has the largest number of viewers. You can advertise a lot: from a trailer and accompanying calls for watching, to headphones, the streamer is wearing playing during the broadcast (the average duration of the stream is about 4 hours; it proves that they are comfortable to wear).
FIGURE 1 - E INTEGRATION INTO THE CONTENT
The integration into messages from donators. A company transfers money to the streamer for the opportunity to publish some messages (in this case, advertising) on the broadcast screen. Such advertising has a low cost about 100 rubles, but its effectiveness is also low, as this message is on the screen about 10 seconds and few people will pay attention to a small donation, and especially with advertising content.
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FIGURE 2 - THE INTEGRATION INTO MESSAGES FROM DONATORS
The use of banners in the description of the channel is quite an effective way of promotion, which also allows to add an active link (hyperlink) with the transition to the advertiser's website. Provide the audience with a bonus, for example, a special discount promo code, it will increase the efficiency and get information about the advertising campaign. To hold a competition is also a good option. It benefits the streamer, you and the audience, that increases their interest to your product and the chance to be noticed. One of the conditions of the competition may be the registration on your website, or
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FIGURE 3 - THE USE OF BANNERS IN THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHANNEL
The integration into "background mode" is similar to the integration into the channel description. But in this case the banner is placed on the broadcast screen and is there for a pre-agreed period of time that increases its chance to be seen. The disadvantage is that
you can't add an active link (hyperlink) to this type of banner.
FIGURE 4 - THE INTEGRATION INTO "BACKGROUND MODE" The integration into Chatbot. An advertising message with an active link appears in
the chat at certain intervals.
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FIGURE 5 - THE INTEGRATION INTO CHATBOT The integration into the title of the broadcast. This is another option of presence, which can complement the advertising campaign (cossa.ru).
FIGURE 6 - THE INTEGRATION INTO THE TITLE OF THE BROADCAST
Advertisers usually combine several ways of integration to promote and increase the impact of the campaign.
At this stage the authors offer a way to assess the profitability of any investments including investments in marketing through a number of indicators:
The suggested notations are:
L - a number of clicks the link;
S - the amount of sales by a promo code;
X - an average number of viewers, maximum number of viewers, a number of unique viewers, a number of unique chatters.
1. Engagement Rate = - x 100
c
2. Attraction Rate = - x 100
x
All these indicators should be analyzed only in the ratio of costs. On the basis of it, you can calculate the following KPI:
1. Click price = ^
2. Sales price = ^
The important stage of any marketing campaign is the analysis of feedback received during the broadcast and a response to it.
The first example of advertising on Twitch is the online game store Zaka-Zaka, which conducted a campaign on Twitch to attract the target audience (gamers) to the store website. 11 draw games were held during the campaign. It covered 199 276 people. In particular the company engaged popular broadcasters such as ceh9, TaeRss. The following games were given as prizes: ArmA 3, Dead by Daylight, Mafia III, Witcher 3. 5,5 thousand people participated in these draw games, the final part and the broadcast with the choice of the winners were watched by about 42 thousand people. The target actions that increase the chances to win were: click the game page on the Zaka-Zaka website, joining
the social networks and watching promo videos. According to vc.ru, this advertising campaign on Twitch proved to be more economic effective than a similar activity on "VK.com". On Twitch ad showing costs only 0.07 rubles, on" VK.com " — 14.8 P, and the click — 5.9 and 50.5 P, respectively (vc.ru).
War Thunder, one of the leaders on the flight simulator market, carried out an advertising campaign to involve the audience in the game play, so they were able to assess the competitive advantages of the product. The TaeRss's viewers took part in the competition. The streamer announced the draw game live. The main prizes were two certificates for 4000 P on Steam-wallet. The participants were asked to increase their chances to win by performing one of the targeted actions:
• subscribe to the streamers
• make a post about the draw game in social networks;
• register and win ten times.
It is possible to promote game products but also advertising fast-food chain, so that the viewer can satisfy hunger without getting out of watching the stream. Such advertising was ordered by Papa Johns from the streamer C_a_k_e and giving his viewers a special promo code which allows to get a pizza as a gift when ordering from 799 P.
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FIGURE 7 - ADVERTISING PAPA JOHN'S FROM CAKE
If you are creative you can successfully advertise goods on Twitch required not only by gamers, but also by many other viewers, such as a bank card or shaving gel.
For example, Tinkoff Bank issued a bank card "ALL Games", which gave an increased cash back for the purchase of video games and the ability to add a nickname to the front of the card. The campaign was held in 2017 with the participation of HoneyMad. The terms included the availability of a banner on the screen of the stream and the demonstration of the card by the streamer during the broadcast.
FIGURE 8 - ADVERTISING TINKOFF ALL GAMES FROM HONEYMAD
The famous brands "Gilette" and "Head & Shoulders" didn't miss the opportunity to show themselves in this marketing field. They used a fairly classic way of promotion, endorsement, but the chosen ambassadors were Alexey Solo Berezin ("Gilette"), a captain of Virtus.Pro by Dota 2 and Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev ("Head & Shoulders"), a Virtus.pro player. It was quite an effective advertising step, these celebrities are more popular among the Twitch audience than football players, singers or actors. Advertising was distributed by means of 30 second commercials through twitch.tv.
FIGURE 9 - ADVERTISING GILLETTE WITH ALEXEY "SOLO" BE REZIN
The most unusual advertising campaign was held by "Old Spice". The company created its own channel on Twitch with entertainment streams to promote the line of deodorants in April 2015. Within three days the Twitch users vising the Old Spice channel
could control a real person who was in the forest. All his actions depended on the will of the most viewers. In particular, the character managed to shoot from a huge slingshot, to taste a stone, to quarrel with the farmer Amish, to marry his daughter and even to fight with a bear (not real).
FIGURE 10 - ADVERTISING OLD SPICE CHANNEL
The campaign drew an interest of millions of people. In total, more than 2.65 million people watched commercials, 703 thousand watched live broadcasts on Twitch, more than 31.5 thousand people subscribed to the channel.
4. Conclusion
As we can see the success of advertising campaigns on Twitch is founded on a few key aspects:
1. Economic efficiency (compared to targeted campaigns in social networks);
2. Interactivity (direct communication between the streamer and the viewer);
3. High level of credibility of the viewer to the streamer.
The distance between gamers and advertisers is reducing. Russian and foreign brands are actively working with the audience of the streaming-platforms. This is a new market for the whole world with a wide range of possibilities for modern marketing specialists.
REFERENCES
Audience. (2017). In Twitch Advertising. Retrieved November 14, 2018, from twitchadvertising.tv/audience/
Digital-marketing - what is it? (2018, March 6). In Blog.ringostat. Retrieved November 17, 2018, from https://blog.ringostat.com/ru/digital-marketing-chto-eto/
Gel'fond, M.L., Mishchuk, O.N. & Miroshina, E.Yu. (2017) Philosophic and terminological analisys of the phenomenon "success". Izvestia Tula State University. Humanitarian sciences. 2017. Vol.1. (161-168).
Gelfond, M.L., Mishchuk, O.N. & Miroshina, E.Yu. (2018.) Success as a philosophical category and a social phenomenon. Modern European Researches. 2018. 4. (9-15).
SMM promotion — step-by-step guide. (2017, December 14). In Intervolga. Retrieved November 16, 2018, from https://www.intervolga.ru/blog/marketing/smm-prodvizhenie-poshagovoe-rukovodstvo
Streamlabs Livestreaming Q4 Report. (2018, January 25). In Streamlabs. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https://blog.streamlabs.com/streamlabs-livestreaming-q4-report-tipping-reaches-100m-for-the-year-youtube-dominates-in-4bf450fae536
Streaming-2017: how to deal with it in 2018? (2018, March 15). In Cossa. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from https: //www.cossa.ru/152/197284/
Twitch-effect. (2017, February 2). In VC. Retrieved November 16, 2018, from https: //vc. ru/marketing/21710-streaming-promotion
Twitch.tv Overview. (2018). In Similarweb. Retrieved November 3, 2018, from https://www.similarweb.com/website/twitch.tv
Who are the streamers and how to promote with them? (2016, April 27). In Cossa. Retrieved November 20, 2018, from https://www.cossa.ru/trends/129195/
