In recent years, livestreaming has gained traction with us as well with a number of content creators focusing solely on this type. Of all the platforms, Twitch is the one that is still under-tapped by brands, even though the audiences are there. Uses of the platform go beyond gaming, especially in Romania, where the biggest streamer of the year is reaction and community interaction content.

What is Twitch?

Globally Twitch is the world’s leading streaming platform, where people live stream themselves playing various video games, create DIY items, make photo and video editing tutorials or just chat with their communities. It’s the platform where you can do almost anything you can imagine with a camera and a microphone, where brands generally sponsor content or segments, much more than buying ads to run over the video.

The most popular Twitch channels in Romania in numbers

(November 2022)

FAIAR, CREATIVEMONKEYZ, ZLAVOG, Doctorul_, ELMUROROSA, reallyrux, Sorinsky932, Xelly20, sabinateodora, andapuss.

Why you shouldn’t miss being on Twitch?

1. Growing platform

There is still plenty of room for content creators on Twitch in Romania, although growth on the platform is a bit slower! It’s a good market with a big audience, especially for Gen Z. Even I’m flirting with streaming, I’ve made my setup, downloaded the OBS and I already have a few hours under my belt, almost like pilots.

2. Unlimited options for native advertising

You can stream on YouTube too, but the options for creators and live chat are far fewer and don’t offer as engaging an environment, although depending on your content niche you can grow many times faster on YouTube.

I think the authentic streaming experience happens on Twitch. Youtube, I love you, but they got this.

3. Mainstream content creators are already paving the way

You’ve probably heard of Silviu Faiar or Creative Monkeys, but now we also find Răzvan Exarhu or Micutzu with MCN Podcast. Creative Monkeys have by far the biggest channel on the platform, with 20+ million views and almost 300k subscribers, which is huge for our country.

4. Twitch is the platform where ambitious amateurs create mini production studios

For any type of content the most important thing is sound, for example the Shure SM 7 B microphone is used by most top content creators. In addition to the microphone, content creators make complex light set-ups, from background lights to those that help with green screen efficiency. Compared to other platforms, on Twitch the camera is less important: generally the streamer’s livefeed is zoomed out to a corner of the screen to create visibility on what they are streaming.

How do you know the streamer you’re watching knows what they’re doing?

1. He is constant and consistent: he has a live schedule that he never misses. And when he does come, he interacts as much as possible with his audience. Silviu Faiar, for example, has racked up around 60 hours of streaming in the last 30 days, Zlăvog around 40, which works out to an average of 10 hours per week. Each streams approx. 2-3 times a week, which means sessions lasting from 2 to 5 hours per session.
2. He is creating different ways for your audience to enjoy 15 seconds of fame: donation alerts, polls, read comments and respond to them.
3. He is amplifying its content on other channels: after each stream it makes cuts for Youtube, Tik-Tok and Instagram, all with a link to the livestream channel.

How do creators monetize content created on Twitch?

Creators have 3 sources of revenue on Twitch:

• Donations: they provide a link that audiences can use to send any amount of money they wish. It also generally creates incentive layerers – the more you send, the more special something happens on the stream.
• Partnerships with brands: can range from banners that stay for the duration of the stream to 3-5 hour sponsored streams.
• Twitch Affiliate Program: based on subscriptions generated and interactions using Twitch currency, the creator receives a share of any money made.

What brands do on Twitch?

Pepsi asked us #cfderev and launched a party with Silviu Faiar.

Quote: “Obviously, laughter is the best plan in any situation, especially Rev. The old saying goes that if you start the year laughing, you’re at the right party. At the party organised by Pepsi & Silviu Faiăr, the programme is already set: music, jokes, internet trends. !laugh or! goodvibes will be the commands that kick off the fun on Twitch on New Year’s Eve. For those who want to call their friends and chill on the couch, Pepsi is preparing the coolest livestream together with Faiăr Silviu and friends.”.

Source Iqads.

Twitch provided the perfect voice for communicating Pepsi to the right audience. Spot on!

Heinz Hidden Spots (to much during online games)

Heinz developed a campaign with gaming influencers on Twitch based on a simple insight: it’s hard to eat when you play games online. So they’ve created a map of places to take a break from whatever you want to eat, in places in Warzone Pacific where no one can find you. To create buzz, they sent streamers packages of burgers wrapped in the map of these places.

The campaign reached 12 million gamers in 13 countries and generated 550 million impressions.

Let’s Twitch our communication mix for 2023!

The platform is great for influencer marketing, creating authentic content, simulating consumer occasions, or old school, for add-ons. There’s still plenty of room for brands. I love to see more and more companies starting to embrace new communication channels like Tik-Tok, Reddit, Twitch, BeReal etc. In the external market you see brands from KFC, Wendy’s or Lexus communicating on Twitch. See case studies here.

So come on Twitch, there’s room for everyone.

That’s it, I’m done writing the Pocket Dictionary for Streaming. All that’s left is to get to work, good luck with your internet coffee!