“While there are a lot of benefits with live video, there are naturally more risks from technical problems and inappropriate content, but also the way live viewership can be a bit unpredictable – especially with sudden peaks,” says Adam Simmons, VP content and marketing at Level Up Media, DingIt’s parent company. “Different approaches for live or VOD streaming advertising each have pros and cons. There have been some great content-based campaigns that have delivered for brands, such as the tournament series DingIt ran with Kinguin, whereas the targeting and flexibility of direct advertising can offer advantages for other publishers. The key is understanding the strengths of different formats, how they complement each other and then building a strategy. “Live [video] has some great benefits for user engagement and audience interaction. On the flip side, it is difficult to control the quality of content, especially from a brand safety point of view. We chose to focus on premium VOD as we see a big growth area here, especially when trying to reach a broader audience who may not want to commit to watching hours of live streaming. VOD tends to have more stable viewership, whereas live video can have large spikes in traffic that can be difficult to predict.”
Devolver’s Knuckles agrees that the volatile nature of streaming is both a strength and a weakness from a marketing point of view: “The live stream audience is certainly more engaged and want more than just to see video of a game in action. They actively ask questions, talk amongst themselves, and can be brutally – but importantly – honest about what you put out there,” he says. “It’s all unpredictable. People are going to react how they react and we can’t really control that. Our hope is we get the work of our developers out there to both people that follow us, and bring in new folks that might have never considered one of our games before.” If the gaming community can be brutally honest about the content that’s being delivered to them, it’s equally important for the brands making use of streaming platforms to be honest as well, says Ford. “The key message here is that an advertising partner has to be authentic,” he explains. “If the message isn’t authentic, then the audience will know immediately. Twitch offers a managed service to brands that want to explore the opportunities live streaming has to offer, but need help in their ideation and execution. When it’s done right, engagement, measurable brand uplift and a positive emotional connection are the rewards.”
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