Game Influencer Marketing: A New Horizon for Advertisers

Why Game Influencer Marketing?

In digital marketing, capturing attention is crucial for brands, as our choices are often influenced by what we frequently see. Brands seek active channels where user engagement can translate into purchase decisions.

With the popularity of user-generated content, influencer and affiliate marketing is an increasingly vital channel for digital marketers who aim for meaningful engagement. But why game influencer marketing?

Simply because it's where your audience is most receptive and engaged, the gaming world has evolved into a vibrant, interconnected community, offering unprecedented engagement and attention. 

It provides endless possibilities for brand storytelling, audience connection, and creative marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with a diverse, global audience.

As GWI highlights, gaming is a great way for people to socialize and connect online. This growing trend has not only catapulted streaming into a major pastime, but also significantly driven the attention economy.

In the last decade, the gaming creator economy has grown, drawing in brands eager to connect with their audience.

More brands are starting to explore the vast world of game influencer streams. These influencers are really good at getting people excited about brands and products, leading to the growing popularity of 'game influencer marketing.'

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Setting the Stage: Game Influencer Marketing

Game streaming influencers focus on building connections with their audience through live platforms like Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Kick. 

They share their gameplay in real-time, offer commentary, and engage directly with viewers, creating a lively and interactive experience for viewers.

Driven by the rising passion for streaming video games, Twitch has soared in popularity. Gaming dominates the platform's top categories with an average of 2.5 million daily viewers. This increase in views shows how gaming influencers have pushed gaming into the mainstream.

However, the real impact of game streaming influencers goes beyond just gaming. They influence their communities and affect how people interact with brands. 

Young gamers admire these influencers, making it an ideal place for brands to connect with younger generations.  

Consider Twitch star Ninja (Richard Tyler Blevins), with 12 million social media followers. His streams can earn him tens of thousands of dollars monthly. But it's not all about gaming; these influencers also sway their followers' purchasing decisions.

Statista shows that influencer marketing's impact on buying decisions has grown significantly in four years. The data indicates the share of respondents in selected countries who have bought products because influencers advertised them. This makes game influencers increasingly important for advertisers.

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How Game Influencer Marketing Works?

Game influencer marketing transcends traditional advertising methods. It involves partnering with gaming influencers who stream their gameplay live. These influencers have cultivated loyal communities who trust and value their opinions. It feels organic and authentic when they showcase or mention your product during their stream. This enhances brand visibility and fosters a sense of trust and loyalty among potential customers.

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Types of Game Influencer Marketing Practices

Several In-game influencer marketing strategies stand out, each with its unique advantages. Here's a breakdown of ​​game influencer marketing approaches:

In-Stream Advertising:

• Seamlessly integrate your ads into live gameplay streams.
• Captures viewers' attention without interrupting their experience.
• This approach offers high-impact visibility, making it an ideal choice for brand promotion with minimal investment.

Sponsored Content and Brand Integrations:

• Collaborate with influencers for custom content featuring your brand.
• Integrate the brand's products or logos directly into the streaming session. 
• Have influencers verbally mention or discuss the brand during the stream, sharing their experiences or promoting sponsored products. 
• Brands can integrate campaign messages or promotion codes within the stream's chat to reinforce the brand's presence.
• Authentic, narrative-driven approach for deeper audience engagement.

Exclusive Brand Partnerships:

• Develop long-term associations with top gaming influencers.
• Leverage the credibility of respected gaming influencers enhances your brand's reputation. 
• Extend partnerships to include collaborations in gaming events, tournaments, or exclusive launches. This further amplifies your brand's presence within the gaming community.
• Leverage their credibility to build brand trust and loyalty.

While there are various methods like sponsorships and brand integrations, in-stream advertising stands out, especially for brands new to game advertising. Why? Because it delivers high-impact visibility with lower investment, translating to better ROI. In-stream ads are seamlessly integrated into live streams, capturing the audience's attention without disrupting their viewing experience. This subtle yet powerful approach is key to engaging with the gaming community effectively while offering a promising start for advertisers.

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The Impact of Advertising on Livestreams

Advertising on game influencer livestreams offers brands a substantial advantage in influencing consumer choices. 

According to Dentsu’s Play Attention Report of 2024, livestream ads on gaming platforms, achieve a remarkable 57% brand recall rate, surpassing the average rates across audio, social, online video, and display advertising. This notable increase in brand choice uplift within livestream environments underscores the powerful impact on audience decision-making, making it an attractive option for advertising investment. 

The graph demonstrates that ads integrated into live-streamed gaming content, especially when combined with tailored creative content—standard or customized specifically for Twitch—are highly effective. 

Source: Dentsu

This strategy drives exceptional brand recall and significantly enhances brand perception. This approach capitalizes on the unique environment of livestreaming, making it a potent tool for impactful brand engagement.

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Where to Find the Right Gaming Influencers for Your Brand?

Selecting the right platform for game influencer marketing is as vital as choosing the influencer. Each platform serves unique audiences and content preferences. Brands need to align their strategies with the most fitting platforms for maximum impact. Twitch, with over 7.30 million monthly streamers as of 2024, excels in live-streaming and real-time engagement, while YouTube is a hub for in-depth game reviews and playthroughs. These figures showcase Twitch being the leading platform in game streaming, but also highlight the challenge of finding the right influencers among many.

If navigating these choices seems daunting, let iion simplify it for you. Our innovative inventory discovery tool expertly matches your brand with the ideal gaming influencer. iion provides comprehensive insights into top gaming influencers, their follower demographics, content styles, and geographical reach. This ensures a seamless fit for your campaign objectives. With immersiion, our game advertising platform, advertisers gain access to an extensive inventory of gaming influencers across multiple platforms, all in one convenient location without the need to juggle multiple platforms.

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Successful Game Influencer Marketing Campaign Examples

Many brands have already tapped into the power of streaming channels. In this section, we’ll explore how these smart partnerships effectively engage gaming audiences, leading to significant brand uplift and impressive campaign metrics.

1. Lenovo and Oatley: Lenovo strategically utilized gaming as a dynamic platform to captivate and inform users about their latest gaming laptops. Collaborating with iion, they used immersiion game advertising platform to execute campaigns with heightened contextual relevance through Geo and Live Stream Targeting. 

2. Ninja and Red Bull: Ninja, one of the most famous game streamers, had a partnership with Red Bull. During his streams, a Red Bull logo was often visible on his streaming overlay, and he sometimes had a mini-fridge stocked with Red Bull drinks in the background, subtly promoting the brand to his viewers. 

3. Shroud and Postmates: Shroud, a popular streamer, partnered with Postmates, a food delivery service. During his gaming sessions, a Postmates logo and promotional codes for discounts on the service were displayed on his stream overlay, integrating the ad into his live content.

4. DrLupo and State Farm: DrLupo, a well-known streamer, had a sponsorship deal with State Farm. In his streams, the State Farm logo was incorporated into the stream overlay, and he occasionally discussed State Farm services during his broadcast, directly promoting the brand to his audience.

5. Pokimane and NZXT: Pokimane, a famous streamer and content creator, partnered with NZXT, a computer hardware company. During her streams, the NZXT logo was displayed on her streaming overlay, and she often talked about their products, like gaming PCs and accessories, while streaming.

6. TimTheTatman and Monster Energy: This collaboration typically involves TimTheTatman endorsing Monster Energy products during his live gaming streams, often featuring the energy drinks visibly on his streaming setup. Such partnerships are a strategic blend of product placement and influencer marketing, aimed at tapping into the loyal viewer base of the influencer for brand promotion and audience engagement.

7. KFC and DrLupo: KFC partnered with Twitch streamer DrLupo to advertise their chicken wings. During a PUBG live stream, whenever DrLupo and Anthony Kongphan won a match, viewers could type ‘winner winner’ in the chat, which would turn into a KFC bucket emoji and enter them into a giveaway for a KFC gift card​​.

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Level Up Your Brand with immersiion

Game streaming channels are becoming a valuable way for brands to connect with audiences during their hours of entertainment. Advertisers need to remember, it's not just about ads; the focus should be on constructing engaging forms of communication that nurture a distinctive relationship between the brand and the audience along the way.

If you're a brand looking to enter this dynamic and lucrative space, iion is here to unlock all game advertising opportunities this lively ecosystem presents. 

We make it easy to start and run game-streaming campaigns and many other game advertising channels with our unified game advertising platform, immersiion. 

immersiion is an end-to-end solution for brands that want to stand out in the gaming world, enabling advertisers to handle everything from creating campaigns to working with various streamers and tracking how well the campaigns are doing. 

Utilizing immersiion for running campaigns within game streaming environments offers:

• Broad Visibility: Display ads extensively across numerous live streams to maximize your reach.
• Contextual Relevance: Tailor campaigns to be contextually relevant through Geo and Live Stream Targeting.
• Optimal Timing: Showcase ads precisely when they will most likely generate clicks and engagement.

We want brands to transcend their limits and reach engaged audiences on a grand scale within the expansive gaming world. 

Let's transform your brand's story into an epic adventure that resonates with millions. Contact us now to start your journey in game influencer marketing with immersiion. 

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Start running ads on gaming streams today!

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