Gemma Battenbough (above) leads the Twitch Brand Partnership Studio, focusing on international expansion across Canada, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and MENA.
She tells Marketing Beat about the “demand for short-form content alongside the long-form”, and how Twitch can help brands build a deeper connection to their audience.
What about Twitch makes it ideal for broadcasting a brand’s message to a wide audience?
We didn’t become the global leader in live streaming overnight, this was something that was earned through a wholehearted commitment to connecting people. As Dan Clancy, our Twitch CEO stated in an open letter this month: “The streamers that come here every day and build communities are what make Twitch a truly unique service – they’re why we exist.”
While we quickly recognised the value of broadcasting as a media form, more than that, we saw the appetite from our community to support each other and create a space for interaction. By doubling down on this and investing in it, our growth came both organically and quickly and reflects how we do things to this day.
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Across all our main categories like music, sports, Just Chatting and gaming, macro and micro-communities will naturally develop, and this opens the door for a web of interconnected audiences that can be cross promoted to and are constantly growing and shifting. These communities are at the heart of Twitch’s success as a service, and we see our audiences reflect high engagement within their communities — 70% of our viewers confirmed their fandom and fan community are a part of their everyday lives. It isn’t just on the service though, we have two thriving IRL (in real life) events every year, TwitchCon Europe and TwitchCon San Diego where the Twitch community comes together to celebrate streaming culture together.
Our communities are what we’ve become known for. It’s where people can stay a while and enjoy content from their favourite streamers that they feel a part of, and where they can make real, lasting connections with other like-minded people.
What’s the mission? If you could distil everything the company is currently shooting for, what would that be?
Our main goal right now is to be the interactive home of any community you can think of. We want to be the go-to service if you want content on music, sports, or fashion, anything really.
We see the demand for short-form content alongside the long-form, and this is where we feel Twitch can really thrive. We have built our Discovery Feed to allow people to create and watch highlights from people’s streams, offering the opportunity for creators to build their fanbase, while giving audiences short snackable content while they are on the go. We’re really excited about the potential of Clips and Stream Together features to help people discover new streamers and communities to be a part of.
In terms of building out new categories, we’re continuing to develop our service in how we support streamers to monetise their content and grow their engagement. Last year we launched a revolutionary feature for our music category, with our first-of-its-kind DJ Program, creating a deal with music rights holders to allow DJs on our service to feature a huge catalogue of copyrighted music on their streams, providing a concrete monetisation model for them. This translates into our incredibly diverse IRL event at TwitchCon as well. From dance classes to musical performances or arts and crafts, every room celebrates a completely different niche.
On the brand side, we want to keep developing brand knowledge of the live-streaming content sphere and continue helping them connect their marketing strategy with our users, whether through partnership or sponsored content.
We keep hearing that ‘live’ is the future of content. But let’s be honest – most brands still play it safe with polished, pre-recorded campaigns. What’s your best advice for brands that want to dive into long-form live content without looking like they’ve just discovered the internet?
Ultimately the world has moved on from safe and polished content, and the marketing industry needs to do the same in order to stay relevant. This doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind; far from it. By understanding what makes consumers connect with people on social media at an authentic level, you can unlock the full potential of live content. The first step is carefully choosing streamers that fit with your brand goals and guidelines.
Brands need to lean on streamers, they know how to authentically connect with their audience and making engaging content is their livelihood. This is where the Twitch and Amazon Ads teams come into the picture. We are constantly guiding brands to find authentic ways to integrate a product with streamers, and to ensure it feels organic. The key is to become a part of the conversation — not disrupt it — and the streamers are the ones conversing.
Finding the right streamer that really represents the brand will make this process a hundred times smoother, which is also where the dedicated Twitch Brand Partnerships team do a lot of the heavy lifting. We recently launched Creator Profiles, an interface for streamers to use that gives a full professional showcase of their channel, opening them up for opportunities that genuinely align with their content and personality.
We know Twitch is huge for gamers, but you’ve got thriving communities in music, fashion, beauty and even automotive. What’s the most unexpected brand that’s nailed it on Twitch, and what can marketers learn from them?
One of my favourite collaborations was with Nike Jordan for the Paris Olympic Games last year. They were looking to connect with a younger audience and with 70% of our audience being Gen Z or Millennials, we had a lot to offer them. They planned to transform the 18th arrondissement (district) of Paris into a dynamic community space for local basketball fans and wanted to launch a digital campaign alongside this.
Highlights included continuous promotion on Twitch’s homepage, with behind-the-scenes access to athletes and artists, and events like The One Finals, producing a record-breaking 7-hour stream with over 10 million viewers. US artist Tinashe performed, along with rappers Fat Joe and Rema. The One Finals became Twitch’s largest ever paid stream, boosting global engagement and community interaction, while generating excitement around Jordan’s brand.
In addition to brand success stories, we have seen an increase in huge A-list celebrities flocking to the service. Illustrating this, cultural phenomenon Kai Cenat has 16.2 million followers, and pulled collaborations with celebrities such as Bill Nye, SZA and Travis Barker in 2024 alone. And the huge Spanish streamer Ibai hosted a massive boxing event alongside Will Smith, to a packed Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of 85,000 fans, with 3.85 million people watching the event simultaneously. And just last month, superstar Lizzo made her debut on the service to show off her gaming skills and discuss her passion for wellness and fitness with her community.
This union of digital and physical activations is something that I believe marketers should be considering in their future campaigns, and at Twitch we’re always happy to assist brands in finding the activation that works best for them.
All brands want deeper connections to their audiences. ‘Community’ might well be the buzzword of 2025, but how does streaming really deepen that relationship?
The key difference between live-streaming content and other advertising methods is the long-term engagement that streaming naturally fosters. Through live streams, brands can access these highly engaged communities and get the halo effect of the trust streamers have earned with their audience. To echo this with data, nearly 72% of surveyed fans in Amazon’s Ads to Zeitgeist survey said that advertising is an important way for brands to communicate their values. These ads need to be engaging in new ways too, as 73% appreciate advertising that entertains them. Streaming deepens the relationship between brands and audiences as viewers feel they are part of the content — and in many cases, they are.
Take our Just Chatting category, for instance, viewers regularly tune in to talk directly to their favourite streamers, and in doing so, new trends and inside jokes are created, members of the chat become known, friends are made, and all of a sudden you have genuine connections being made in a fully online community. Six billion hours of Just Chatting content was watched last year, which just goes to show how much these relationships mean to audiences.
While these relationships often exist online, when these communities meet up at TwitchCon you see what they really mean to people. It is incredibly heartwarming to see close friends come together once or twice a year, connecting through the hundreds of activities at the show. Whether it’s discovering some new games which are being exhibited on the show floor, or participating in the panels and activities brought to life by our sponsors, the brands we partner with become an organic part of the TwitchCon experience.
TwitchCon is a bit like the Woodstock of digital culture. Massive crowds, die-hard fans and incredible lineups. What’s in it for brands that show up, and can you share some of the most genius activations you’ve seen?
TwitchCon is the biggest in-person event in Twitch’s calendar, and this year will be even more special as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the event. The show brings communities across Twitch together IRL to celebrate the vast array of interests that are celebrated on Twitch, from music to fashion to gaming and more. Last year’s TwitchCon Europe drew 14,000 attendees from 78 countries, and this year is shaping up to be even more impressive.
Every year we partner with incredible brands from McDonalds to Samsung, getting them involved in the biggest cultural phenomenon for live content around. As the event with the highest count of streaming creators out there, TwitchCon provides access to an audience already looking to wholly immerse themselves in their experience, as well as capture and share it. With the majority of Twitch’s users being aged between 18-34, there’s a unique opportunity at TwitchCon to tap into one of the traditionally hardest-to-reach audiences and connect in authentic ways. The most successful brands are the ones that create immersive, community-driven activations that bridge the gap between digital and real worlds, attendees are looking for an unforgettable experience that accesses the digital community in an IRL way.
One successful example of this was our partnership with NYX Professional Makeup, a leading brand in vegan cosmetics. The company has been a brand partner for the last two years and last year NYX expanded its space and experiences online and offline. The aim was to create a safe and inclusive space in gaming and beyond, with their Game Out Loud campaign. They offered an interactive experience where attendees could get a full make over, trying out the brand themselves, meanwhile sponsoring the fan favourite Drag Showcase, and hosting the sponsored panel and makeup artistry masterclass. A quarter of Expo Hall attendees visited the booth, with an average of 23-minutes dwell time.
If each year gets bigger and better, how is 2025 shaping up?
TwitchCon Europe and TwitchCon San Diego ‘25 are looking to be the biggest and best celebration of live-streaming culture, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the show. We’ll be hosting live performances, workshops and panel discussions, meet-and-greet sessions with popular streamers, esports tournaments and more. These will be split across seven main areas: our main Glitch Stage, Esports Arena, Artist Alley, Loot Cave, Creator Camp, Expo Hall and Meet and Greet space. We’re looking to make this year really special for all of our attendees and show our appreciation for the streamers, viewers and brands that have supported us for the past ten years of TwitchCon.
For a brand heading to TwitchCon, what’s the secret to standing out in a space where fans expect brands to be as creative and entertaining as the streamers themselves?
The most popular brand activations at events like TwitchCon will be the ones that provide a memorable experience that feels exclusive to attendees. By creating an experience that audiences can interact with and be a part of, you will naturally draw attendees looking to make their TwitchCon special. We’ve already talked about the huge diverse range of hobbies and interests that have a home on Twitch, and at TwitchCon all of these come out to be shared. Brands that do well embrace this, and see TwitchCon as a hotbed for hobby discovery, with thousands of open-minded attendees looking to celebrate and discover new things.
It’s important not to forget that the experience isn’t just for the people on the show floor, it will be broadcast live to millions at home. Last year’s TwitchCon Europe saw viewership on Twitch reaching over 2.2 million hours watched.
For example, last year, Samsung wanted to put Galaxy S23 Ultra devices in the hands of gamers. As one of our Presenting Sponsors they created a multifaceted booth featuring open product demo areas where attendees could try out a bunch of games first hand. Alongside this was a photo booth and portrait studio taking pictures with the phones, and TwitchCon Europe’s first mobile LAN tournament which hosted special show matches across Brawl Stars, PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9. The engagement statistics were great, with one-third of Expo Hall attendees visiting the stand and spending over 20 minutes there on average.
Twitch is undoubtedly cool, but brands also need hard results. Give us one concrete, measurable reason why investing in TwitchCon or a Twitch brand partnership is a smarter move than throwing that budget at more traditional digital channels.
At this point in time, not engaging with live streaming is like ignoring social media in 2010 – completely missing an opportunity to connect with the next generation of consumers. In 2024, more than 879 million hours of content were streamed to Twitch, that’s a lot of potential engagement that could be entirely missed by only targeting traditional digital channels.
Beyond the numbers, we look deeper into why people are flocking to livestreaming, so that we can understand how best to maintain and nurture this community. We found in our research that 70% of Gen Z adults and millennials seek a sense of belonging, and this is exactly what they find through livestreaming. This isn’t just measured in our data though; we see it first hand at TwitchCon twice every year. The positive sentiment and energy floods through the show, and our brand partners get the benefit of this.
Something you get with TwitchCon that you won’t get at any other similar showcase, is a room full of engaged content creators, all looking to share their experiences with their audience. So, if you resonate with one person, you are actually resonating with an entire community behind them.
Livestreaming gives people a space to express themselves, and build a community around their interests, which offers a unique offering to brands looking to activate specific groups. Rather than generally advertising to a vast group with a TV advert, engaging with livestreaming enables you to authentically connect with your audience. On top of this, livestreaming offers an interactive, two-way dialogue for brands to be a part of. The audience is actively involved in creating the content, not just passively viewing. This creates a deep bond between streamers and their communities, and the streamers brand advocacy carries weight. This isn’t just our opinion; it is backed by our research which found that 73% of people appreciate advertising that entertains them.
What’s next from Twitch? Anything you’re really excited about?
As outlined in last week’s open letter, Twitch is continuing to develop more engaging and collaborative ways to create content in 2025 and further engage our users. We unveiled tons of updates to improve things for streamers themselves and further grow our ecosystem of creators. Beyond this though, we are also investing in our mobile app, and in particular improving ways to discover new streamers.
Twitch will be evolving well-loved features like Twitch Clips to allow users to better access and save their favourite moments, as well as create new ways for streamers to engage with new audiences through discovery of their highlight moments. And we are continuing to develop the Discovery Feed, Twitch’s scrollable feed that shows users a personalised mix of live content and Clips to help viewers discover their next favourite streamer.
Another thing I’ve recently been excited about is our freshly launched Creator Profiles, professional showcases of streamers’ content and profiles to help brands identify and connect with streamers that align with their messaging and partnerships.
For the next wave of new features, keep an eye out for our reveals at TwitchCon Europe as we continue to innovate how we create meaningful partnerships between brands and our streamers.
Returning to Rotterdam on May 31-June 1 and San Diego on October 17-19, TwitchCon celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025. Click here for details on becoming a sponsor or creating custom brand campaigns, reach out to Twitch’s brand partnerships team. Stay up to date with the latest news and information on Twitch by visiting the website here.
