Streamers and Brands Connect in New Ways: Sponsored Stream Experiments

Twitch, the world's leading live streaming platform, has recently announced its plans to test new ways to connect streamers and brands through sponsored streams. The goal is to enhance the experience of sponsored streams for its community members, including streamers, viewers, and brands.

Twitch is currently testing four new features to achieve this goal, including Streamer-read Ads, Sub Codes, Sponsored Gift Subs, and Sponsored Sub Discounts. Each feature serves a unique purpose in creating a seamless and integrated experience for all parties involved.

🔬 We’re testing new experiences to connect streamers and brands by making sponsored streams work better for our community. We’re in the early stages of seeing what works, but want to give you a sneak peek. This month, you may start seeing sponsored streams including:

— Twitch Support (@TwitchSupport) April 4, 2023

The first feature, Streamer-read Ads, is designed to support streamers in delivering branded talking points live and across multiple streams. This allows streamers to provide ad content to their viewers in a native way that feels organic and integrated into the streaming experience. This feature is currently being tested, and Twitch hopes to receive feedback from users to improve its effectiveness.

The second feature, Sub Codes, allows brands to pay for subs and share the codes with viewers off Twitch. Viewers can redeem these codes on Twitch and receive tokens that they can use to subscribe to their favorite channels. This feature is designed to help brands reach new audiences and expand their reach on the platform.

The third feature, Sponsored Gift Subs, allows brands to buy and gift subs in Chat to viewers at scale. This feature helps brands increase their visibility and engagement with viewers by providing them with a direct method to interact with their target audience.

The fourth and final feature is Sponsored Sub Discounts, which offers discounts for subscriptions on individual channels subs. Brands sponsor these discounts, allowing streamers to receive their regular payout for subs even though viewers pay a reduced rate. This feature is designed to incentivize viewers to subscribe to channels while still allowing streamers to earn their full payout.

All of these features are in the early stages of testing, and Twitch is actively seeking feedback from users to improve their effectiveness. Depending on feedback, some of these features may change or scale further as Twitch moves into next year, while others may not.

Overall, Twitch's new experiments aim to create a more robust and sustainable ecosystem for streamers and brands on the platform. By providing new ways to connect and engage with audiences, Twitch hopes to foster more opportunities for growth and success for its users. Twitch's work on these new features will continue for several months, and the company is looking forward to sharing more in the future.