Twitch’s top-performing APAC campaigns: Q1 2022

In the second edition of this series, Twitch's VP of APAC sales, Steve Ford, curates a list of three top-performing campaigns in APAC, analysing performance across a range of metrics.

If the first quarter of this year was anything to go by, marketers throughout the region have made it clear. Compared to 2020 (the year of disruption), and 2021 (the year of recovery), 2022 will be the year for growth. It will also mark a new milestone for how they interact and engage with audiences higher up the funnel as the deprecation of cookies and increasing regulation create new challenges. More than ever, tapping into existing communities to create conversations will be key for brands looking to move the needle.

Round two of our quarterly series explores three campaigns—the Genshin Impact Paimon Extension launch; Pog Picks Down Under featuring Oculus, Netflix and 7/11; and McDonald’s #TheSpicyDebate. Each campaign created unique, memorable moments that resulted in meaningful branded conversations.

Spotlight: ‘Genshin Impact Paimon Extension Launch’ by HoYoverse
—February 2022

Genshin Impact has taken the world by storm. In 2021 alone, people watched over 100 million hours’ worth of Genshin gameplay on Twitch, making it one of the most popular games on the service.

The launch of version 2.0, the game’s biggest content update to date, included the release of a brand-new region to explore along with new characters, events and storylines. Developer HoYoverse (formerly miHoYo) saw an opportunity to invite new audiences to experience the world of Genshin Impact by incentivising meaningful interactions between Twitch streamers and their communities.

And who better to spark those conversations than Genshin Impact’s beloved mascot Paimon—a non-playable character in the game who accompanies and guides players throughout their adventures?

In a series of 10 sponsored stream events around the world including APAC, HoYoverse partnered with Twitch to bring Paimon to life, out of the game and into livestreams. Creating a custom-built extension (an overlay that appears on stream) on Twitch, Paimon accompanied Genshin Impact streamers and their viewers as an on-screen companion while providing helpful details of new links and lands in the game.

The Paimon extension was also enabled with a 'like' button—once enough likes were collected, Paimon would unlock in-game rewards that allowed fans to redeem primogems (a premium in-game currency) to use in the version 2.0 update, greatly incentivising creators and their communities to work together. To enable a branded form of viewer expression in chat, a new global Twitch emote known as :HungryPaimon: was also launched.

This campaign ultimately created an experience that rewarded an entire community of Genshin Impact lovers to interact with their favourite creators, and each other. With the Paimon extension, the journey went from solo mission to team sport. The numbers speak for themselves—11 million minutes of sponsored gameplay watched (that works out to about 21 years’ worth of time) and more than 436,000 unique in-game codes redeemed as travellers old and new ventured into the latest story.

Results snapshot:

• 10.9M total minutes watched
• 2.1M total video views
• 104K chat messages
• 436K unique in-game code redemptions
• 600M+ uses of :HungryPaimon: emote to date

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Honourary mention: ‘#TheSpicyDebate’ by McDonald’s
—March 2022

Singapore has long loved fried chicken—from the ayam penyet (Indonesian smashed fried chicken) boom in the early noughties to the more recent Korean chikin craze. In fact, fried chicken is regularly among the top orders on food delivery apps. So when McDonald’s threw its hat in the ring with the launch of the Chicken McCrispy in 2021, Singaporeans all around rejoiced.

But while everyone agreed the Chicken McCrispy was a welcome addition to the menu, opinions were split when it came to one important question—just how spicy is the chicken? Even months post-launch, the debate continued. So, McDonald’s decided to leverage the conversation to fuel further brand awareness and trial nationwide sentiment by putting it to a vote.

Repurposing a previous offline campaign tagline, the Singapore take on #TheSpicyDebate granted local residents the power to decide once and for all where the Chicken McCrispy lies on the heat scale via an online poll. The challenge was how to motivate the island nation’s self-professed ‘foodies’ to take part.

According to data and market measurement firm Nielsen, 60% of gamers eat McDonalds at least once a week, making them one of McDonald’s most passionate and engaged customer segments. But this audience is typically difficult to reach via traditional forms of marketing. McDonald’s therefore decided to tap into Twitch’s active and vocal gaming community to fan the flames and enable gamers to participate in a way that would feel authentic to them.

Partnering with up-and-coming streamer /JulynnLau—who is known locally to love a good debate, and to mukbang (eating broadcasts) on stream—the McDonald’s Chicken McCrispy Twitch live stream saw the creator ignite conversations and get Twitch chat to weigh in with their views on #TheSpicyDebate to great effect.

The McDonald’s campaign is a great example of a brand that’s taken the time to understand both the gaming community and local cultural nuances to tell an effective story that resonated with already engaged and passionate customers in Singapore. Ultimately, this campaign became the #1 most viewed stream in Singapore. So shiok! And for those who were interested—it’s official. The Chicken McCrispy is aaaaaaa bit spicy lah.

Results snapshot:

• 54K total minutes watched
• #1 most viewed stream in Singapore
• 3x increase in sales compared to previous quarter
• +13% product likeability
• +17% repurchase intent

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Honourary mention: ‘Pog Picks Down Under’ ft Oculus, Netflix and 7/11
—January 2022

Social commerce in Asia is reaching new heights. Currently valued at US$2 trillion according to global market research company Euromonitor International, this figure is expected to double by 2024. But increasingly, social commerce’s success is not just in influencer reviews. Research by audience targeting company GWI suggests that one in three consumers would be encouraged to buy a product if the shopping experience was entertaining.

So, in the run-up to Christmas and New Year, Twitch saw an opportunity to bring shopping and entertainment together to liven the seasonal shopping experience in Australia with the launch of ‘Pog Picks Down Under’, a live Twitch-operated and owned shopping variety show.

Popular Twitch personalities /HexSteph and /NichBoy hosted the extravaganza live from a custom-build studio, unboxing a gift wall of curated ‘presents’. Meanwhile, guests and fellow Australian Twitch creators /PlayitShady, /Reapz, /MissMollyMakes and /JonathanOng brought additional cheer to the stream with a pet fashion show, holiday cooking, live music and more.

Combined, the star-studded affair created a series of immersive, shoppable opportunities for brands, but without the hard sell. These included creative jingles for 7-11 Slurpee, watching Christmas movies on Netflix, and diving into the world of VR games on Oculus. By the end of the event, sponsors saw a 17% uptick in favourability, and 13% increase in purchase intent.

Results snapshot:

• 90% of viewers able to correctly attribute a sponsor aided and 55% unaided
• +9% in aided brand awareness
• +17% in favourability
• +13% in purchase intent