There’s been a change in the discourse around Twitch, and as an influencer marketing agency who also operate as a Twitch influencer marketing agency it’s clear to us that something is happening.
Yesterday (when Twitch made their latest errors) something switched. Discourse went from “Oh that’s just Twitch” to “There are serious core issues here and Twitch don’t seem to know where the line is…”
5 creators that Colossal Influence don’t even work with asked me to reach out to Kick to broker them a deal away from Twitch. All big creators. 1000+ ccv (live viewership). Even when Twitch retracted their 70/30 creator split when creators hit a certain $ there wasn’t this much uproar.
For me Twitch need to make some favourable creator changes quickly because yes while the platform is important, the creators make the platform.
This is where it gets weird, because the core reasons Twitch made those changes yesterday actually did make some sense…
WOAH
Hear me out.
Over the last several months, external ad platforms have popped who broker ad deals like the ones you see on Twitch when you load into a stream or on Youtube when you start a video. These platforms pay creators just a little more than Twitch and give them control over when they run them.
The feeling, although I don’t think any of those platforms would outright say it is, turn down your Twitch ads to as low as possible and run these ones in their place.
**Note I’m not talking about sponsored integrations, but an outright replacement of Twitch ad revenue.
Put it this way, if I had a website, and I run ads to maintain that website, and you came on to my website and wanted me to host you, but you turned off my ads (as much as possible) and run your own, that’s not fair, right?
However, that’s not what came across in the wording:
Burned-in video Ads are NOT allowed. – Burned-in Display Ads are NOT allowed. – Burned-in Audio Ads are NOT allowed.
That’s a complete wholesale change to an issue that can be combatted without complete wholesale changes.
To put it another way, Twitch crossed the line.
+ the 3% logo size business, moronic.
What if I’m wearing a Nike hat and I sit close to my webcam?
The Nike Logo takes up more than 3% of the screen. Am I violating rules?
What if Nike ARE paying me?
What if they’re not?
Also, maybe the bigger key issue, ad regulations.
It’s been speculated by some that ASA and CAP guidelines were fundamentally just broken with those 3% display changes. The key message from companies than run ad guidelines is CLEAR AND OBVIOUS.
Does 3% allow that?
It doesn’t matter how big you are, at some point your size becomes irrelevant.
If you’re running alongside Youtube & Facebook with new money coming in from Kick & Rumble you will get pushed to a point where it becomes untenable to continue operations without haemorrhaging money.
Follow us on Social Media
