Twitch streamers will sling products during two 12-hour streams on July 15 and July 16 to drive Amazon Prime Day sales.
The Twitch Presents channel will be taken over by different streaming celebrities selling products ranging from electronics and gaming to kitchenware and kitsch. It’s QVC, but with gamers making the sale.
The close alignment between Twitch and its parent company signals how Amazon can use the media company to support its ecommerce business – and why it paid nearly $1 billion for the company five years ago.
Twitch laid the groundwork for this “Twitch Sells Out” Prime Day event through its tech and influencer program.
Its Blacksmith extension enables seamless affiliate sales on Twitch, giving streamers a cut of a purchase when their audience buys directly from their stream.
Twitch also has an influencer program, Bounty Board, where Twitch assigns brand partnerships to different streamers. So, Twitch gets a cut of influencer marketing dollars – unlike YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, where influencers get the full cut.
Twitch would not comment on whether the stream will include paid brand placements from Amazon advertisers. But brands have been flocking to Twitch because it reaches millennial males who use ad blockers and don’t watch much linear TV.
The Prime Day efforts – where it will sell more than just gaming merchandise – happens as Twitch attempts to branch out and connect its audience to advertisers in more categories, including retail advertisers, Chief Revenue Officer Walker Jacobs told AdExchanger in May.
Twitch’s involvement in Prime Day will also test how well it can sell items beyond its mainstays: gamer-focused gear like video games, energy drinks and gaming accessories.
Amazon is also using Twitch to reel in more Amazon Prime members. Twitch is advertising free Prime trials, which is required to take advantage of Prime Day sales.
Amazon already has a video-game focused version of Prime, Twitch Prime, that includes access to games and a proprietary virtual currency called Bits. It’s also doing Twitch-specific deals, discounting its Twitch merchandise and giving Prime members bonus amounts of Bits.
