Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's podcast where industry leaders converse
Speaker 1: about business deals, strategy, and the future of media and entertainment.
Speaker 1: I'm Corey Erickson, media analyst at Variety Intelligence Platform. Today's
Speaker 1: episode features Rachel Delphin, chief marketing officer at live streaming
Speaker 1: leader Twitch. Our conversation touched upon the differences between platform
Speaker 1: specific marketing and in person events, how to keep audiences
Speaker 1: attracted to and engage with the platform at a time
Speaker 1: when newer competition is ramping up, as well as the
Speaker 1: surge of interest in Hollywood towards video games and how
Speaker 1: that circles back to Twitch. Stay tuned for the full conversation.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Strictly Business. I'm here today with Rachel Delphin,
Speaker 1: the chief marketing officer of Twitch. Rachel, how long have
Speaker 1: you been in that position? Which?
Speaker 2: Hi, Corey.
Speaker 3: I have been in the chief marketing role, chief marketing
Speaker 3: officer role for about two years now.
Speaker 2: I've been at Twitch for five.
Speaker 1: Hey, very cool. What were you doing before you took
Speaker 1: over the marketing efforts there?
Speaker 3: I started out five years ago leading the communications team
Speaker 3: and then over the you know, three year period between
Speaker 3: being head of comms and then chief Marketing Officer I
Speaker 3: took on, you know, increased responsibilities for social team, community marketing,
Speaker 3: community engagement, brand and media, and so it was a
Speaker 3: real natural progression to overseeing the whole the whole team.
Speaker 1: So it's one thing to do community engagement within the
Speaker 1: Twitch live streaming platform, but you're also active in twitches
Speaker 1: in person events. I believe your europe incarnation of twitch
Speaker 1: Con went down earlier this month. Is there also an
Speaker 1: American counterpart for that? And what are the things that
Speaker 1: feel especially unique to doing big events for Twitch in
Speaker 1: person versus you know online.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great question. So we did have our
Speaker 3: European leg of our twitch Con franchise. It was earlier
Speaker 3: this month, July eighth and ninth. We had it in Paris,
Speaker 3: France for the first time. You know, we had more
Speaker 3: than ten thousand community members come to the event. That's creators,
Speaker 3: that's folks who are viewers and fans and of course
Speaker 3: brands as well. And we do have a US Twitch
Speaker 3: confranchise as well that will be later in October this
Speaker 3: year in Las Vegas for the first time, and again
Speaker 3: we'll expect tens of thousands of fans. The US leg
Speaker 3: of the Twitch confranchise has also been you know, it's
Speaker 3: where we started, and I think, gosh, I'm gonna get
Speaker 3: this wrong, probably with seven or eight now that we've
Speaker 3: actually had in the US as well, So it's a
Speaker 3: bit more established, a bit a bit bigger than the
Speaker 3: European conference as well. In terms of, you know, how
Speaker 3: we think about the interplay between you know, how we
Speaker 3: operate online as a brand and a service, and how
Speaker 3: we operate in person at a events. We see those
Speaker 3: as really really complementary. You know, it's not online versus
Speaker 3: offline or I r L those things. You know, at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, we're all about building community,
Speaker 3: and those communities start online often because it really breaks
Speaker 3: down the geographical barriers that keep people from you know,
Speaker 3: connecting in their hometown or whatever. But the IRL element
Speaker 3: of that is really really powerful and meaningful. You know,
Speaker 3: when we bring people together at twitch Con, they've been
Speaker 3: friends for months, or they've been friends for years in Twitch,
Speaker 3: in twitch chat, you know, in the in their communities,
Speaker 3: and then they see each other for the first or
Speaker 3: second or you know, it's some kind of reunion and
Speaker 3: it's really special.
Speaker 2: It's really magical.
Speaker 3: I think it really deepens those bonds and then you know,
Speaker 3: they go back to the community building and nurturing and
Speaker 3: connection that they have online. So we see that online
Speaker 3: the offline component, the IRL event component, really really powerful
Speaker 3: mechanism to reinforce that community building that happens online.
Speaker 1: So as a primarily you know, creator driven event is
Speaker 1: twitch Con also generally a very good opportunity for Twitch
Speaker 1: to partner with companies as well that are active in
Speaker 1: the media space how to twitch typically you know, foster
Speaker 1: ad partnerships with companies that want to be able to
Speaker 1: market towards you know, the wide platform you have there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the audience for twitch con is is split.
Speaker 3: It's about fifty percent creators, of which some of those
Speaker 3: folks are partners, some of those are affiliates, and some
Speaker 3: of those are generally streamers, and then the other fifty
Speaker 3: percent we call community, which is would be more of.
Speaker 2: The viewer side behaviors.
Speaker 3: Right, So the people who are in the service on
Speaker 3: chat are fans, They're attending the meet and greets, that
Speaker 3: kind of thing. And so that's the demographic of twitch
Speaker 3: con in terms of like how we engage brands there.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a really it's a really desirable demographic.
Speaker 3: We are eighty nine percent Gen Z and millennials, and
Speaker 3: it's a really leaned in community. You know, they are
Speaker 3: actually building communities on Twitch, which means they're really highly
Speaker 3: engaged in the service. They're very deeply involved in the
Speaker 3: fandoms that they're part of, and so integrating a brand
Speaker 3: can be really really powerful and impactful for those brands.
Speaker 3: You know, when.
Speaker 2: We talk about how to do that, which.
Speaker 3: Is I think the important part of that, which is
Speaker 3: lots of brands want to be there, how do you
Speaker 3: do that in a way that feels really authentic, that
Speaker 3: feels meaningful. Again, it goes back to this idea of community.
Speaker 3: So that is really what we're here for, and that's
Speaker 3: what happens on Twitch and at our events and for
Speaker 3: brands to be able to participate and do that in
Speaker 3: a way that accrues really positive sentiment and experience for
Speaker 3: them as well as for the community. It is about
Speaker 3: contributing to the community. It's about being a participant in
Speaker 3: the community. It is supporting creators within those communities, and
Speaker 3: that is received really positively by their communities. Right, So
Speaker 3: the fans of those creators who see this validation that
Speaker 3: the brands provide. This you know, very tangible mechanism, you know,
Speaker 3: means of support for them as well, turns into these
Speaker 3: moments of celebration as well, and we see brands do
Speaker 3: that really well and really embrace that.
Speaker 2: I think some recent.
Speaker 3: Examples of that are you know, at TwitchCon, of course,
Speaker 3: is very top of mind for me at the moment,
Speaker 3: but you know, we had brands like Samsung and Samsung
Speaker 3: Mobile in particular, who is leaning more heavily into the
Speaker 3: gaming market, and they have a you know stream team
Speaker 3: Team Galaxy and you know mobile tournaments, but also really
Speaker 3: have a supportive posture with that team, bringing them together
Speaker 3: because networking is really important for content creators on Twitch,
Speaker 3: as I'm sure it is elsewhere as well. Crocs was
Speaker 3: another brand that was at twitch Con. They sponsored Artist
Speaker 3: Ali where we feature as you might imagine, artists from
Speaker 3: Twitch who are actually selling you know, tangible wares as
Speaker 3: well as you know, emote artistry and that kind of thing,
Speaker 3: and they gave them the opportunity to create their own gibbets,
Speaker 3: you know, the sort of items that go on on
Speaker 3: Crops really tapped into the creativity.
Speaker 2: Of the community.
Speaker 3: Acknowledging the creativity of the community and that and that
Speaker 3: you know, broader sort of arts and crafts movement that
Speaker 3: exists on Twitch, and then giving them a canvas to
Speaker 3: express themselves. So those were those were you know, they
Speaker 3: had presents at the events, both from a sponsorship standpoint,
Speaker 3: but also you know, physical presence.
Speaker 2: Another good example I think is Chipotle.
Speaker 3: We had a Super Ultra Combo Day and sorry, super
Speaker 3: Ultra Combo Week and in which we've really celebrated the
Speaker 3: fighting game community. So at the time street Fighter six
Speaker 3: highly anticipated, very popular new game release, but also just
Speaker 3: nostalgia around the franchise. Chipotle actually provided to people who
Speaker 3: were engaging with content around that concept, and those streamers
Speaker 3: with freequalk and chips right if they watched a certain
Speaker 3: amount of time, which you know gets people very excited
Speaker 3: and certainly more engaged and again really drives value.
Speaker 2: To the creators who are participating.
Speaker 3: So I think those are the uh, you know, some
Speaker 3: recent examples but also examples of you know, what it
Speaker 3: takes to do it well.
Speaker 1: So what have been some crucial developments in leaning more
Speaker 1: into the community marketing aspect, especially you know, since as
Speaker 1: you said, what eighty nine percent of you know, the
Speaker 1: Twitch creator The Twitch creators skews pretty heavily towards gen
Speaker 1: Z you know, aka people who are probably going to
Speaker 1: be very into, you know, prioritizing their own sense of
Speaker 1: brand development and you know, independence with what they like
Speaker 1: to do on Twitch. How how does Twitch kind of
Speaker 1: work its way in there in terms of aiding you know,
Speaker 1: their own marketing more catering to younger creators specifically.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the the offline aspect is really important because,
Speaker 3: as you said, yeah, eighty nine percent of our total population,
Speaker 3: so that's creators and viewers our skew.
Speaker 2: You know, gen Z and millennial very digitally native uh population.
Speaker 3: Of course, you know gen Z in particular has grown
Speaker 3: up entirely with you know, a life that has had
Speaker 3: the Internet at their disposal. So what's interesting about that
Speaker 3: is those generations and those people also really really value
Speaker 3: in person connection. And I think that is probably a
Speaker 3: you know, direct response to having so much of their
Speaker 3: lives also being online, is that you really value the
Speaker 3: offline connection. So one is you know, we've had twitch Con,
Speaker 3: We've talked about that. We've also had community meetups historically,
Speaker 3: so these are grassroots groups that are formed by members
Speaker 3: of the community around certain locations.
Speaker 2: So there's a Twitch.
Speaker 3: Toronto, there's Twitch Adelaide, there's Twitch Portland, Seattle, Saskatchewan. And
Speaker 3: so what we've really done after the pandemic in particular
Speaker 3: is leaned more into those groups to help them really
Speaker 3: get reignited and restarted, because you know, we weren't meeting
Speaker 3: in person.
Speaker 2: For a few years there.
Speaker 3: So we've now got about fifty of those community groups worldwide,
Speaker 3: and we hope to be able to and we're working
Speaker 3: on actually expanding them to more cities in places over
Speaker 3: you know this year and certainly into the future knew
Speaker 3: this year. Also are our Twitch Unity Guilds. This is
Speaker 3: sort of a hybrid so right now they're sort of
Speaker 3: North American based groups. They serve black women and latinae
Speaker 3: and Hispanic partners. They're supported by Twitch, so by us,
Speaker 3: but they are led by members of those communities. They're
Speaker 3: just getting started. We actually recently had those Guilt leaders
Speaker 3: at our HQ in San Francisco, and that came from
Speaker 3: you know, our our partners and our streamers and community
Speaker 3: have told us, you know, we want to succeed here.
Speaker 2: We love being showcased.
Speaker 3: We love being promoted, you know, particularly during those sort
Speaker 3: of celebration months, Women's History Month, you know, Black History Month,
Speaker 3: et cetera.
Speaker 2: But we also want that.
Speaker 3: Support you around and you know, of course we as
Speaker 3: a as a company, as a marketing team are very
Speaker 3: disciplined and dedicated to showcasing diverse creators in every single campaign,
Speaker 3: but we also recognize their communities that have been underserved
Speaker 3: and creating a space for them programming to be able
Speaker 3: to enable their growth as well as enabling more collaboration,
Speaker 3: which is a real cornerstone of growth for any content creator,
Speaker 3: particularly on Twitch. We believe it is going to make
Speaker 3: a really big difference for them as well.
Speaker 1: So since Twitch obviously a big part of its business
Speaker 1: is catering to so many different kinds of creators and
Speaker 1: letting them, you know, foster their own specialized brands, what's
Speaker 1: the balance between granting this sense of independence to creators
Speaker 1: to go ahead and you know, deliver the kind of
Speaker 1: live streaming experience they want to versus the obvious need
Speaker 1: for moderation on the platform. How crucial do those things too?
Speaker 1: Things kind of combine, especially with regard to being your
Speaker 1: ad partners at play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question. I think it's multi part two.
Speaker 3: So I think on the one hand, there's like a
Speaker 3: brand question there, which is and we had this sort
Speaker 3: of recognition a few years ago when we did our
Speaker 3: brand redesign, which is, look, we've long been associated with
Speaker 3: the color purple.
Speaker 2: We still are.
Speaker 3: We had you know, a word mark and we have
Speaker 3: a logo, and then we use purple quite prominently in
Speaker 3: most of our marketing.
Speaker 2: Of course, we've created.
Speaker 3: A much more flexible canvas in terms of and what
Speaker 3: you'll see now is like a lot more vibrancy, a
Speaker 3: lot more use of color across the spectrum. And that
Speaker 3: was really really specific in particular choice because we recognize, look,
Speaker 3: yes we are often marketing you know, Twitch, but more
Speaker 3: importantly and more frequently, we're actually marketing creators who are
Speaker 3: part of our you know, the Twitch community, and we
Speaker 3: need and want a really flexible canvas on which their
Speaker 3: brands are also expressed. So you know, we've done actually
Speaker 3: even more work in that space from a brand perspective
Speaker 3: recently in terms of like, how do you make this
Speaker 3: even more kind of extensible so that when we are
Speaker 3: promoting you know, X y Z creator, whether it's in
Speaker 3: a campaign of lots of creators or it's a single
Speaker 3: a campaign that focuses on a single creator, that we're
Speaker 3: able to express the unique, very unique brands really easily
Speaker 3: while also having that foundation of the Twitch brand. That
Speaker 3: kind of leads to the other part of your question,
Speaker 3: which is like safety. So it's quite personal, right what
Speaker 3: your feeling of safety and what your boundaries will be
Speaker 3: for your own channel are going to be quite different from.
Speaker 2: You know, any other any other creators.
Speaker 3: So the way that that works on Twitch is is
Speaker 3: is not dissimilar what I just described from a brand perspective,
Speaker 3: which is like, you know, we we have a floor
Speaker 3: of what we consider to be respectable acceptable behavior across
Speaker 3: any channel, whether you're in chat or you're a creator,
Speaker 3: and those are you know, the terms of service of course,
Speaker 3: but also the community guidelines. I think one uh, you
Speaker 3: know thing about Twitch to know is we've you know,
Speaker 3: never positioned ourselves as a free speech platfor we have
Speaker 3: always said that we are you know, our rules exist
Speaker 3: to enable anyone to be able to build a community here,
Speaker 3: and that means you know, having certain rules in place
Speaker 3: against hate speech and harassment and.
Speaker 2: You know what are appropriate. You know standards that we
Speaker 2: believe are universal.
Speaker 3: Now that same idea of like flexibility extensibility exists, you know,
Speaker 3: with our posture to safety as well, because you can
Speaker 3: also as a creator, establish your own rules and norms
Speaker 3: for your community. So often when you join a Twitch channel,
Speaker 3: you will see if you try to chat, so you
Speaker 3: you know, click on the little chat box there, you'll
Speaker 3: see a pup up of these are the rules of
Speaker 3: this community that this creator has set, and they also
Speaker 3: have mechanisms to enforce those rules. So again this is
Speaker 3: above and beyond what we provide as or we established
Speaker 3: as a service and enforce. The creators can also establish
Speaker 3: their own.
Speaker 2: Norms.
Speaker 3: It can even be like, you know, no backseat gaming,
Speaker 3: no cursing, lots of like, no racism, no hate, all
Speaker 3: of those things. They also have moderators on their channels
Speaker 3: quite frequently who can help enforce those rules. They can
Speaker 3: ban people from the channels, they can put them in timeouts,
Speaker 3: all of those things, so that again they're cultivating the
Speaker 3: kind of community that they want on top of the
Speaker 3: rules that we have already established and an enforce, and
Speaker 3: those things you know are quite important to brands, right
Speaker 3: they want to make sure brands want to make sure,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm a brand leader myself, want to make
Speaker 3: sure that they're associating with services that you know, and
Speaker 3: in places and surfaces where they feel resonate, you know,
Speaker 3: with with their own brand values. And so certainly our
Speaker 3: investments in moderation and safety, in policies and the enforcement
Speaker 3: of those things are are very important to our brand partners,
Speaker 3: and we are always in discussions with them because we
Speaker 3: want it to be a great place for our creators
Speaker 3: and foremost, but that also means, you know, making it
Speaker 3: a great place where brands can come and support them.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break here, but when we're
Speaker 1: back with Rachel Delphin, we're going to get into a
Speaker 1: new service kick that is adding itself to some of
Speaker 1: the competition against Twitch, as well as get into more
Speaker 1: expansive areas of tech and media on the horizon that
Speaker 1: could potentially be something for Twitch to play into. We're
Speaker 1: back with strictly business and Rachel Delphin Twitch is chief
Speaker 1: marketing officer, So Rachel obviously really sturdy moderation is pretty
Speaker 1: essential to running platforms with very large audiences smoothly. You know,
Speaker 1: we can look at Twitter since Elon Musk took over
Speaker 1: and made some changes there and sort of see the
Speaker 1: consequences of when moderation falls by the wayside. But regardless,
Speaker 1: you know, the prospect of looser moderation and the kind
Speaker 1: of creators that might prefer that is something that this
Speaker 1: new service kick is really taking advantage of by not
Speaker 1: having as strict moderation and also offering some higher revenue
Speaker 1: splits too. You know, it already led to a former
Speaker 1: Twitch streamer EXQC, signing one hundred and million dollar deal
Speaker 1: in June. So how can Twitch market itself towards creators,
Speaker 1: you know, from those two angles to ensure that you know,
Speaker 1: Twitch isn't going to lose too much of the competition
Speaker 1: and our sort of overall deals like that, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what we call them in the TV and film
Speaker 1: space generally, But are big deals like that's still a
Speaker 1: big part of Twitch's bottom line in locking certain very
Speaker 1: popular creators down.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think there are a lot.
Speaker 3: Of ways you can, you know, respond and act in
Speaker 3: a competitive environment. And I think, as you noted in
Speaker 3: an earlier conversation, had you know, we are the market
Speaker 3: leader in the live streaming space, and that's and that's
Speaker 3: you know, been true for many years. And that's because
Speaker 3: in many ways, you know, we built the category, and
Speaker 3: there's certainly been times in our history when we've been
Speaker 3: a category of one, I think. And the reason why
Speaker 3: I think we've been able to you know, build but
Speaker 3: also maintain and grow this you know, this category that
Speaker 3: does has and has become appealing to other brands and
Speaker 3: companies over you know, the lifetime of our company is
Speaker 3: because we've remained really invested and focused entirely, you know,
Speaker 3: and that's you know, over the thirteen plus years of
Speaker 3: our existence in the success of the category, but also
Speaker 3: very specifically in the success of the creators who create
Speaker 3: life content and the communities you know that build around
Speaker 3: them since that inception. So in no way does that
Speaker 3: suggest like we are complacent, right, having you know, built
Speaker 3: category and leading it. In many ways, it's that it's
Speaker 3: a very similar position during you know, times of more
Speaker 3: competition and times certainly a less competition. You know.
Speaker 2: The way that we win and we continue to.
Speaker 3: Attract the best creators, keep them there, attract more creators
Speaker 3: and the communities that love them and support them is
Speaker 3: to keep that focus right and remain committed to that mission. So,
Speaker 3: you know, if our service is the safest place to
Speaker 3: be a live content creator, to be the place where
Speaker 3: you can find and build and gather a thriving community,
Speaker 3: and to do so with the best options and ways
Speaker 3: to monetize. You know, if that the latter thing is
Speaker 3: your thing, then that's that's how we'll win, regardless of
Speaker 3: you know, what's happening from a competitive standpoint.
Speaker 1: Yeap, things like revenue splits are you know, one of
Speaker 1: the many things kind of swirling around the ongoing strikes
Speaker 1: that are happening in the Hollywood space with both the
Speaker 1: w GA and then SAG AFTERRA And another aspect of
Speaker 1: those strikes is you know, concern over implications for how
Speaker 1: generative AI and other AI tools can be used and
Speaker 1: employed throughout that industry. As a bit of a different business,
Speaker 1: you know, oriented around live streaming. Does Twitch look to
Speaker 1: you know, increasing AI tech as something that can you know,
Speaker 1: benefit the actual business operations, whether it's towards more content
Speaker 1: or us more as like a proactive tool for moderation purposes.
Speaker 3: My expectation is that we'll see adoption of like the
Speaker 3: generative AI that you that you've sort of been seeing
Speaker 3: by content creators probably in a few ways. One is
Speaker 3: the experience you actually have, right so, the content you
Speaker 3: see on the screen, whether it's sort of adopting it
Speaker 3: as as a v tuber of those kinds of things,
Speaker 3: or generating different kinds of concept. I would love to
Speaker 3: speculate with you about how I think creators will use it,
Speaker 3: But to be honest, there is a reason why they
Speaker 3: are the content creators who are endlessly creative, and I
Speaker 3: am in the role that I am, so I suspect
Speaker 3: we'll see.
Speaker 2: Some innovation and creativity there.
Speaker 3: You've seen some of that around the Seinfeld inspired stream
Speaker 3: that happened earlier this year that attracted a lot of attention.
Speaker 2: So I think we'll see some innovation.
Speaker 3: And experimentation on the creator side certainly. And then from
Speaker 3: my perspective, I certainly think there is going to be
Speaker 3: an opportunity to implement and sort of integrate some AI
Speaker 3: tooling in our sort of like work stack and our
Speaker 3: processes on a lot of you know, the back end
Speaker 3: and the business and processes of marketing. That will make
Speaker 3: things a bit more efficient and you know, predictive, right
Speaker 3: in terms of like audience modeling and all kinds of
Speaker 3: things that I think will be really useful. There's nothing
Speaker 3: right now, but I certainly I believe it's you know,
Speaker 3: this technology is here for the long term and that
Speaker 3: we'll see some really exciting tooling coming out of.
Speaker 1: It in terms of the various kind of devices that
Speaker 1: Twitch can operate on, as Twitch looked to something like
Speaker 1: you know, like increasingly popular TikTok lives as something to
Speaker 1: take inspiration of or you know, try to improve on
Speaker 1: the mobile end of Twitch to you know, take advantage
Speaker 1: of increased interest in you know, the mobile aspect of
Speaker 1: live streaming in particular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a great question and a timely one.
Speaker 3: So at TwitchCon, actually, are you tired of me mentioning
Speaker 3: TwitchCon yet, we made two announcements in this area. So
Speaker 3: stories and feed these are very familiar formats for sure
Speaker 3: for anyone who has a phone, and the difference for
Speaker 3: how they will actually come to life and how they'll
Speaker 3: work is in how we're actually thinking about about them
Speaker 3: and what the utility of those things are. So for Stories,
Speaker 3: for example, one of the challenges of live is that
Speaker 3: getting your community altogether when your live is tough, right,
Speaker 3: schedules have to line up people work, they go to school,
Speaker 3: they have other commitments, et cetera. So the stories feature
Speaker 3: on Twitch gives creators a really reliable way to reach
Speaker 3: their whole community, you know, all at once, right the
Speaker 3: concurrent viewer numbers you see on Twitch, so on the
Speaker 3: channel page it will show you like how many people
Speaker 3: are watching right now. That is really the tip of
Speaker 3: the iceberg when it comes to what their whole community
Speaker 3: looks like. For all the reasons I mentioned earlier that
Speaker 3: you know, it's really hard to see every single live
Speaker 3: broadcast right of a creator that you follow, and so
Speaker 3: stories we see is going to be a really great
Speaker 3: way to enable engagement while they're not live, to kind
Speaker 3: of catch people up what happened today on the stream,
Speaker 3: What were the memes, what were the jokes, what were
Speaker 3: the big high points, so that one year back, you know,
Speaker 3: you feel like you feel like you never left. I
Speaker 3: think there's also utility, you know, for creators who are
Speaker 3: taking vacation but want to remain connected, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3: So that story's format is coming, I believe in October
Speaker 3: the Fall. And then the other thing we talked about
Speaker 3: was feed, So having a Discovery feed, which will be
Speaker 3: a personalized mix of clips within the brows tab on
Speaker 3: our mobile app, and it is you know, sort of
Speaker 3: capturing and embracing that behavior. Right, you're scrolling you but
Speaker 3: you don't have a full thirty minutes, you don't have
Speaker 3: a full hour, which is more typical right of a
Speaker 3: Twitch session.
Speaker 2: You're staying for a longer time. You want to hang out.
Speaker 3: You're like pulling up a seat, you know, at the
Speaker 3: bar or whatever, and recognizing that there is a behavior,
Speaker 3: of course that exists. Lots of people are sort of
Speaker 3: checking in, they have these more snackable moments. The difference
Speaker 3: again is the express purpose of our feed is to
Speaker 3: discover new creators so that you'll get this personalized mix
Speaker 3: of clips. But our intention is then that you are
Speaker 3: going to ultimately join their live streams and enjoining their communities.
Speaker 3: It's not our goal to have you or spend you know,
Speaker 3: hours of time actually scrolling the feed. What we want
Speaker 3: and what we want to do for creators and for
Speaker 3: community members is to help them discover new creators and
Speaker 3: then get them into the live experience where they can
Speaker 3: you know, actually start to build relationships community bonds.
Speaker 1: Going back some years too, when Twitch was still known
Speaker 1: as you know, justin dot tv before it became an
Speaker 1: Amazon subsidiary, it was a service that very much had
Speaker 1: its roots in video games, and while it sins grown
Speaker 1: well beyond then, I believe you know, what's dubbed just
Speaker 1: chatting is you know, generally the most popular form of
Speaker 1: Twitch content versus any particular video game. But regardless, we're
Speaker 1: seeing in Hollywood, especially this year, a pretty huge embrace
Speaker 1: of video gaming. IP. The Last of Us premiered on
Speaker 1: HBO in January and was an immediate hit for both
Speaker 1: HBO and what's now the Max streaming service. And then
Speaker 1: in April, Universal released Super Mario brother the Super Mario
Speaker 1: Brothers Movie, obviously in partnership with Nintendo and with the
Speaker 1: with their Illumination Animation studio, and that ended up grossing
Speaker 1: well over a billion dollars. So, with video games clearly
Speaker 1: defining themselves as really lucrative IP in Hollywood this year,
Speaker 1: is that something that has a ripple effect over a
Speaker 1: Twitch and the kind of you know, ad pushes Twitch
Speaker 1: can help make with partners to you know, kind of
Speaker 1: bring everything back to all the excitement around gaming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really awesome to see.
Speaker 3: I think it's you know, you maybe are you know,
Speaker 3: touching on this, but like there's always been this kind
Speaker 3: of weird distance between the game industry, which has been
Speaker 3: massive for a very long time. I think right now
Speaker 3: it's like two hundred and fifty dollars billion dollar industry,
Speaker 3: And that's sort of like treatment or assumption of it
Speaker 3: of being like, oh, this is like a niche, niche
Speaker 3: thing that people do, when in fact it's it's actually
Speaker 3: extremely popular and there are these like massive ips and
Speaker 3: fandoms around them who show up, you know, for the
Speaker 3: things they care about, as you've seen with the Last
Speaker 3: of Us and the Super Mario Brothers movie. So I
Speaker 3: definitely think that there's an opportunity for us as well
Speaker 3: because we are such an established home for gaming and
Speaker 3: trends in gaming and flouncers of gaming. So I think
Speaker 3: Last of Us is a good example. You know, when
Speaker 3: the series premiered, you see a lot of streamer is
Speaker 3: actually doing playthroughs of the Last of Us games and
Speaker 3: those kinds of things. And when Super Mario Brothers movie
Speaker 3: came out, we saw a real opportunity. There is a
Speaker 3: day for Mario fans. It's called Mario Day. It's March tenth,
Speaker 3: m R one zero Mario very cute, and so we
Speaker 3: did a big campaign around it that really pulled in
Speaker 3: everyone who you know, was part of our creator community
Speaker 3: and likes you know, Mario, any of the ip and
Speaker 3: play the games, bake cookies with Mario, you know, play
Speaker 3: songs from you know, the the games. So it was
Speaker 3: this really big celebration, recognition, kind of community moment around
Speaker 3: Mario Mario Day. But also you know, coincided with the
Speaker 3: release of the film as well, and again you see
Speaker 3: a real embrace by our community.
Speaker 2: Of that as well.
Speaker 3: Similarly, we did, uh this was not created you know,
Speaker 3: not related to Hollywood, but we did a super ultra
Speaker 3: combo week on Twitch and that was in early June,
Speaker 3: coinciding with.
Speaker 2: The release of street Fighter six. Beloved games.
Speaker 3: Street Fighter you know, fighting game community is a really
Speaker 3: big and historic community on Twitch, and so we did
Speaker 3: this long week that kind of led up to the
Speaker 3: to the ultimate launch of the street Fighter six game.
Speaker 3: And from a brand perspective, we're getting a lot of
Speaker 3: sort of interest of like the way that it was
Speaker 3: done you know, both off Twitch but on Twitch and
Speaker 3: really gathered you know, what were literally thousands of creators
Speaker 3: creating content in the street uh street fighter, but also
Speaker 3: just fighting game category and that becomes really appealing to
Speaker 3: be a part.
Speaker 2: Of something like that.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for taking the time to join us today, Rachel.
Speaker 2: It was my pleasure.
Speaker 1: That a conversation with Rachel Dalton, chief marketing Officer of Twitch.
Speaker 1: Come back next week for more discussion and insights into
Speaker 1: the ever evolving media and entertainment landscape.