Burger King Sneakily Gets Streamers To Plug Its Food
Burger King and marketing company Ogilvy are in hot water after revealing a campaign centered on getting Twitch streamers to advertise fast food without any prior contract. The world of streaming is still experiencing a gold rush in many ways, with big winners raking in untold riches and brands trying every which way to get their share of the spoils. From animatronics and pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese to the esports branch of the US Army, brands are trying to go directly where the audience is and come off as cool, even if many members of that audience can see right through such blatant tactics.
That's why sponsorships and ad deals have also become so popular on Twitch and other streaming services. Much like in the old days when a radio host would hawk their favorite brand of buttermilk biscuits after telling tales of Lake Wobegon, gamers of today are accepting deals to integrate products into their presentation, tying up the reputation they've built with energy powders and sports drinks. The audience of these streamers already trusts what they have to say, so many more may be persuaded by the less direct method of getting the branding out there.
Burger King decided to skip the middle man altogether and get Twitch streamers to talk about their product on the cheap, which has caused quite a bit of outrage. Here's how the plan worked: Many streamers have a plugin set up that will automatically read out messages sent with donations of a certain amount of bits, Twitch's internal currency. As seen in Ogilvy's video for the campaign, a Burger King representative paid the paltry sum (usually as little as $5 on the high end) and had the computer voice tell the stream's viewers about cheap burgers and delivery deals. Not only does this get the message out there, but it also gets the streamer to talk about Burger King, sometimes in a positive light.
As news of the promotion grew (through a video posted by the marketing organization themselves no less), there was some question as to whether these tactics were allowed under Twitch's guidelines. When asked about the promotion by Kotaku, Twitch said that it wasn't involved with the ads but that it supports "innovative campaigns with leading brands."
Streamers might not mind talking about fast food brands if it comes up naturally in their conversations with chat, but when the donations are framed as a sponsored ad from Burger King, their reactions are usually quite negative. Instead of dealing with the streamers directly, some of whom actually have legitimate deals with other companies, Burger King is treating Twitch streams as free content to plaster its brand onto uninvited. In a world where it's so hard to capture the hearts and minds of tech-savvy consumers, showing such disregard for their platforms of choice can only have a negative effect in the long run.
Source: Ogilvy/Twitter, Kotaku