Professor Michael Haenlein, Dr Rachel Ashman and alumnus Dr Oliver Buckley’s investigation underlines the potential of livestreaming to enrich influencer marketing activities and foster deep, authentic connections with Gen Z consumers.
In a paper titled 'Leveraging Livestreaming to Enrich Influencer Marketing', they present a model that describes the core dynamics of livestream influencer marketing and provides practical guidance for brands to develop effective influencer marketing strategies.
Through its immediacy, indeterminacy and interactivity, livestreaming can enhance viewer engagement and perceived authenticity, enabling influencers to cultivate tightly knit virtual communities ideal for brand promotions.
The study introduces key considerations for developing partnerships with livestream influencers and advice on producing meaningful brand content to reach the elusive Gen Zers effectively.
A nascent opportunity in the context of increasing influencer fatigue
In September 2023, one of Twitch’s1 most popular streamers, Félix Lengyel – AKA xQc –, signed a $100 million (£75+ million) non-exclusive deal with competing livestreaming platform, Kick, to produce content for two years.
This deal is impressive, more than LeBron James’ two-year contract2 with the Los Angeles Lakers, but should you really care if you own a brand not connected to the gaming world?
If you are fighting for the attention of the evasive Gen Zers, you certainly do.
Generation Z consumers (loosely, people born between 1995 and 2010, aged between 15 and 30 today) have very different media preferences than previous generations.
Today’s twentysomethings rely heavily on technology for entertainment and social interaction, and the channels they engage with grow and change quickly.
For marketers, this means costlier and more complex strategies, further hindered by Gen Zers rejecting overt promotional messages (eg by using ad blockers and ad-free premium subscriptions, such as Spotify Premium and YouTube Premium).
Social media has provided brands an oasis to connect with Gen Z audiences through authentic, relatable and fresh interactions with their favourite influencers for several years.
However, there are growing signs of influencer fatigue and resistance to overly scripted and disingenuous endorsements3.
As Gen Z consumers become less interested in pre-edited influencer brand content, there has been a marked shift towards more genuine digital communications, with livestreaming at the forefront.
Today, 63% of 18–34-year-olds regularly watch online livestreams and the global livestreaming industry is projected to grow to more than $3 billion (£2.3 billion) by 2027.
Livestreaming offers influencers a space to connect with followers in real-time with unscripted interactions that meet consumer expectations for transparency and authenticity.
What happens during a livestream?
If you are new to the world of livestreaming, here is a quick summary of the most important things you need to know.
Livestreaming is the online version of live broadcasting, in which a streamer speaks and interacts with their audience using dedicated platforms, such as Twitch or Kick, or the live options on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
Most content is open, but you can subscribe to your preferred channels with a monthly payment in exchange for various benefits.
A livestream standard interface normally includes:
- A main screen showing an activity undertaken by the streamer (eg playing a video game) or other types of images they are commenting on
- A face cam(s) showing the streamer and sometimes guests connected from a different location
- A live chat window showing real-time interactions between the streamer and audience, and amongst viewers themselves
Livestreaming is very interactive. For example, streamers often use polls to vote on aspects related to the broadcast or what they should do next.
In platforms like Twitch, not only can you type into the live chat, but you can also use ‘bits’ to cheer for your favourite streamers.
Bits are a form of virtual currency you can buy – or earn by watching ads – that look like colourful gems called ‘cheer emotes’ and can be shared in chat messages during live streams.
When you accompany your message with bits, it appears in the chat with animated cheer emotes – and sometimes read aloud – creating an engaging and interactive experience.
Livestreaming communities often use unique acronyms and emotes to reference inside jokes, which can be confusing if you are unfamiliar with them.
If that is the case, give it some time and you will get to learn them all.
Content with high degrees of liveness reportedly engages consumers for 10-20 times longer than pre-recorded media, making it easier for consumers to process marketing messages.
Livestreaming can also help generate positive brand associations. 76% of Twitch users develop a positive perception of brands that actively support their favourite streamers' careers and communities.
Additionally, when successful, livestreaming yields high conversion rates of around 50% from sponsored streams with micro-streamers (streamers with up to 2,000 average concurrent viewers) on Twitch.
Despite its potential to enrich influencer marketing, livestreaming is not yet widely used by brands, as its liveness also introduces an additional layer of complexity for marketing managers.
To shed light on this, Michael, Rachel and Oliver propose a model of livestream influencer marketing effectiveness, based on its three core characteristics: immediacy, indeterminacy and interactivity.
Although these characteristics are not exclusive to livestreaming, they coexist simultaneously and to a high degree, making it a distinctive and engaging digital medium.
The framework stresses the importance of understanding these characteristics and associated challenges, providing practical advice to plan and implement livestream influencer partnerships successfully.
How to manage the immediacy of livestream influencing
In contrast to pre-recorded media, livestreaming’s content production and consumption happen simultaneously, so there is no intermediate stage where raw footage can be edited.
This format creates a more transparent viewing experience and enhances the fear of missing out, as not tuning in means missing out on an interactive shared experience4.
Viewers likely prioritise the live stream over pre-recorded content, which increases the chance to generate immediate marketing impressions.
However, the instantaneous nature of livestreaming can make mistakes or unpredictable events (eg technical issues, online harassment) immediately visible to the audience, potentially impacting the brand’s image.
As there is no option to refine online personas through editing and scriptwriting, selecting streamers with credibility, passion and sociability is important to maximise real-time engagement.
Streamers often broadcast several hours a day, three to five days a week, which makes these personal features essential to ensure they can consistently entertain audiences for long sessions.
Brands should also ensure promotional messages are threaded seamlessly into livestreams to avoid distracting viewers and reducing the quality of the experience.
This seamless integration means presenting brand messages subtly and non-intrusively, for example, by using branded on-screen overlays, displaying call-to-action buttons during the description section and with naturally integrated product placements.
As streamers can explicitly discuss the sponsored items, demonstrate their key features, and respond to viewers’ questions in the live chat, it is also important to refine real-time promotion using analytics and social listening tools.
Managers can look at traditional metrics (eg peak viewership, average watch duration, likes, and shares) and indicators of deeper investment in the content, such as positive live chat interactions, subscriptions and donations.
How to manage the indeterminacy of livestream influencing
Livestreaming has a degree of indeterminacy similar to other live events, such as theatre performances and sporting competitions, which are generally perceived as more exciting and captivating than watching recorded content.
This indeterminacy makes each livestream session a unique experience full of spontaneous reactions that neither the streamers nor brands can fully control, even with a clear agenda.
Livestream influencers generate a substantial amount of their income through viewer donations and subscriptions, but these contribute to the unpredictability of each session.
This monetisation model amplifies the importance of authenticity and viewer loyalty, so brands should aim to establish long-term, symbiotic partnerships with livestream influencers.
Short-term partnerships can undermine the streamer’s perceived authenticity, potentially depicting them as “selling out” and alienating their paying followers.
Instead, long-term partnerships present brands as supportive allies for the streamer and their community.
Brands can facilitate genuine and engaged promotion by providing streamers early access to products and features, collaborating on content creation or involving them in brand events.
The spontaneous nature of livestreams also implies unique challenges derived from unexpected comments or shifts in discourse.
To manage this effectively, brands should adopt agile strategies, including thorough briefings for influencers on handling off-script scenarios and bringing discussions back to the promotional narrative.
Through real-time monitoring, brands can give streamers instantaneous feedback and suggest changes based on audience interactions, which, combined with post-stream analysis, helps shape future streams and refine strategies.
It is also important for brands to mandate clear guidelines and oversee livestream influencers to reduce the risk of streamers behaving in ways that do not align with brand values.
Contractually, this involves setting expectations on acceptable behaviour, especially concerning sensitive issues, such as racism, substance use, derogatory comments and toxicity.
How to manage the interactivity of livestream influencing
Livestreaming is all about real-time exchanges that make the audience feel connected to the streamer and create a strong sense of community.
These interactions make the livestream more dynamic.
Viewers can spark a conversation about an unrelated topic or vote in polls to encourage the streamer to move on to a different activity (eg play another video game) or decide the focus of the next session.
Brands can become involved in these exchanges by providing streamers with value-adding gifts, early product access and exclusive event invites.
These actions facilitate aligning the firm’s values with those of the audience and engaging them naturally to enhance viewers’ willingness to respond to promotional messages.
Brands can also actively nurture relations with consumers through direct and personalised interactions.
In practice, this involves responding to viewers’ questions and offering exclusive deals – to both the audience and specific users – to incentivise participation and engagement.
Running polls is also a clever option for brands to gather instant consumer insights to inform future initiatives.
Finally, brands should guide livestream collaborations proactively with crisis management, real-time monitoring and experienced moderators.
For the streamer, brands should advise on how to handle potential disruptions from online trolls and clarify certain off-limits topics.
For the streaming sessions, brands need dedicated monitoring staff who can quickly identify and address harmful comments to steer discussions in real-time.
While streamers usually have a team of (often voluntary) chat moderators, brands should also incentivise and brief them, given their pre-existing familiarity with the streamer and their community.
1 Twitch is the second largest livestreaming platform worldwide (by hours watched) after YouTube Live.
2 In 2022, LeBron James signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team signed for £97 million (just over £73 million).
3 Alongside a steady flow of influencer controversies in recent years, in early 2023, the popular trend, “deinfluencing”, saw social media personalities and regular users create content on products and services to avoid in order to buy more consciously and combat overconsumption.
4 Streamers don’t always make streams available on-demand, and even when they do, viewers miss the opportunity to engage in live interactions.
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Chair in Responsible Research in Marketing |
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Reader in Marketing |
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Marketing PhD alumnus |
