Twitch's Criticism-to-Marketing Success

A story about how Twitch turned potential criticism of Amazon Prime Day promotion into a successful marketing campaign.

"At Twitch, when Amazon wanted all Amazon companies to push Prime Day, everyone was worried about how to promote it because the Twitch userbase is easily offended. People were concerned users would think we're total sellouts.

Then somebody in the company had this genius idea. They created a QVC-style set with this neon eighties logo that said 'Twitch Sells Out.' They invited big streamers who would jog onto the stage and say things like 'today I'm gonna sell you this shitty blender.'

Instead of trying to hide that we were promoting Prime Day and catching criticism from users saying 'this is why I didn't want Amazon to buy Twitch,' we completely leaned into it. We made it self-aware and entertaining. The campaign was incredibly successful - it sold like crazy.

I met the person from the creative marketing department who came up with it, and I told them it was the number one thing I respected about all the projects we did. They had guts, creativity, and turned a disadvantage into an advantage, which for me is the highest form of respect in business."