Inspiration, Inspiration Everywhere!

It may be my newly found hidden talent, but ever since I started studying marketing, I get new ideas from everywhere. Whether it's getting content from tv or radio talk shows or seeing how brands promote their products through innovation, the user experience for consumers in EVERY industry is constantly evolving.

One of the best practices I took from college was in my Intro Entrepreneurial Class. One of our exercises was to come up with 3 new invention ideas every week. At the end of the semester, we'd have over 50 new ideas to build upon, and when one of them fails or gets stuck in the process, its easy to start working towards another one.

This year, I started a idea journal, where I would write down one new idea every day. Although I stopped keeping up with it after I started my new job this summer, I still managed to come up with over a hundred unique ideas to add into a stream. Just by feeling adventurous and keeping that user experience in mind when doing casual things like catching up on Netflix, I created a great resource for myself that's perfect for those days when the creative juices aren't running so well.

Even if you aren't used to thinking in a marketing mindset, here are a few of the most relevant places you can look to start generating different content for your cast:

Cartoons

While I watch a bit more television than just cartoons, the careless and enthusiastic way I like to come off on my stream has a lot of relevance to cartoons and comedy shows. I love making people laugh, so I always take notice when there's a funny inside joke or hilarious situation being built out during a television show. Cartoons are particularly great when it comes to building colorful storylines as well, which can really make a cast memorable to its viewers.

The one show I've drawn the most ideas from for my cast is Rick and Morty. It has a sick sense of humor, much like myself, some of the craziest plot direction you'll find anywhere, but most interesting is how their brand has expanded beyond the TV Screen.

One day, after I spent hours upon hours catching up on the second season, I tweeted out something along the liens of "Somebody help me, I can't stop watching Rick and Morty!". Moments later, Rick and Morty's official twitter quoted my tweet, replying with "Nobody Help Him!" My phone was going off for the rest of the day as hundreds of fans liked and retweeted the post. It was really interesting to see how the show continues its joking outside of it's 30 minute episodes, and how big of response all of their interactive shenanigans get.

Indie Games

Are you a caster that's on a tiny budget trying to appeal to videogame fans? There are plenty of Indie Game Devs in this same exact situation!

What I love about a great Indie Games is seeing how much care they put into product to make sure its an experience a player will find worthwhile. Some games primarily serve get a story across, some games are built to be longer lasting with replayable components or a great amount of content. At the end of the day, it's amazing how different all of these games can be despite being restricted on resources. Each one gives a very distinct experience.

Other Casts and Youtube

As much as I try to be very distinct and exclusive to how I cast, it's difficult not to imitate some aspects of your favorite twitch channels. I instinctively greet viewers and welcome raiders like the casters I watch most often, and am frequently told I sound just like them with my commentary. Part of it's because we share the same laid back approach towards casting, but part of just subconsciously became habitual in my brain from so much exposure to it.

While I think it's good to recognize the great qualities of other streamer's casts, copying them isn't always the best practice because any experience you try to replicate won't match the novelty of the original. This is where Youtube comes in great, as it provides similar entertainment but for a different purpose - to be viewed at any time. Identifying the most remarkable components from Youtube contet and figuring out how to replicate them live can be a great way to get new ideas while putting enough of your own spin on it to make your own.

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What are you main sources for inspiration? Where have you found some of your craziest ideas? Feel free to share in the comments below - some of the best ideas come up when you least expect it!

Who's the Boss

The typical mindset that's advised towards casters is based primarily on the craft. It's the part of your stream that you can fully control: the quality of your video and audio, the substance of your game choice, the style of your gameplay, the overall atmosphere of your brand. Less focus is put on the viewer because they're uncontrollable: they have so many different tastes and behaviors that you can't satisfy everybody. Especially with how many other casts go live everyday, it's common knowledge that most of the new viewers you get may never be seen in your channel again.

But while planning towards such an unpredictable audience makes streaming significantly more complicated than the traditional approach, especially once it grows large enough that it carries a vast amount of diversity, neglecting it makes you miss out on thousands of opportunities for potential loyal fans.

It helps to picture it in a marketing sense: how are you going to hook people into your brand if you don't give them an exceptional experience? It's a lot like the gaming industry: how are you going to get your platformer funded on kickstarter if it doesn't particularly draw interest from anybody? It might do the same things other games like it do, but if its values aren't presented well, people are going to pick the more appealing alternatives.

• So how can you appeal to an audience when their tastes change drastically depending on the games? 
• How can you change up your content while not isolating the audience you already have?
• How can you keep your personal brand steady when you have to re-position your cast for growth?

The answers lie in knowing your current audience, trying to understand your newer audience, and bridging the gap as well as you can with your brand.

Current Audience

First and most important is knowing why your current audience enjoys watching you. If you can figure out what qualities of your cast that appeal most to your regular viewers, keep building on them! These are the strongest components of your brand, what make you stand out from the other thousands of streamers live at the same time. If you keep consistent with those factors, your regular viewers will always enjoy your content. They might drift away if they dislike or don't want to be spoiled by a game, but they're the viewers most likely to come back and watch again.

New Audiences

New audiences can be tricky to strategize for because only a fraction of them will have interest in watching your cast beyond their favorite games. Lots of games have fanbases that will only watch for the gameplay, and sometimes they're overzealous with lore talk that it drives other viewers away. Because of this, it might not be best to fully appeal to new audiences, but if you can get just a few of them to enjoy your brand, you never know if they'll become one of those loyal regular viewers.

Bridging the Gap

The simplest way to tie together new audiences with the brand that your current viewers enjoy is to see where you can blend the game and your brand together. If you focus too much on the game, you'll isolate your current viewers. If you focus too much on your old traditions, you might not connect with the new viewers. But finding a balance not only makes your cast appealing to both viewers, but it also creates a more unique experience than a standard playthrough, 

There are so many things you can do to implement your brand into any gaming experience. You can make graphics, like a flashy overlay or alert notifications, that are relevant to what you're playing. You can come up with a unique theme or purpose for the game that incorporates elements from your channel, like a special marathon cast. And of course, there's more innovative things you can do, from skits to musical numbers. The more elements of your brand that you add to a gaming experience, the stronger of an impression you make on everyone who's watching.

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While your style of casting is never going to please everybody, understanding what regulars enjoy about your channel and learning how you can balance it to appeal to newcomers are important pieces to the viewer experience. With so many alternative viewing options, being able to both spark and sustain interest with your audience is a great advantage to have in the competitive world of Twitch. 

Revitalizing the Twitch Experience

Did you ever think there would be a time where sharing a passion for videogames on the internet could have an immense impact on thousands of gamers’ daily lives? In less than 10 years, Twitch has become a platform where genuine friendships and relationships can be made, charities can raise millions from contributions, and streamers can sustain themselves financially in making career through entertainment.

And it all makes perfect sense from a marketing perspective: the level of interaction and engagement casters provide can make a far more impactful experience for viewers than other forms of media can. These invaluable experiences create a strong attachment between viewers and their favorite streams, to lengths where they aspire to give them support or be more involved to keep those good times coming.

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From my own personal experience, Twitch quickly became my regular source of entertainment over tv shows and social events that used to excite me every week. From all the time I spent procrastinating in different channels, I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had and enjoyed countless memories that I’ll never forget through the platform.

There were those streams like Spaceneener’s where I couldn’t contain my laughter and got in trouble at work while watching the strangest ARK documentary cast you’d ever see.

Then there were those nights in YouPickGames’ channel soon after Mario Kart 8’s release, filled with craziness and trash-talking as I shamelessly picked Rainbow Road over and over during viewer races.

I’ve always enjoyed casts like AndrewArcade’s where hilarious events and stories are made on the spot as he builds more and more life into The Sims.

And nothing will ever replace that time I stayed awake past exhaustion to cheer on Wshand through his 24 Hour Resident Evil Marathon before he tragically gave up 20 minutes from his goal.

With memorable experiences like these and all of the friendships I’ve made both online and at conventions, Twitch has brought more into my life than any other form of media ever will. And just as Facebook, Twitter, and other internet giants are trying to enhance their users’ personalized experience, Twitch can already do this well just from its model of interactive entertainment.

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However, in the past few years, the focus of Twitch and its community has changed quite a bit. While its’ growth and success has opened up opportunities for everyone, the overall experience Twitch now offers hasn’t quite been the same.

The biggest change has been that so many streamers now are concerned primarily about growth over everything else. Their priority is to look professional enough for corporate approval or to create a gimmick that’s “hype” enough to get frontpage attention, rather than nurturing that significant personal experience no other form of media can offer. If it weren’t for those remarkable experiences, I wouldn’t be so connected with the casts I’ve supported month after month. And if it weren’t for those experiences, Twitch would mean nothing more to me than a quick little Youtube video.

My main fear is that the more often streamers fixate on professional growth, the more impersonal their cast will become to their viewers. In effect, the user experience will get damaged and ignored, which is a HUGE red flag for ANY business. If more of the site loses touch with that element of intimacy, Twitch will gradually lose its magic as other platforms close in.

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But part of this fate is in our own hands! While most casters will always be concerned with their numbers to some extent, we can strive even more to support and share those streams that do focus on making an exceptional show for their viewers, both new and old. That’s why I’ve made this blog: to share fun and crazy moments from around Twitch that can inspire new casters to make a more captivating experience than ever!

One of the main hurdles many casters face now is building an audience with so much competition online. The same rules of marketing that apply to my clients’ industries also apply here: the best way to get to a customer’s heart is to give them the ultimate experience. It’s impossible to give everybody the perfect stream all the time, but with so many little factors that play into the overall viewer experience, there are thousands of things a caster can do to improve their craft and get more people hooked into the fun.

Wshand, one of my favorite casters that I mentioned above, always goes by the saying “embrace the chaos”. It ties in perfectly to Twitch because the more wild and imaginative we get with our content and our cast’s communities, the more fun and remarkable our streams can become!

Join me on this blog week by week for new posts about innovative casting ideas, trends in gaming and streaming, and much more!

Also, if you’re looking for more streaming inspiration, follow me on twitch at twitch.tv/lordsquidy13 and check out my amazing teammates on The Arcade for some of the best communities on the internet!