Streamer U was a masterclass for brands
This is where modern brand marketing is heading
Everyone I know has been sending me the same clips from Kai Cenat’s Streamer University the last couple of weeks.
If you haven’t seen it, quick recap:
Kai (one of the biggest streamers in the world, tens of millions of followers across Twitch, YouTube and Instagram) took over Hendrix College in Arkansas for five days and ran a bootcamp for a hand-picked group of smaller streamers.
In true fashion, all of it livestreamed with absurd metrics.
1.2 million concurrent viewers at peak
nearly 58 million watch hours
12.5 million new followers to the channel
120% up on the same event a year ago
Which, on its own, would be story enough and another data point for the “creators are the new networks” argument I’ve been making in this newsletter for years.
But there’s a Digiday article that came out today making a much sharper point about Streamer U.
The angle is this: yes, Kai’s event was ostensibly a masterclass for creators. But if you look at what happened inside it, there’s also a masterclass for the brands who bought in.
Have a read of the piece here if you get a moment, it’s a good one.
But this is my take 👇
At least 16 brands partnered with Streamer University.
Fortnite gave three students $7,500 brand deals live on stream, State Farm gifted subs to streamers on air, Zaxby’s (fried chicken chain) fed the entire campus.
It was something like 15k chicken tenders, 6k wings, 2.5k slices of Texas toast and 400 gallons of sauce. Crazy.
As a result, Zaxby’s owned socials grew by 20,000+ followers over the week. Over 1000% up on the prior period. Thousands of brand mentions across Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, X and TikTok.
Ch@mobile, the wireless brand, said they generated more than 30 million views off the stream through clipping alone.
Those are TV Super Bowl numbers, from a five-day event on a college campus in Arkansas.
These brands only pulled these numbers in because, critically, they showed up and stopped trying to control the story.
Look at how the Zaxby’s exec described the win. She talked about “authentic, unscripted moments that couldn’t be captured or bought through traditional media.”
Look at how Ch@mobile’s co-founder described the trap. “Control is a tough thing for a brand.”
Look at how the head of gaming at SoaR framed the whole thing - “nobody wants to sit there and hear Kai read an ad that’s not Kai’s language.”
Every single one of them is describing the same discipline: The willingness to hand over the wheel. To trust the creator to be a creator. To spend cold hard cash and get, in return, exactly zero pre-approved talking points. These Streamer U sponsors came out the other end with a W because they put the product in the environment, and then got out of the way.
Sooo many brand teams (and I’ve been in enough of these rooms to say this with confidence) cannot help themselves.
legal wants the disclaimer
comms wants the pull-quote
senior marketer wants the talking points
By the time all of that has been baked in, whatever the creator was going to naturally do has been sanded off, and whatever that made the collaboration valuable in the first place is long gone.
As we can see, the brands at Streamer U didn’t do that (so they got 30 million views instead of 3).
I’m trying not to over-romanticise it 😅
There is risk in a livestream integration, streamers can say things brands can’t unsay.
But if you look at what the brands who took that risk here got in return - sold-out limited product drops, thousands of clips, follower growth in the tens of thousands, category-defining cultural placement - the calculation is completely obvious.
Streamer U is a pretty good preview of where I think all live-audience marketing is heading.
Anywhere an audience is watching a person in real time, the winning brand play is going to be the same three moves, again and again: show up in the environment authentically, put the product in the creator’s hands, and then surrender control of how it gets talked about.
Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱
Jordan
P.S.
When you’re ready, here’s three ways I can help out 👇️
P.P.S
If you enjoyed this, you’ll love Community Service, my co-written newsletter with Grace Andrews. Check it out using the link below.
The whole event is yet to grow into the fuller capacity that Kai can deliver. Im so looking forward to the potential creativity coming from this format and hope they don’t fumble it.. another one I have high hopes for is QT Cinderella’s streamer awards. 😊