Brands are shifting from agencies to creators for campaign ideas. Twitch’s chief product officer explains why community-driven creativity is changing how advertisers reach audiences.
As governments worldwide consider tighter controls on social media, Twitch is working to clarify its unique position to regulators and advertisers. Mike Minton, Twitch’s chief product officer, said the platform is often misunderstood as just another algorithm-driven feed, when in reality, its core is built around communities and live engagement. This distinction is shaping how Twitch approaches safety, advertising, and the creative process itself.
Minton explained that Twitch’s ongoing conversations with regulators, especially in the UK and Australia, focus on educating officials about how the platform differs from traditional social media. He noted that Twitch does not offer endless scrolling or passive consumption. Instead, users actively seek out communities and participate in real-time interactions, which changes the dynamics of both content moderation and user experience.
For brands, this shift means rethinking how campaigns are developed. Minton said the traditional model-where brands set the brief, agencies create ideas, and media companies distribute-has evolved. Increasingly, brands are turning to creators not just for distribution, but for the ideas themselves. According to Minton, creators are now seen as collaborators who understand their audiences deeply and can generate concepts that resonate more authentically.
This change is visible in projects like Kai Cenat’s Streamer University, where thousands of aspiring creators gather to learn from top livestreamers. Minton pointed out that brands are no longer limited to working with a handful of major influencers. Instead, Twitch helps connect advertisers with a wide range of creators, from platform stars to hundreds or thousands of smaller streamers whose communities align with specific brand goals.
Minton also highlighted the scale of creator-driven events on Twitch, such as Ibai Llanos’s annual boxing event, which draws millions of concurrent viewers and regularly breaks platform records. He argued that these events are now major entertainment properties, not niche internet moments, and offer brands access to audiences that rival traditional broadcast media.
Sports content is another area where Twitch is experimenting with creator-centric engagement. NBA player Jaylen Brown, for example, uses Twitch to connect with fans after games, while the Creator Cast partnership with the NBA allows streamers to host live watch parties. Minton said this approach keeps communities engaged before, during, and after live events, offering advertisers new ways to become part of ongoing conversations rather than interrupting them.
Because Twitch is part of Amazon, Minton said the platform can offer brands advanced targeting and measurement capabilities. Brands can launch broad awareness campaigns, deepen engagement through creator partnerships, and track performance using Amazon’s first-party data. This integration, he said, is a key competitive advantage for Twitch in the creator economy.
Minton described how brands sometimes arrive with a fully formed creative idea and ask Twitch to find the right creators to execute it. Other times, brands present a business challenge and rely on Twitch’s creative teams to develop an activation strategy before matching it with suitable creators. In both cases, creators are now central to the process, not just channels for distribution.
He believes the future of creator marketing will involve greater scale, more accountability, and deeper integration into mainstream campaigns. Minton encouraged brands to trust creators with their messaging, arguing that audiences respond more strongly to influencers they already follow and trust. This perspective echoes recent industry discussions about the value of creator partnerships, such as those explored in a recent analysis of newsroom collaboration frameworks.
