Description

Winline is one of the leading Russian sportsbooks companies. Annually, the market demonstrates high growth rates, but due to the specific nature of the category, sportsbooks have limited channels for communicating with their audience. One of the key channels is Twitch, but even here, competition is fierce, with a battle for streamers who have the largest audiences.

Our primary challenge was to establish Winline as a Top of Mind brand among sportsbooks in a highly important communication channel — Twitch. Despite Winline having numerous Twitch ambassadors, its competitors also have a significant share of exclusive contracts with streamers. This automatically blocks the brand from engaging with these influencers and their audiences. However, only by attracting everyone can a brand become the leader and achieve Top of Mind status with the audience.

We uncovered an insight that streamers are the new celebrities. Like actors or musicians, they crave recognition, fame, and awards. Therefore, they can be engaged by leveraging strategies from the film and music industries without violating their exclusive contracts.

Therefore, in with Winline, we conceived a branded event: a professional award designed to be an aspirational goal for streamers — the SLAY (Stream Legends Awards of the Year).

However, SLAY is more than just an event; it is a large-scale, integrated marketing campaign.

It started with a teaser video. To generate buzz we deployed SLAY logo "masks" within influencer content. This was amplified by comprehensive Twitch branding, including voice integrations, video ads, and FOOH advertising.

Through a dedicated website, the audience could suggest categories, nominate candidates, and vote for the winners. It became the central hub for the entire project, with influencer channels acting as a primary traffic driver.

To ensure maximum reach, we complemented this organic engagement with targeted advertising, strategic seeding, and coverage in both TV and online media.

We further incentivized participation by offering a "golden ticket" to the exclusive closed ceremony via registration in the Winline app.

The awards ceremony itself was produced to the standards of a major televised event and live-streamed on Twitch on December 7, 2024. Winline branding was seamlessly integrated at every touchpoint. To elevate the industry's profile, we extended our reach beyond Twitch by incorporating mainstream celebrities. The show was hosted by the top streamer in the Runet, featured popular comedians as presenters, awarded statuettes crafted by the premier jeweler of the Russian rap scene, and was headlined by a renowned hip-hop artist.

The project achieved record reach and viewership numbers, setting a new standard for non-esports broadcasts on Twitch in Russia and the CIS. It also reinforced Winline's leadership in one of the most competitive areas of the runet and aligned with the brand's communication platform to "make a difference".

Results:

— Total views: 283 million, of which 188 million were branded.
— Project reach: over 5.5 million.
— UGC: 233.23 million views.
— Live broadcast: 6.4 million views, 371.7 thousand concurrent viewers.
— Website: 3.23 million unique users, 514 thousand registered users, 5.88 million votes for categories and nominees.
— Brand interest increased by 4 p.p.
— Loyalty among the current audience increased by 6 p.p.
— Conversion rate: 2.7% (authorizations and registrations in the app among registered website users).

Credits

Aleksandr Zapolskikh, CMO, Winline
Sergei Nevodnichii, Head of Esports, Winline
Egor Nikolaev, Brand Lead, Winline
Aleksei Farafontov, Account Lead, Goose Gaming
Darsen Ochirov, Project Lead, Goose Gaming
Irina Savchenko, Creative Lead, Goose Gaming
Dmitrii Shcherbakov, Creative Director,Goose Gaming
Tatiana Petrova, Head of Media,Goose Gaming
Evgenii Kalganov, Event Lead,Goose Gaming
Anton Oleinik, Production Director,Goose Gaming
Denis Korolev, Art Director,Goose Gaming
Dmitrii Grigorev, Project Manager,Goose Gaming
Denis Kamenkov, CTO,Goose Gaming
Alina CHistiakova, Digital Project Manager,Goose Gaming
Pavel Gusev, Managing Partner,Goose Gaming