The Twitch function that reads messages aloud when donations are made is well-known, and Ogilvy have used this as the basis of their ad campaign.
The idea was simple — donations are made of the exact same amounts as certain Burger King offers, with accompanying message advertising the product and the company.
Ogilvy then created a video compiling different clips of streamers receiving a donation.
While in principle a good idea for the marketing decision-makers, it was badly received by some streamers — including Ross "Rubber Ninja" O'Donovan, who found himself part of the video without his knowledge.
What has been singled out with the campaign is the notion of consent. Here, the company uses content creators to advertise without prior agreement or partnership. In other words, for just a $5 donation, the streamer and his audience were used for Burger King's economic gain. Even without much notion of partnerships, we can easily imagine that the $5 received is far from the amount a real advertising deal would bring in.
The awkwardness of the company testifies above all to a huge lack of knowledge vis-à-vis the platform and its creators, all of whom were more or less suspicious of what was going on.
Despite the bad buzz caused by the video on Twitter, the company has not reacted publicly. Twitch did speak out, explaining that it was not part of the campaign in any way and stressing that it is working to make partnerships between advertisers and creators more equal.
Despite going online-only because of the coronavirus crisis, Summer Games Done Quick has managed to raise a massive $ 2.3 million for charity.
Original content by Maxime "Biaggi" Ricoveri.
