User Engagement with a Popular Food Brand Before, During, and After a Multiday Interactive Marketing Campaign on a Popular Livestreaming Platform

Objective: Assess viewer engagement of a food advertising campaign on the livestreaming platform Twitch.tv, a social media platform that allows creators to livestream content and communicate with their audience in real-time. Design: Observational analysis of chat comments across the Twitch platform containing the word "Wendy's"or "Wendys"during a 5-day ad campaign compared to two 5-day non-campaign time periods. Comments were categorized as positive, negative, or neutral in how their sentiment pertained to the brand Wendy's. Setting: Twitch chatrooms. Participants: None. Results: There were significantly more chatroom messages related to the Wendy's brand during the campaign period. When considering all messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2=1417.41, p <0.001) across time periods with a higher proportion of neutral and positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign compared to the comparison periods. Additionally, the proportion of negative messages following the campaign was lower than before the campaign. When considering only positive and negative messages, the proportion of messages was statistically different (x2=366.38, p <0.001) across each time period with a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower proportion of negative messages during the campaign when compared to the other time periods. Additionally, there was a higher proportion of positive messages and a lower portion of negative messages following the campaign when compared to before the campaign. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the impact and sustained impact of a fast-food brand ad campaign on brand engagement on the livestreaming platform Twitch.