Gaming streamer Reapz on building trust between brands and creators

Gamer and influencer Reapz, believes brands are always looking to tap into markets that have a steady amount of views and interactivity with a community of people. 

“Live streaming is a bastion for all the aforementioned. But we're also seeing a giant rise in people consuming short form content. With more people out and about after the lockdowns of COVID,” he said.  

Reapz was the winner for Best Gaming Streamer/Creator from last year’s AiMCO Awards. Entries are now open for the 2023 awards.  

People have less time to allocate to certain viewing patterns they once had, said Reapz, who attributes this to short-form content being easy to consume from a commute to work, school or any destination for an event because they're not locked in for a long duration of time before a payoff. 

“This market is now key for brands to get more eyeballs on their product and also be a litmus test to expand their campaign to long-form as well with videos and livestreams,” he said.  

When it comes to choosing which brands he will partner with as a digital creator, Reapz will do some research on them before committing to anything.  

The most important thing when going into a collaboration, he said, is that it leads to further work with the company. 

“If you only view it as a one-off thing, that means you're doing it for the wrong reasons. When you do find a brand that shares your ideals and values, I feel it's important to have an open discourse with them and tell them what you believe will and won't work for your content and community,” he said.  

Some brands want creators to do an ad read right off the bat on a YouTube video; Reapz said that’s the wrong approach. 

“No one is going to be patient with an obscure ad read when the thumbnail and title are directing you to something else," he said.

“You want to get the viewer hooked and then organically bring in the ad read. You also want some creative freedom to say how you will pitch the product. If I just read a spec sheet of a PC, no one will care and not many people will understand the key terminology.” 

What an audience wants to see is how the creator has personally used it and how it has benefitted them, he said. 

“It's all about trust from brand to creator. The creator trusts that the product they're promoting is good because the brand has proved that and the brand should trust that the creator knows how to sell this product to their audience correctly.” 

As a streamer and content creator, Reapz has an account on most of the well-known platforms but focuses on some more so than others.  

“I don't think it's possible to do all of them at once unless you have a team behind you. I know my job is a content creator. So most of my content is livestreams, videos and short form media. So YouTube, Twitch and TikTok will always be my main areas of focus,” he said.  

For Reapz, that’s what he enjoys doing and that's what people enjoy seeing from him.

“Twitter (sorry, X) and Instagram are more used as side platforms for me. I like to keep personal and business separate and those platforms are more about your personal takes and private life snaps than actual work. In my opinion that is.” 

The emergence of AI has raised lots of questions for content creators and those in the industry. Reapz said that it's still very much in its infancy and it's obvious that AI doesn’t yet have its own “personality or legitimacy”.  

“Everyone is scared that AI will take away jobs, but I don't see that happening for quite some time, if at all,” he said.  

Automation can be great for the things that are just time consuming, more so than creative, he said.  

“It's really about what restrictions and measures will come into play and how laws around it will keep certain industries thriving with real people. I can't say I use AI with videos and livestreams yet,” he said.  

“But I'm interested to see how it will come in and either help or hinder the process. As of now, I don't know too much about it to pass judgement.”