How Honda’s new Twitch partnership marks a shift in its gaming strategy

For several years, Honda has sought out gaming audiences by carving out a presence in places they typically inhabit, from esports leagues to Fortnite. But a new partnership with Twitch, the Amazon-owned video game streaming platform, signals a more direct approach to reaching this predominantly younger demographic. Honda is now an official partner of Twitch Rivals, the platform’s tournament series featuring popular streamers competing in various gaming events. Twitch users will no longer need to seek out Honda—such as through its two branded channels—in order to engage with its offerings. Instead, the new sponsorship brings these opportunities right into the stream chat. The partnership is meant to extend a new social and digital campaign that Honda is launching around its 2025 Civic hybrid. Messaging in the form of 15-second ads on YouTube, Reddit and other platforms will be geared toward Gen Zers and younger millennials, as well as multicultural audiences. Agencies RPA, Quantasy, ORCI and Kissd collaborated on the campaign. On Twitch, Honda will allow Rivals viewers to design a custom 2025 Civic hybrid over the course of six sessions, dubbed “Chat’s Civic Mods.” (“Mod” is a term that refers to altering details of video games, short for “modification.”) This customization will be a crowd-sourced effort within the chat feature, and will culminate in the construction of a physical version that will be revealed at TwitchCon in September and given away to one of the sessions’ participants. During streams, Rivals viewers will also be able to play Honda-themed chat games, access Honda-branded skins and a chat emote and see their top comments highlighted for the rest of the Twitch community to see. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “With this launch, we want to make sure we have a breadth of reach,” said Phil Hruska, senior manager for Honda Marketing. “We wanted to do things differently and take our message to the bigger audience.” The new angle makes sense given the increasingly conspicuous direction in which Honda’s gaming strategy has evolved. In 2019, the brand launched its own gaming channel on Twitch, followed by a lifestyle channel in 2022 for non-gaming Twitch users. Also in 2022, it struck a naming-rights deal with a professional esports team, now dubbed Team Liquid Honda. Its most immersive effort came last year with the launch of Hondaverse, a virtual world inside Fortnite and accessible via Twitch that is themed to various Honda products. Gaming continues to be a marketing hotspot spanning a variety of consumer interests, from computer games nodding to arcade nostalgia to immersive shopping worlds. But gaming is just one part of Honda’s wider strategy to connect with younger audiences. The auto brand has recently teamed with media company 88rising to launch a fashion line, as well as expanded its creative presence through a video series with dance app Steezy. Embracing popular technology in its marketing such as generative AI has been another way that Honda has attempted to ingratiate itself with Gen Zers and young millennials. “All the things that younger generations are into is where we want to play,” said Hruska.

How Honda’s new Twitch partnership marks a shift in its gaming strategy

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