Honda Levels Up with TWITCH RIVALS Sponsorship

Gaming has evolved greatly from the early days when two players battled it out at home on a gaming console. Today, many top gamers seek out the thrill of live-streamed online competition on a larger scale.  Honda, a leading automotive marketer supporting the gaming community, wanted to continue its strategic initiative of building lasting relationships with the next generation of car buyers and simultaneously launch the new 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid in an exciting way. Recognizing the evolution of gaming from console battles to large-scale online competitions, we sought a platform that could reach the vibrant and diverse gaming community with innovative activations that provide tangible value.

We found the perfect opportunity in becoming the first-ever automotive partner of Twitch Rivals. This year-round series of over 60+ competitive gaming events featuring top-tier streamers is a significant milestone. With 70% of Twitch’s community between the ages of 18–34, this collaboration is a key component of Honda’s strategy to engage with Gen Z, first-time car buyers, and multicultural customers. Paired closely with Honda’s gaming initiatives, the 11th-generation Civic serves as a gateway to the Honda brand, making it most popular vehicle in the U.S. with these demographics.

Twitch is a community-oriented streaming platform, so Honda focused on elevating the interactive chat experience for Twitch Rivals viewers, creating collaborative, in-broadcast games for chat to play together.  

Additionally, Honda created a segment called “Charged-Up Chat” in which viewers’ top comments get spotlighted as well as a custom Honda emote that can be used in community conversations. Twitch Rivals also provides Honda with a year-round platform to support important initiatives like highlighting women in gaming.  

And, most important of all, the platform allows Honda to build excitement and awareness around new-vehicle releases. Coinciding with the release of the new 2025 Honda Civic Sedan Hybrid, Twitch Rivals broadcasts included a segment called “Chat’s Civic Mods.” Over the course of a month, the Twitch community had the opportunity to collectively customize a new Civic Hybrid through live in-broadcast extensions and voting. The culmination of this program takes place at TwitchCon 2024 in San Diego, where the Civic will be unveiled on the Twitch Rivals stage and given away to a member of the Twitch community.

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