Influencer
Allie Macpherson: Launching Profitable Opportunities in the Gaming Industry
Who is Allie Macpherson?
With 225,000 followers on Twitch and an additional 107,000 subscribers on YouTube, Allie Macpherson has made an incredible impact on the online gaming industry. Better known as Alliestrasza, Macpherson is a pro-Hearthstone player, competing in esports events around the world and helping to bring better female representation to the male-dominated world of gaming. She explains how she first found her passion for gaming.
‘When I was graduating college, I really wanted to do something unconventional, kind of in the entertainment business. My partner, Mason, is the one who introduced me to this game called Hearthstone, and I had never even heard of Twitch at the time. I didn’t know that people streamed video games but I started playing this game towards the end of graduating college. I really fell in love with the game and when it came time to graduate, he said, ‘What do you think about streaming on Twitch? You’re good at the game and you’re entertaining. Why not give it a shot?’
Macpherson goes on to describe how she grew a stable fan following on Twitch and managed to secure a collection of prosperous opportunities.
‘Slowly, but surely, more and more people discovered my stream. One of the things that catapulted the stream, I think, was joining a gaming team. I joined a team that essentially helps its members grow. The other team members host the channels of the other players. That kind of put me in a network of people to get more eyes on my stream. I think the biggest thing that contributed to my growth was Blizzard, who created Hearthstone and found my stream. The community manager saw me at TwitchCon and recognized me and then she contacted me and started to put me into events and that really led to a big source of growth.’
The gaming influencer also mentions how she continues to grow as Twitch becomes a more prominent platform.
‘I think the bigger the platform gets, the harder it is to grow. We see that on Youtube and Instagram. I think that you basically have to maximize the number of eyeballs that are on you. If you want to grow on Twitch, you also have to put your content on YouTube. You also have to put it on TikTok, on Instagram and be active on Twitter. I want to give people as many chances to discover me as a content creator.’
Using Hearthstone To Achieve Exponential Growth
Although Alliestraza is also known for playing games such as Clash of Clans and Overwatch, Hearthstone is her most popular source of content. Macpherson elucidates how she has managed to stream this game in an entertaining and unique way.
‘My specialty was that I played Hearthstone in a very approachable way. One of the things I was always commended for was how much I interacted with my chat. Some streamers are just competitive and they play the game and they don’t interact much with the audience. One of the things that I leaned into was trying to build relationships with my community.’
Allie Macpherson also creates content for her YouTube channel which she started back in 2016. She goes on to explain how she diversifies this content from her Twitch channel.
‘For the most part, I have just curated clips of the games that I was playing on Twitch. So I would pick the best games from Hearthstone streams and then put them up on YouTube. But I will say that I also, for a long period, uploaded a lot of vlogs. People really enjoyed seeing the lifestyle aspect of my life as well and I was always surprised at the positive feedback I got from the vlogs.’
Despite her success, Allie Macpherson also notes how streaming can often cause a sense of instability, particularly in a financial sense.
‘In terms of the hardest thing about being a gaming influencer is that it’s kind of not the most stable of careers. It obviously exists on a spectrum but sometimes the game that you play dies, or it becomes irrelevant. Generally speaking, when you build your following in one game, it’s not the easiest thing to transition your community to something else. They followed you for that particular game and that’s where you make the most money, get the most viewers, etc. So the income can fluctuate drastically over the years so that can be stressful.’
Bringing Brands Into The World of Online Gaming
Many large businesses have worked with gaming influencers to make good use of their expansive audiences and help them tap into new markets. Macpherson gives her view on the best ways to collaborate with brands and monetize her streams.
‘I would say that sponsorships are always going to be your biggest source of revenue. It’s obvious they’re elite. Streamers at the very top get thousands and thousands of subscriptions over each month. But generally speaking, you want to align with brands that suit your persona, your branding, whatever it is, and that generally is the best way to make money.’
Macpherson goes on to describe her work with the makeup brand Maybelline.
‘The Maybelline one was fun and interesting because my audience is around 95% male so when Maybelline approached me, I was like, okay, I want to take it as it seems fun. I think that you can often find a narrative that will fit and you can tie in the brand with your audience. So even though it was makeup, I did my makeup on stream. I went live with no makeup at all and applied the makeup on stream which was entertaining in and of itself because I pretty much never go on stream without makeup.’
She further explains how she used analytics and effective communication skills to measure the success of this campaign.
‘Usually, at the end of every activation, you send your average concurrent viewership, unique viewers, and the stream stats during that sponsored stream. On the influencer side of things, they don’t really say specific metrics of what made it successful on my end. They pretty much just say, ‘Hey Allie. Great Job. That was a ton of fun. Send over your Twitch stats.’
Supporting A Stable Foundation For Creators
Macpherson has previously mentioned the instability of content creation but hopes that future technology and solutions can help to resolve these issues.
‘I see stories of YouTubers who have built hundreds of thousands of followers over the course of years and YouTube shuts down their channel for whatever reason. They’re basically out of luck and something they’ve built for years is completely shut down. I would really like content creators, social media, blockchain, or decentralization to find some kind of solution for this problem. I think that will empower and make content creators more sovereign.’
She also describes her own journey into cryptocurrency with the creation of Allie Coin.
‘I am actually creating a little NFT game called Allie Cats Fight Club, where I have turned my cats at home into 500 different NFTs that I have individually drawn. I’m developing a game where you’ll be able to compete with your cats and earn Allie Coin. That is something that I’ve been working on for the last year and it should be out in a month.’
Allie Macpherson has made a substantial impact on the gaming industry, providing entertaining content as well as unique brand collaborations. She ends by thanking her followers for their continued support.
‘I feel very lucky to have had this career and although it can have its ups and downs and be unstable from time to time, I am very thankful and appreciative of the life that being a content creator has given me. I just want to say to anyone that’s reading this that may have supported me over the years, just thank you very much for allowing me to do what I love to do.’
