The Internet is a weird place and as Digital Marketers, our team at Wildfire Marketing spends plenty of time on it. Each site, platform and corner of the online world holds something a little different that you simply don’t expect. Stray outside of your regular patrol of apps and pages and you’re likely to find something you simply don’t understand. We pride ourselves on scoping out every new development and platform in popular culture to find our customers the next marketing avenue that might bring them great success. Despite all this, when we came across Ludwig Ahgren’s latest stream on Twitch – even we were a little shocked.
For those not in the know, Ludwig Ahgren is now the most subscribed person on Twitch thanks to his “Subathon” – a thirty-day long stream.
So, who on Earth is Ludwig? How is he achieving this success? And how can you emulate his success for your online presence? Let’s answer all these questions right here with Wildfire Marketing.
Ludwig’s History
Ludwig Ahgren was born July 6, 1995 (age 25) in Hollis, New Hampshire, USA. I’ll admit when first researching I was expecting the same story you often see in the breakout stars of the modern net. Take Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who Ludwig knocked off the top concurrent subscribers spot, for example. Ninja was a relative unknown, propelled by his skills and a lucky break when he collaborated with Drake on a record-breaking Fortnite Livestream in 2017. The tale of Ludwig however is one of a guy who consistently, advertently or inadvertently, finds his way into a position of success in seemingly every online genre he finds himself in with clever marketing and a penchant for the latest craze.
Ludwig online presence became known in 2017, as an eSports competitor in the iconic fighting game “Super Smash Bros. Melee”. He found moderate success in a truly challenging field, beating and challenging top competitors. Where he really found success, however, was as a commentator. Perhaps it was this success that carried him into streaming in 2018. From here, Ludwig’s timeline seemingly grows from incredible success to incredible success at a record pace, and in the most unexpected ways. See for yourself:
- 2018 – Ludwig hosts a $1000 winner-take-all invitational Melee netplay tournament titled the Ludwig Ahgren Championship Series. The sequels to this event in 2020 are some of the most popular ever and raised countless thousands for charity. Appears in an advert for Hotels.com
- 2019 – Ludwig beats a record in the game Mario Party 4. This record was performed via third-party tools to be impossible to beat. Earns widespread coverage in videogame circles. Also appears in another advert for the RTX 20XX Graphics Cards and launches his own clothing line.
- 2020- Competes in and wins a pokemon tournament and a subsequent poker tournament alongside other popular streamers. Then comes 2nd place in a chess tournament for streamers’ consolation bracket. Earns a front-page cover in Chess Life Magazine. Follows this up with a Washington Post interview about the latest craze ‘Among Us’ and a Christmas Album.
Throughout all this, his audience has steadily grown to incredible levels and covers an incredibly wide area of interests. He wears his influences and charming wit on his sleeve, but perhaps his greatest skill is cultivating his brand. He manages to insert himself successfully in such a broad range of popular topics and events that he is practically impossible not to notice. His voice is on some of the most popular Esports matches of the late 2010s. His clothing is on their top competitors. He’s in chess magazines, he’s in adverts, he’s in the news, he’s in the biggest Twitch events.
This legacy shows the power of diversifying your brand’s presence and capitalising on the latest trends. His biggest and latest success, however, reveals the viral power unique content marketing can have.
Ludwig’s 2021 Subathon
After a short Haitus in March of 2021, Ludwig began an interesting Livestream experiment. On March 14, 2021, a continuous stream of his life started. In the corner was a running clock dictating how much longer the stream would run, with every subscription to his Twitch channel adding ten seconds to the timer. If he slept, movies and videos would be played. This stream had a thirty-day cap, with Ludwig expecting it to last perhaps a day or two.
It lasted the full thirty.
Through each of those days, Ludwig would entertain what began as around 30,000 subscribers and countless more viewers. It ended with him at 283,061 subscribers – the highest concurrent amount of all time. To be clear, each “sub” on Twitch is paid, usually around £3.
Both Ludwig and his bank account grew to meteoric heights through this event, with Ludwig’s stream now going down in history as one of the longest and greatest.
What can your business learn?
In the Internet Age, visibility is the key to good marketing. If your business wants to succeed, find your way onto as many streams and screens as possible. Sponsor influencers and events, set up your own. Find new, interesting ways to get your brand out there. If Ludwig’s impressive legacy shows us anything – it’s that having your brand in the right places or behind the right concepts can propel you into the mainstream when you least expect it.
For a great example of a business capitalising on online streams to build up hype, check out this reveal by Bethesda:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/267861402With just an empty space, they built up massive hype. Could your business be the next online success?
If you want to grow your brand with digital marketing effectively, trust the number one SEO Agency in Leeds – Wildfire Marketing. Our team has extensive experience in Content Marketing, Social Media and more. Contact us today to see what we can do for you.