As Discord steps up its pitch to advertisers, manufacturers are more and more approaching the platform as an influencer advertising and marketing play, sponsoring area of interest Discord servers to succeed in significantly engaged customers.
To make it simpler on entrepreneurs, Discord launched its first homegrown promoting product, Quests, in March 2024 worldwide. Since then, the advert providing — which rewards customers with on-platform advantages like stickers and badges for watching movies or performing different promotional duties — has been the unique territory of gaming and leisure manufacturers like “Name of Obligation” and “Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds. It has notably not received over extra mainstream advertisers in classes like tech and shopper items.
In lieu of Quests, mainstream advertisers are discovering different methods to leverage Discord as a advertising and marketing channel. Manufacturers like Jack within the Field, Samsung, Netflix and Mentos have as an alternative spent the final yr partnering immediately with server homeowners on Discord, paying them to share promotional hyperlinks and content material throughout digital communities that generally boast over 100,000 particular person customers. For its June marketing campaign, for instance, Jack within the Field collaborated with the company Wildfire to sponsor a community of servers together with NA Observe Scrims, a Fortnite neighborhood on Discord with roughly 114,000 members. The objective was to drive consideration and engagement towards a sponsored livestream with Faheed “T-Ache” Najm on June 26.
“We hadn’t tapped into Discord Quests for this explicit execution, however it’s essential to take action in a means the place it isn’t random,” stated Andrew Kang, a senior director of media technique for the company Carat, which helped Jack within the Field with the marketing campaign. “Our problem, if we ever had been to take action as a QSR [fast food brand], can be to seek out an genuine means — is there a product that makes a ton of sense for a Discord Quest?”
Advertisers like Jack within the Field are dipping their toes into Discord at an advantageous time for the platform. Though manufacturers outdoors leisure and gaming haven’t but embraced Quests, a Discord consultant stated it helps the rise in influencer-style advertising and marketing on the platform, viewing the shift as a optimistic total signal concerning manufacturers’ willingness to spend advertising and marketing budgets on Discord.
Discord doesn’t typically launch public consumer numbers, however then-CEO Jason Citron informed The Verge that the platform had roughly 200 million month-to-month lively customers in early 2024. The platform could be very widespread amongst Gen Z, with 44 p.c of Gen Z avid gamers and 20 p.c of Gen Zers total utilizing it repeatedly, in response to a February 2025 eMarketer report. In January 2024, Discord had about 19 million lively servers, in response to figures shared on the platform’s web site on the time.
“We try to create a scalable promoting expertise that focuses on authenticity,” stated Discord vp of gross sales and promoting options Adam Bauer. “By creating the communications platform for all of gaming, we’ve pioneered a brand new means for entrepreneurs to succeed in a highly-engaged international gaming viewers by means of neighborhood, insights and a rewards-driven ecosystem that’s genuine to the gaming expertise.”
Discord isn’t a broadcast platform — it’s constructed round tight-knit servers the place individuals spend hours chatting, sharing, and constructing tradition. For manufacturers, entrepreneurs say, that’s interesting as a result of it’s not nearly impressions however deeper, stickier engagement in areas the place followers already self-organize. Traditionally, it’s been regarded by mainstream advertisers as a walled-off gamer neighborhood device, however that notion is slowly altering, in response to each entrepreneurs and creators on the platform.
“Social media, to this point, has actually been concerning the influencer. Whereas neighborhood exists round social media, they’re watching the exercise or the creation of that particular person,” stated Amanda Rubin, CRO of the company Wildfire, which makes a speciality of Discord advertising and marketing. “In what we’re calling ‘neighborhood media,’ the neighborhood is the epicenter. It’s not about this particular person behind the scenes being the factor everybody’s right here for, it’s neighborhood. Discord is basically the primary platform that has the flexibility for communities to be monetized, versus people for his or her notoriety.”
Jack within the Field senior director of social media and PR Morgan Higgins declined to share particular numbers for the corporate’s June marketing campaign, citing the recency of the marketing campaign, however stated that the corporate seen its Discord marketing campaign as a “success” as a result of it allowed Jack within the Field to focus on particular teams with related pursuits to the livestream, and that the corporate plans to extend its use of Discord as an influencer advertising and marketing channel sooner or later.
“On the likes of a bigger platform, I don’t assume we might have the ability to discuss to subgroups which can be music followers, and even simply T-Ache followers,” Higgins stated. “We need to discuss to the gaming area; we needed to speak, particularly, to Fortnite followers. To me, that’s successful, as a result of it allowed us to have that one-to-one communication.”
Creators are taking part in up their communities on Discord to win over extra advert {dollars}. Final week, for instance, the creator collective Good Good Golf launched its first-ever Discord server, the Good Good Golf Membership. The Discord neighborhood didn’t launch with a title sponsor — an intentional option to keep away from distracting from the rollout, in response to Good Good advertising and marketing director Jeffrey Lefkovits. But sponsorship stock was a part of the idea from the beginning, with Good Good planning to develop the methods sponsors like Mountain Dew and Callaway can attain Discord customers.
Monetary particulars of those spends weren’t disclosed.
“We’re going to arrange member tournaments, member journeys, ‘PGA 2K’ tournaments, fantasy leagues, trivia nights — we’re going to have every kind of stuff in there,” Lefkovits stated. “Do these open up the door for sponsorships? one hundred pc, and that’s going to be an essential a part of it.”
Discord isn’t the one platform chasing entrepreneurs’ curiosity in area of interest communities this yr. Twitch now provides advertisers the choice to entry particular communities in content material verticals corresponding to DJing, digital artwork and cooking. In July, for instance, The Basic ran a Twitch marketing campaign constructed round a Fortnite event with 16 high streamers, aimed squarely on the platform’s Fortnite neighborhood.
“Viewers don’t passively watch streams — they take part, join and construct an enduring sense of belonging. That depth of engagement makes streamers extremely trusted voices, and it’s why manufacturers are more and more recognizing the distinctive alternative to point out up alongside content material the place audiences are deeply invested,” stated Twitch chief product officer Mike Minton. “While you align with a passionate neighborhood, you construct actual affinity and belief from creator to model. That’s the sort of impression advertisers are looking for immediately.”
