by Theda Braddock
A few years ago E-sports exploded onto the marketing scene, presenting a whole new opportunity for brands, one that has enormous potential, but is incredibly risky. Over the last year alone brands’ investments have grown 50%, one of two industry trends Rodrigo Samwell of ESL cited in a panel moderated by Fast Company’s Jeff Beer with Samwell, Caroline Pilz (Daimler AG) and Alex Clegg (CEO, Super Union). The other is that many of these brands are non-endemic.
All three panelists emphasized the enormous potential for brands to benefit, while inisisting on the need for authenticity. “it’s important to pull back and not just consider the segment or channel but that this is a dynamic rich world, full of culture and creativity”, explained Clegg. Brands need to tell stories that make sense and engage in order to be appreciated and the way to go about this is to create be an insider.
Those brands that have succeeded so far have found ways to reference games and players themselves, like a recent Snickers campaign which inserted its “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign into the world by partnering with some of the world’s top players in a clever operation. As the players grew more hungry they started making increasingly careless mistakes, driving a conversation on Twitch, where audiences were asking questions about the unusual behavior. The reveal came when players turned their performance around after eating a Snickers.
The key for brands is to work with partners that understand the field, explained Clegg who cautioned that brands shouldn’t treat Esports like traditional sports. “It’s not just one community,” he said, likening it to motorsports which incorporates fans of Motocross, Formula 1 and others. Pilz added that the process starts with 2 vital steps – analyze the market and its opportunities, then hire experts.
The Esports community is global, as opposed to that of traditional sports, which remains regional. It’s constantly evolving at an exceptionally high rate. As Samwell points out, somoe of today’s most popular games, like Fortnight, didn’t exist 2-3 years ago and mobile gaming is a growing opportunity. Even the demographic is shifting, and Clegg predicts that with new games, older players will get involved, as will more women. Brands need to be flexible, original and creative, and not just try to adapt campaigns in order to effectively address the evolving audience. They need to ask themselves what they can bring to the community
Esports is continuously evolving and brands need to ask themselves what they can really bring to the table. Ultimately, brands can’t “jump” on the bandwagon they need to climb on cautiously, after assessing the market, partnering with the right people and recognizing that authenticity is vital. Only then will they benefit from the growing opportunities the sector holds.
