Let’s play eSports. For the win!

We pay much more attention to our screens than before and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the gaming industry. After the launch of ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’, sales of the Nintendo Switch increased rapidly and more than 15 million people played ‘Call of Duty Warzone’ within the first days after its launch.

Breaking records on Twitch.

As the world is collectively missing sporting events such as the European Championships and Formula 1, we are looking for alternatives. When it was announced that the Grand Prix in Australia wouldn’t take place, Formula 1 driver Lando Norris did not despair. He just kept racing, but simply online. Twitch streamed his play on iRacing.com. Within minutes, there were 18.000 fans watching the game live. Less than two hours later, this number increased to 70.000 viewers, breaking the record on Twitch of the number of streams within an hour.

A new way of watching sports

Not only Formula 1 is making clever use of the gaming industry during this pandemic, as cyclists are also exchanging their bikes for a virtual one. It seems like eSports is the new way of watching sports in times when you’re confined to your home. So what is it, exactly?

The answer is quite simple: playing computer games on a competitive basis. Just like we watch the Premier League on television, you can also watch the eDivision online – or on your smart TV. These online competitions attract millions of people to platforms such as Twitch or Youtube and, thus, create a lot of opportunities for marketers.

eSports-influencers

By being there where eSports are played, you have the opportunity as a brand to build up reach fast, through the millions of viewers it attracts. The athletes – or rather, eSports-influencers – often have a close relationship with their audience, which is something that brands can piggyback on.

Well played

The advertising possibilities within eSports are endless. In-game experiences are a smart way of customizable advertising. As a great example, American fast-food chain Wendy’s and Fortnite teamed up to launch a character whose sole mission it was to destroy all the freezers in the game. This perfectly fits into Wendy’s mission: ‘Always Fresh, Never Frozen’. DJ Marshmello also did a concert in Fortnite, which was attended by 10 million (!) players from all over the world. In game slang, we say, WP (well played).

Besides in-game experiences, you can also choose to use a banner with your message on platforms like Twitch, YouTube or Mixer. However, the viewers of these streams tend to be more critical, so do keep your audience and the relevance of your message in mind when doing this. As a brand, you can also sponsor a team, a single player or a tournament. This form of advertising can be costly, but effective in the short term.

With its influencers, marketing and streams, you can say that gaming is actually a form of social media. As ‘noobs’ we shouldn’t ignore this trend, but rather embrace it and discover the relatively unknown opportunities for brands. GlobalData predicts that, in 2025, the gaming industry will be worth about 300 trillion (!) dollars. So with this last piece of information, let’s not bury our heads in the sand and recognize that this industry has so many untapped opportunities for brands to play into. So, let’s play… FTW (for the win).