INSIGHT
“To have any chance
of success at
engaging fans, the
team responsible for
content has to live
and breathe esports
and gaming culture
in general”
on how best to engage this emerging
audience. Esports fans spend a great
deal of time online, often subscribing
to multiple communities where
they discuss teams, players, game
mechanics and everything else esports-
related. This level of activity online is
unique to the esports market, and the
opportunity for brands to become part
of the conversation is higher than ever.
Build a team of esports fans
To have any chance of success at
engaging fans, the team responsible for
content has to live and breathe esports
and gaming culture in general – a
team lacking genuine passion for the
beautiful egame will be found out at
the first tweet. Proceed with caution!
Teams should be in tune with what’s
happening in the scene, covering all
the relevant titles from across the
esports sector. There are myriad ways
to follow each of these titles, whether
that’s through Reddit communities
or by watching the latest tournament
majors through Twitch.tv, YouTube
Gaming and Facebook. Subscribing to
industry newsletters can keep teams
abreast of B2B developments and
getting match updates will give a good
overview of the competitive scene. For
a more intimate look at what’s going
on in the space, it’s best to follow
teams and players on Twitter.
Esports is a major category that
covers a huge range of games, from
realistic first-person shooters such as
Counter-Strike through to collectible
card games such as Hearthstone. For
this reason, it is rare to find anyone
with a deep understanding of more
than just a couple of titles, given that
the culture, teams and history vary
wildly from one to the next. Teams
responsible for engaging with esports
fans would also benefit from playing
competitively in their spare time, as
many of these titles are simply too
complex to follow without having
first-hand experience.
Creating partnerships
Living and breathing esports is the
first step, then, but engaging with an
audience from the grass roots can be
accelerated through a partnership.
Brands, players and organisations
within esports are typically very
open to cooperation at any level.
The esports economy might be
approaching $1bn, but the industry is
still nascent and stakeholders are often
looking for partnership opportunities
to keep pace with this growth.
Of course, partnerships are not
without their pitfalls, and sometimes
the excitement and eagerness of
this market can lead lower-level
partnerships into monetary black holes.
This eagerness is a symptom of a
‘we’re all in this together’ sentiment
that so heavily pervades the esports
scene, and new start-ups can easily
find partnership opportunities
with other similarly ambitious and
passionate start-ups. In our case, as a
self-funded enterprise, we began our
foray into odds comparison through
a partnership with UltraPlay, which
provided us with the opportunity to
serve data to our users without the
heavy upfront costs. We continue to
partner with UltraPlay and others on
new content and giveaways, enabling
us to reach a wider audience or
providing our non-endemic partners
with the association and credibility of
an esports-focused brand.
Market developments
Something unique to esports is the
market’s rate of change. Whether it’s
the replacement of a team’s entire
roster, a dramatic change to a game’s
mechanics or the launch of a new title,
it’s hard to keep pace with all that’s
going on. But keeping up with market
trends and changes can prove useful
for driving engagement.
For example, spotting a potential
new esports title early can give a
brand time to position themselves
for its impending launch. Valve’s
announcement of its new card trading
iGB Affiliate Issue 72 DEC 2018 / JAN 2019
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