Alex Fletcher – eSports Insider – eSports Marketing: Terms & Conditions…

alexfletcher
Alex Fletcher

Continuing SBC eSports Insider series, industry analyst and commentator Alex Fletcher (Founder of Entive Group) details the sectors unique characteristics and conditions which can create both marketing opportunities and pitfalls for its ambitious business incumbents…..

To define eSports marketing, it is imperative to identify its distinguishing characteristics. As a competitive activity, enjoyed by millions across the globe, eSports carries several identifiable elements. Below is a categorization of properties to be incorporated into successful strategies for packaging eSport merchandise, personalities, and experience(s).

  • eSports are a global phenomenon – Traditional sport has long relied on the concept of locality, as a basis for growth along national and even international terms. However, this is not the case for eSports where there are no strong ties to physical locality; a reality that is both strength and weakness.
  • Lack of gender dileneation – The physical differences that exist along the gender divide in traditional sports simply don’t hold in eSports. Accordingly, there aren’t (yet) strong distinctions between male and female play. Still, current gender imbalances have given raise to several approaches such as female-only, “safe places” in the hope of encouraging more balanced eSports participation (playing, watching, etc).
  • Intellectual property gone missing – The  eSports domain currently lacks consistent use of intellectual property (IP) artifacts such as trademarks, copyrights and patents; commonplace in the traditional sports world, these are embryonic within eSports today. However, there are signs that this might be fast changing.

Separating Marketing from Promotion

Marketing and promotion are two oft confused terms, this applies doubly to the eSports world. The key difference between marketing and promotion is that the former is a part of the latter. As discussed in Part I of my SBC series, the marketing mix consists of price, product, place and promotion. Thus, marketing can exist without promotion but not vice versa.

Webster’s Dictionary defines marketing as:

“The activities required by a producer to sell his products, including advertising, storing, taking orders, and distribution to vendors or individuals.”

On the other hand, the Free Management Library defines Promotion as:

“Promotion keeps the product in the minds of the customer and helps stimulate demand for the product. Promotion involves ongoing advertising and publicity (mention in the press).”

As the numbers show, eSports boasts a growing, highly engaged audience. A mass of knowledgeable, connected enthusiasts have reduced the premium on the marketing mix. Whereas, in traditional sports the occasional participant crowd is a key target demographic. More emphasis must be placed on developing effective strategies to grow the scope of eSports participation, if current growth rates are to continue.

Fletch222Promotion: Using Big Events as a Model

A recent media bonanza surrounding the 2015 DOTA 2 International Championship, with its $18 million prize pool, demonstrates the importance of big events across the eSports space. Large, moneyed tournaments like 2015’s International serve as lifeblood, not just for the pro teams competing in them, but for the entire industry. Understanding why big eSports events like the International are a success offers critical insight into applying similar elsewhere.

Compendium for the win

Valve Software, the maker of Defense of the Ancients (DotA) 2, offers a digital compendium for each year’s International. The compendium, which sells for $9.99, is at the heart of the International’s success as an event; it not only helps players and fans from around the world celebrate the tournament, but also fuel the prize pool for the finals. In 2015, contributions composed over 91% ($16,829,613) of the total prize pool.

The compendium is part digital fan item, part crowdfunding, and part promotional item. Valve successfully integrated the notion of rewards, which not only feed back into the tournament, but drive increased engagement through gameplay. As the total prize pool reaches stretch goals, rewards are granted to the entire participating community. These include loading screens, emoticons, music and more.

A model for success

Here promotion efforts will be defined using the AIDA model, which is an action-oriented approach, shown below:

  • A – Attention (capture attention)
  • I – Interest (attract interest)
  • D – Desire (arouse desire)
  • A – Action (obtain action)

Valve’s compendium underscores how the design of a successful eSports promotional tool, implements all of the above. As the DotA 2 community reached each of the stretch goals, additional levels of attention, interest, desire and action were generated therein. In parallel, the steadily increasing prize pool served as promotion outside the community. As a result, word of the tournament spread across the global media landscape with ease. With the International Championship blossoming into an eSports version of the Superbowl, a signature event capable of drawing attention and awareness far outside its traditional fan base, even the worldwide leader in sports took notice.

 

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