Page 30 - AdNews May-June 2020

Investigation
Ashley O’Rourke
now is a slight dipping in the finan- cial barriers to entry for brands, making it a lot more accessible.”
Early advertisers in the space have been endemic brands such as Dell’s Alienware, Sennheiser and JB Hi-Fi. But advertisers have become more diverse, with brands such as Dare Iced Coffee, fast-food chain KFC, which would normally be seen adver- tising in traditional sports, and even fashion label H&M entering the space.
For brands looking to integrate into the space, there are plenty of roads to navigate, from integra- tions to sponsorships.
The key with esports and more experienced, or “in-depth” gam- ers, O’Rourke says, is to under- stand that the audience is primar- ily made up of digital-natives who are not used to advertising inter- rupting their entertainment, and know how to bypass it.
Therefore, to successfully work in the space and get the cut- through they desire, brands need to understand what value they can add to the community, rather than treat it like any another advertising channel, such as out- of-home or TV.
“We’re having a lot of conversa- tions, a lot of clients who are really interested to get into the space, but rightly so they’re not looking to just plunge in,” O’Rourke says.
“There are still people who don’t consider esports
a sport but if you look at the way it’s managed and you look at the audience and their behaviour, I don’t know how much more like a sport it could be.”
Ashley O’Rourke, Publicis sport & entertainment director
“Our advice to brands would always be, particularly in gaming and esports, you need to have a long-term view.
“For those brands that come in just as a way to shift products, there is going to be a huge amount of backlash from the gaming and esports community.
“They want to see brands that are there for a long time.”
O’Rourke outlines his three rules for advertisers when navigating the space.
“First, your brand needs to have a really clear reason for being, and a really clear value-add proposition,” he says. “For example, how is that brand being there going to add value to the community, and not just sell products to them or talk about them.”
“Second, don’t logo slap, integrate. Like traditional sponsorship, put- ting a logo on something and expecting cut through is unrealistic.
“Third, have a long-term vision. Brands who show a genuine interest and investment into the esports and gaming space over a period of time will ultimately see a genuine ROI.”
However, for advertisers looking to work with more casual gaming, Traore says brands shouldn’t be so cautious.
“When you run a campaign and you’re McDonald’s, you don’t go out and say ‘we’re going to reach people that love billboards’, nobody does that,” Traore says.
“To talk about a gamer or targeting a gamer is as useful as targeting a reader or a watcher, or a social media user.
“You only use that channel because it’s one strategy you have from a creative standpoint, and that your audience is there. In the same way that everybody watches and everybody reads, everybody games.”
The platform dominating gaming and esports at the moment is Twitch. The platform has on average 1.5 million users tuning in at any given time, with more than four million monthly average streamers and 17.5 million daily average visitors.
Twitch allows both amateur and professional players to stream their games, and can also be used as an exclusive broadcast partner
Melbourne Esports Open 2019