Research Paper on Esports: From Niche to Mainstream in 5 Years

Introduction

Over the past half-decade, electronic sports (esports) has grown from a small niche in the gaming subculture to a vast ever-growing cultural event. According to esports marketing analytics and charts, the esports industry is attracting tens of thousands of new online viewers every month through live streaming sites like YouTube and twitch (Kareinen, Knutas & Kasurinen, 2019). People are flooding sporting arenas such as Key Arena and Maddison Square Garden to watch electronic sports being played live. This trend is not only witnessed in the United States alone but also in China and Europe. The esports sector is increasingly becoming an attractive entertainment option for many individuals as well as gaming companies. A critical factor that has led to the growth and rise of esports in the last half-decade is the involvement of non-endemic advertisers and sponsors. According to a report published on Jan 30, the industry is tipped to become a billion-dollar sector (Mangeloja, 2019). Over sixty percent of the overall revenue in the esports industry is predicted to come from advertising and sponsorships, both endemic and non-endemic.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Video games such as 'Overwatch Attract' and 'League of Legends' attract hundreds of thousands of viewers for regular game broadcasts. It sounds logical that companies who want to advertise their products would show interest in the phenomenon. About two decades ago, neither esports tournaments nor teams were closing to registering profits as players and organizations kept disappearing every minute. At that time, advertisers viewed its waste of resources to pay massive amounts of money to see a group of kids plays video games. Secondly, there existed no effective ways of measuring user interest, attitudes, user engagements or the number of viewers. This made it difficult for advertisers to know whether their sponsorships or campaigns gained any attention from video game enthusiasts. Lack of means to measure these parameters made it a bad gamble, and advertisers were not willing to risk.

The Growth of Esports Advertising

Without any means of attracting active non-endemic sponsors and advertisers, esports was only a small industry in the early years of the 21st century. After almost two decades, names like Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets have become common terms in the esports industry. Non-endemic companies and other investment firms are bringing with them sales teams and talent from established advertising agencies (Lokhman, Karashchuk & Kornilova, 2018). This is because, for the first time in the esports industry, the audience and quantity of viewers are measurable thanks to platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. A few years after some major companies have invested in the industry, others want to join. It has become clear to many entities that there are huge profits associated with esports and its fan base. The esports audience is young and many companies are finding it hard to navigate through and provide what the audience wants.

Late this year, 2k League launched an advertising database called The Esport Ads with over 200 brand activations at its time of release. The advertising database is a perfect avenue for both endemic and non-endemic brands or sponsors to develop lasting relationships with millions of their customers (Lokhman, Karashchuk & Kornilova, 2018). The database is designed to create a connection between investors and brands and advertising activations, which are exceptional and perfectly designed. The Esport Ads is a perfect tool to eliminate fear and build the confidence of the new and growing industry for both brand managers and marketing directors. Esport advertising will become a long term plan for the industry's creativity in the future. The advertising database aims at embracing agencies, esport teams, and advertisers' creativity. It is expected to attract both endemic and non-endemic sponsors, and investors and brands such as McDonald's, DHL, and Coca-Cola have already invested in the industry.

Marketing Objectives

To effectively advertise and boost NBA tickets sales and other products, marketing objectives must be carefully selected. Valid objective selection helps to avoid focusing efforts on the wrong tasks that do not add value to the set goals (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2018). Marketing objectives include the following.

Boost NBA Ticket Sales

To gain more followers and earn bugger revenues, the clubs must increase their ticket sales by 25 percent by the end of 2021. To achieve this, the association must stay vigorous in ensuring that teams remain competitive and that they showcase high-quality displays to fans all over the world. Every sports fan enjoys watching competitive matches, which are hard to predict the outcome. If every club focuses on the quality of players they recruit, the league will remain competitive; ticket sales will rise, and revenue will increase as a result (Lee, Kozlenkova, & Palmatier, 2015).

The key performance indicator for this objective is the volume of ticket sales. If ticket sales increase, the aim will be achieved, and if they remain constant or record slight increases by the end of 2021, the objective will be declared a failure.

Improve Overall Monthly Audience Retention

By the end of 2021, the NBA should record over 50 percent audience retention. The league must ensure that new viewers come back after their first experience. To achieve this, ticket charges must remain at reasonable levels, and the quality of games must remain high. Teams must play entertaining games to make new viewers fall in love with the game. The intensity and good public relations must also be maintained to ensure audience retention.

The key performance indicator to measure audience retention will be evaluated if a new viewer buys other tickets for a different game in a single month. The volume of ticket sales will also measure audience retention.

Increase Season Ticket Sales

By the end of 2021, the volume of season tickets must increase by 15 percent. Season tickets are the primary funders of all sports teams because they account for over 75 percent of all revenues. Improving the sale of the same will ensure that both the league and individual clubs have enough finances to develop talents and fund sporting activities. For season tickets to increase, every team must maintain quality throughout the season. Maintaining quality will allow fans to have increased confidence in their teams to compete all season long. Supporters fear that they might buy season tickets only for their team to lose quality and start losing when the competition is midway. Maintaining quality and competitiveness is the only way to boost the sale of season tickets (Lee, Kozlenkova, & Palmatier, 2015).

The key performance indicator to determine whether the volume of season tickets has increased will be the final size of the same. If the sale of season ticket rises by December 2021, the objective will be accomplished.

Improve Brand Awareness

By the end of 2021, the league must increase its audience by 25 percent. New viewers must be captured if ticket sales have to improve. Improving brand awareness in the NBA means that the game must recruit new fans who do not watch the matches at this particular moment. To achieve this, the competition must come up with fan awards meant to appreciate both regular and new fans. When people learn that they can be awarded for watching games, many will decide to start attending matches. When more people learn about the NBA, sales and profits will rise. Esports is the perfect solution to raising the competition's brand awareness since the sport has a considerable following. If NBA succeeds in enticing all 2k league fans and players, a huge fan base will be created.

The key performance indicator to measure improved brand awareness will be the number of viewers in the stadium. If it increases, the competition will be considered to have reached new markets. If match attendance remains constant, the objective will be declared a failure, and more effective strategies will be adopted to try to entice new fans.

Increase Merchandise Sales

The number of kits sold should rise by 30 percent by the end of 2021. To make this happen, jersey designers must stay vigorous in identifying the current trends which are acceptable to our fans. Every club must ensure that their jerseys are top quality if jersey and other merchandise sales have to rise. Performances must also match the quality of uniforms to boost sales. No fan will be proud to buy a beautiful jersey if the team they support is not performing as expected. Teams in the top rankings must maintain their quality, and those at the bottom must remain competitive throughout the competition.

The key performance indicator to measure merchandise sales will be the overall size of purchases made at the end of 2021. If the number of shirts and other products sold rises, the objective of boosting merchandise sales would be achieved.

Successful Advertising Strategies in Esports

For the NBA to increase their fan base and boost both ticket and merchandise sales, they must employ specific strategies that have recorded the highest success rates. These strategies include:

Understand the Media Channels

Although the esports industry is growing immensely, there is a long way to go, and the success recorded today is just the beginning. The industry is yet to reach the mainstream awareness level required to break into live TV broadcast (Fanjul-Peyro, Gonzalez-Onate & Pena-Hernandez, 2019). NBA must ensure that when the industry reaches its peak, the competition will also be recording a maximum number of sales in tickets and other merchandise. The NBA must ensure that they know their media channels in and out. To understand their channels, the NBA must provide interactions with its fans through the channels used to broadcast the 2k League. Twitch is the primary channel the whole esports industry, especially the 2k League, has contracted to broadcast their live competitions. Twitch provides a wide range of advertising opportunities, such as partnerships with influencers and popular users who have a massive following in the app and advertising buys, which are video-drive. To take advantage of this, the NBA must create a Twitch account that will help them interact one on one with their target audiences and other Twitch users.

Appeal to the True NBA Fans

NBA must focus on appealing their loyal and faithful fan base. They must advertise the correct materials in which their fans show more interest. Esport fans may seem receptive, but they are the most delicate audience to advertise. A single minute can declare a whole advert void, which will be a massive disadvantage to the league. The competition must clearly understand that esports main fans and players are men between age 20 and 35 years. Therefore, whatever is being broadcasted or advertised must make sense to people in this age bracket.

Spot Overlapping Interests

More and more brands are partnering with esports organizations, media properties, and gamers and the interest is still growing. Esport fans seem to prefer endemic sponsors, but that does not rule out non-endemic investors. Several brands like car companies and snack foods have found success in the industry by carefully selecting areas where their products correctly link with gaming ideas. NBA must adopt this strategy, and since the 2k League is solely meant for basketball gamers, the competition holds a competitive advantage over other brands. The majority of products in the competition link correctly with gaming ideas, and this can work in favor of the NBA.

The growing interest in esports by consumers is turning the industry to a perfect opportunity for advertisers to make huge sales. Very spons...