How Disney Is Designing An Esports Programming Pipeline

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Another day, another esports announcement that brings competitive gaming to a mainstream audience—this one by way of ESL and Disney.

The two companies are partnering to air ongoing original programming on D|XP, a new daily summer programming block on Disney XD that’s designed to bring a new esports content pipeline and approach to the US market.

ESL Brawlers and ESL Speedrunners will air on the youth-oriented cable channel’s gaming-focused programming block and showcase games, publishers, events and prominent personalities across the landscape. The deal marks the first time ESL is coming to cable TV and it targets students sitting at home while on summer break.

“Gaming is a lifestyle for our audience,” Marc Buhaj, Disney XD’s senior vice president of programming and general manager, told AListDaily. “This summer, we’re collaborating with leading creative partners in the industry to deliver original programming, access to some of the biggest esports tournaments and leagues, and entry to key gaming-related events. D|XP will showcase diverse storytelling across the video game landscape and celebrate the gaming culture and community.”

“Gaming is a lifestyle for our audience,” Marc Buhaj, Disney XD’s senior vice president of programming and general manager, told AListDaily. “This summer, we’re collaborating with leading creative partners in the industry to deliver original programming, access to some of the biggest esports tournaments and leagues, and entry to key gaming-related events. D|XP will showcase diverse storytelling across the video game landscape and celebrate the gaming culture and community.”

Disney XD, whose niche programming is primarily designed to reach children between the ages of six-to-14, joins the likes of Turner’s ELeague to invest more than just one-off esports episodes.

ESL Brawlers and ESL Speedrunners will each consists of seven, 30-minute shows.

Nik Adams, ESL’s senior vice president of global media rights and distribution, says the purpose of D|XP is to deliver new gaming content that appeals to a wider audience while positioning esports as more than just a foreign category for marketers and TV executives.

“From ESL’s perspective, as esports has gone more mainstream, it makes sense to expand its audience reach to those tuning in on linear TV,” Adams told AListDaily. “Given the demographic, esports has traditionally reached a digitally native audience. However, the industry is continually evolving and this deal represents a great way for traditional media companies to adopt this growing area of entertainment . . . Disney’s D|XP is the perfect platform for us to continue creating original programming, and this time, to specifically engage their audience.”

Disney XD previously has broadcast finals for Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter V. On the flipside, ESL believes that it can engage its already established audience in addition to attracting an entirely new following on a linear platform by partnering with one of the biggest cable networks in the world.

Adams says ESL’s goal is to bring esports to as many screens and audiences as possible with a surplus that already includes 17 shows airing globally and 20,000-plus hours of live content each year through broadcast of events, social media campaigns and live events.

They are pairing to promote their activations, including linear partners like the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL CS:GO Pro League and National Championships, to market the Disney-designed shows.

“Original programming has become an increasingly important part of ESL’s offering,” Adams says. “This new platform allows us to both reach and engage new audiences while tapping even further into a market that we are gradually maturing in. With that, producing content on linear TV provides us the opportunity to create material that prompts new esports fans as our community snowballs.”

Tesla’s Tantalizing Marketing Tactics Keep Its Cars In High Demand

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Production for Tesla’s Model 3 is now underway, but you won’t see it humming down the road in a TV commercial anytime soon. That’s because Tesla has always relied on word-of-mouth and exclusivity to keep its electric vehicles in high demand.

Elon Musk’s brand of environmentally friendly, IoT-enabled vehicles makes headlines and starts conversations just fine on its own—but that doesn’t mean Tesla just sits back on its laurels. The company’s mission to reduce air pollution and reliance on fossil fuels has become a marketing campaign in itself from transportation to solar energy.

“Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable energy future by creating products that are so compelling, there is no alternative,” the company writes on its official site.

While Tesla has often been admired for its “$0 marketing budget,” that’s not entirely true. According to the company’s annual report last year, Tesla spent $48 million on “marketing, promotional and advertising costs” in 2016. (Editor’s Note: AListDaily reached out to Tesla for an interview to discuss their marketing strategy, but the company declined.)

“Historically, we have been able to generate significant media coverage of our company and our vehicles, and we believe we will continue to do so,” Tesla stated in its report to the IRS. “To date, for vehicle sales, media coverage and word of mouth have been the primary drivers of our sales leads and have helped us achieve sales without traditional advertising and at relatively low marketing costs.”

They are also putting the fans to work. Consumers across the globe have been happy to create spec commercials over the years without prompting from Tesla, but this spring, they received extra motivation. At the suggestion of a fifth grader, Tesla held “Project Loveday,” a contest for the best fan-made commercial. Hundreds of entries were received, which the company narrowed down to 10 finalists. The winner, YouTuber Marques Brownlee, was crowned the winner and will be flown, with a guest, to a future Tesla unveiling event.

Tesla taps its most valuable resource—its fans—to convince people to invest upward of $90,000 in a car. While print ads and TV commercials certainly reach their audience, referred customers are 18 percent less likely to churn, according to a study by Extole. These referrals are estimated to be 25 percent more profitable over their lifetime and between four-and-five times more likely to refer additional new customers. And refer, they do. Tesla’s popular referral program earned an impressive 40-times ROI in the fourth quarter of 2015 alone.

While Tesla does, in fact, spend money on its marketing, investing in its employees, standing for what they believe in and rewarding its fans have been much more profitable than traditional ads—and that’s still pretty cool.

As a member of the Presidential Advisory Forum, Musk is not afraid to speak out against social issues such as immigration bans and global warming—and that is a driver of sorts for brand lift and perception. A company’s position (in this case, Tesla or SpaceX through an extension of Musk) on social and political issues is a major driver for 57 percent of the world’s consumers, who will either buy or boycott a brand, according to an Edelman study.