This week in marketing revelations, we salute the year’s most patriotic brands, millennials are confident in their financial futures and US gamers choose their preferred method of payment.
And The Most Influential CMOs Are . . .
Forbes, in partnership with Sprinklr and LinkedIn, released a report of The World’s Most Influential CMOs for 2017.
Keith Weed; Unilever
Antonio Lucio; HP
Phil Schiller; Apple
Linda Boff; GE
Leslie Berland; Twitter
Marc Mathieu; Samsung Electronics America
Musa Tariq; Ford
Jonathan Mildenhall; Airbnb
Raja Rajamannar; Mastercard
Karen Walker; Cisco
“This year’s top 50 CMOs reflect the growing diversity of the marketing world,” the report notes. “A third of the top 50 are women, including three out of the top ten spots, while another three of the top ten are men of color. There’s value in being in the right industry at the right time. Technology, telecommunications and internet companies dominate the list—accounting for 40 percent of the top 50—followed by financial services at 18 percent.”
“As marketing has shifted from being all about the brand to being all about the customer, the role of the CMO has completely changed,” said Ragy Thomas, Sprinklr CEO and Founder. “Leading CMOs must orchestrate more personalized, more holistic experiences for customers. They have to go from being the mouthpiece for the brand to being the eyes and ears.”
Patriotic Brands
As we head, flag held high, into the Fourth of July holiday, Brand Keys has revealed the most patriotic US brands as chosen by consumers. A national sample of 4,860 consumers, 16-to-65 years of age, balanced for political party affiliation, were asked to evaluate which of 280 brands included in the 2017 survey most resonated as patriotic. The results are:
Jeep
Levi Strauss
Disney
Coca-Cola
Ford
Hershey’s/Twitter
Ralph Lauren
Jack Daniel’s
Sam Adams
MSNBC
Social Influence
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s community has reached two billion people on Tuesday. The social media giant holds a strong position within the marketing space with its wide array of advertising options and analytics tools.
Sixty-four percent of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month, according to Animoto. Sixty-seven percent of US marketers run video ads on Facebook, Animoto reports, while more than half (51 percent) do so on YouTube.
Facebook Live accounts for 45 percent of the digital video market share, according to Magid’s “Annual State of Digital Video” report. YouTube Live is a close second in the market share at 44 percent, followed by Instagram (28 percent), Twitter (19 percent), Snapchat (17 percent) and Twitch (12 percent).
More than 80 percent of Gen Z and 74 percent of millennials say social media influences their shopping, according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing. In comparison, 58 percent of Gen X and 41 percent of baby boomers said the same.
I Accept You . . . Now Go Away
According to a new study conducted by Defy Media’s Acumen Research and TMI Strategy, young consumers get annoyed by ads that interrupt their viewing or social media experience—but are receptive to ads or brands that respect their online space.
Of the more than 1,300 participants 13-to-25 years old, 80 percent understand that ads on the internet are a “regular part of life,” and 84 percent say they’re not willing to pay for an ad-free experience all of the time. Despite this sentiment, 66 percent use an ad blocker on at least one device.
Custom content seems to be the way to go, at least according to 17,000 consumers surveyed by Time, Inc. About 90 percent of respondents (including millennials, Gen Z and baby boomers) like the idea of custom content as a way for brands to engage with them, and 89 percent of people believe that type of content is a great way for brands to break through the rest of the clutter online.
Apple ‘Whoa’ And Marketing ‘Woe’
More than two thirds of the iPhones that Apple has sold in the past 10 years are still in use today, according to Newzoo’s Global Smartphone and Tablet Tracker. China is by far the iPhone’s largest market, accounting for almost one-third of all iPhones that were used in April. According to Apple’s financial statements, it had sold 1.08 billion iPhones till March.
Marketing video for mobile isn’t always a walk in the park, according to a study from YouAppi. Forty-four percent of participating marketers and agency pros confessed that developing compelling creative was a hurdle, and 28 percent named a lack of funds in their budget as a contributing factor. Meanwhile, 21 percent said they faced pressure to act too quickly before they had their strategy in order.
Consumers are still on the lookout for the latest and greatest apps, according to AppAnnie, who reports that the app economy will be worth $6.3 trillion by 2021. Total time spent in mobile apps will exceed 3.5 trillion hours in 2021.
Tech Smarts
Smart speakers are changing the way consumers shop and discover products, but may also be putting radio back into American living rooms. According to a study by Edison Reseach presented at the RAIN Podcast Business Summit, 18 percent say smart speakers are the way that they most often listen to audio—just behind AM/FM radio (20 percent) and smartphone/tablet (28 percent).
Wearables aren’t out of style yet—far from it—according to a report by IDC. In fact, the wearables market is expected to nearly double in size by 2021.
Meanwhile, in the world of AR/VR, HTC Vive is the most popular VR platform to develop for, according to the Virtual Reality Developers Conference’s second annual VR/AR Innovation Report. So, what kind of experiences are being developed for this immersive technology? A majority (78 percent) of responses cited gaming and entertainment. Education and training made up 27 percent and 19 percent said they were working on branded experience. (A few respondents cited multiple projects.)
How Gamers Pay Up
Gamers are shying away from pre-paid cards and bank transactions for their purchases, according to findings by SuperData Research. A shrinking population of “unbanked” consumers is also contributing to the shift away from cash-based payment methods, the company explained.
More than half of all global digital gaming transaction value was powered by eWallets and credit and debit cards last year, with PayPal and Visa being the top eWallet and credit/debit card, respectively.
North America has the highest market share of eWallet and credit/debit card payments, SuperData reports. Credit/debit cards and eWallets account for a combined 76.8 percent of North American digital game transactions, compared to a global average of 55.4 percent.
Can’tBuy Me Love
Can money buy happiness? A little over half of US millennials think so, according to new research by Mintel. Fifty-three percent of millennial respondents agree that the more money you have, the happier you are, compared to 38 percent of Americans overall. Half (51 percent) of millennials are confident in their financial future, with only 24 percent considering saving for retirement to be a financial challenge.
The month of June backed one particular notion for Intel—that a brand must be anchored on a product truth. The multinational tech corporation did just that in the verticals of virtual reality and gaming.
Over the course of the calendar month, Intel signed on as a worldwide Olympics sponsor through 2024 and promised to bring technical prowess by infusing its VR, 360-degree, 5G and 3D content development platforms, artificial intelligence platforms and drones to enhance the winter and summer games.
The mission is multifold, yet simple for Intel—they want to “accelerate the adoption of technology for the future of sports on the world’s largest athletic stage.”
On a domestic level, they partnered with MLB to deliver live and on-demand VR experiences to baseball fans, including an “Intel True VR Game of the Week” that will allow fans to personalize VR experiences with camera angles, postgame highlights, on-demand content and statistics for free on the Intel True VR.
As for gaming, they were front and center at E3 in Los Angeles doubling down on their investments in the space to launch the VR Challenger League, an esports gaming series in VR for The Unspoken and Echo Arena. They also expanded their ongoing relationship with ESL for Intel Extreme Masters (IEM).
AListDaily sat down with Frank Soqui, Intel’s general manager of VR and gaming, to learn more about Intel’s strategy in both of the respective spaces.
On Intel’s methodology to gaming and VR . . .
When we think of VR and gaming at Intel, there’s a lot to it—where they align, and where they can be separate. It’s tempting to think about them as separate segments in separate industries. Take the context of gaming. Clearly gaming is a very immersive type of activity. A lot of gamers want to be drawn more into gaming. VR is a great addition on top of that gaming experience already. As a matter of fact, not just on top of existing games, but new games, and I think we’re going to bring players and new users into gaming because of what VR is going to do. Where VR is separate from gaming is that there is a commercial and enterprise-type application, like collaborating around a design. It could be a whole building, or a car’s design, things where I’m actually doing activities that relate more to business-to-consumer applications, like trying to sell travel experiences or even medical research. We’ve done things with Surgical Theater that showcases what’s possible, and what’s really been done to improve a patient’s life.
On forming partnerships that deliver value . . .
What comes to mind is “how do brands work together and collaborate together to deliver experiences?” Fundamentally, a brand must be anchored on a product truth. You can’t just throw your name on top of something and call it VR. I’ve seen plenty of companies go out there do that. I’m not sure what it means anymore. So your brand has to authentically connect to real product truths—you have to be delivering value in the products and services that you sell for you to want to have your brand associated with it. We’re looking to actually add real value to the products and experiences delivered to the end user, whether it’s gamers, entertainment or a valued proposition to a corporate partnership. You have to deliver something that has value and is measurable. We partner to deliver that message and value. Those are the kinds of things we want to associate our brand and our partners with. A lot of what we’re focusing on is delivering an immersive experience with the people who are doing the development and the creation of content. So it’s really important to us that we find good partnerships in this area that we can expose the value of what our platform delivers.
On how VR can reach mainstream adoption . . .
We work very closely with the software and film industries, looking for the right people who’re on the cutting edge of being able to demonstrate much more immersive capabilities. On the performance side of things, it’s becoming crazily immersive—it requires a lot of performance. I think there’s a lot of things we have to think about as we look at everyone’s desire to move from the performance side and actually scaling to mainstream. It’s very tempting to think about price as the first problem. Price is never a problem when you’re delivering value. So the question is “how do we deliver a habit-forming piece of content you would want to experience every day?” It’s hard to find those. A lot of people are coming up with snack-type applications, but it’s not an application that I have to do every day. We’re interested in looking for that “I need to have it” type usage, whether it’s in gaming, entertainment or building and enhancing corporate abilities to collaborate and solve problems.
On how influencers can amplify the message for the gaming and VR industries . . .
What we see happening in gaming today, especially in the context of VR, is that a lot of gamers, professionals and enthusiasts tend to be early adopters. They’re also hypercritical of the early types of technologies. Although you can get them to buy it and try it, they’re very critical about what’s valuable. Gamers and professionals however are seeing something here that’s pretty compelling. What we want to do is translate those compelling usages, because they have to get it first, and want to do it every day. They’re also a very strong voice of authenticity that influence others. They talk about what’s useful and compelling for them and that translates into what’s compelling for communities. So when I see influencers trying out new products and capabilities—whether it’s a new gaming platform, or a high-end CPU with graphics—we don’t actually have to help them talk about it in an authentic way.
On Intel’s approach with influencers and communities . . .
What we need to do is make sure we’re amplifying their voice. What you want to do with online communities, which are a great place for their voice to be heard, is make sure you’re helping amplify what they’re saying—and not get all corporate, or else they’ll get all defensive and ditch your product. That kind of communication goes very well. Gamers love communities. As soon as they lose their trust, that’s the day it doesn’t work anymore. Always knowing that helps make your product better. They can be a great influencer, or point-of-influence. Help them do the things that they already love to do, and they’ll love to speak about what you do all day long.
On the marketing challenges being presented . . .
First of all, the experiences need to be compelling content. It really comes down to that. Yes, price is important and plays a role. We have to make sure we’re building awareness in what the value is. There are things we’re doing in the industry that are bringing some scale to the price points. So you need some scale to drive price points down. We’re investing in headset technologies like RealSense to make that usage more mainstream. We’re introducing more cores with our processor technologies—things that require the core count today are the ones that we’ll be delivering for the mainstream tomorrow.
Since the Philadelphia Sixers acquired Team Dignitas, the esports powerhouse has been forging partnerships with non-endemic brands like Mountain Dew and expanding its relationships with longstanding partners such as Dell. In fact, according to Team Dignitas CEO Jonathan Kemp, Dell has been a sponsor for 10 of Dignitas’ 13 years in existence.
“We’re on a new path and a new trajectory with the Sixers acquisition, so it’s great to have Dell alongside us with this next stage in our journey,” Kemp said. “Dell and the Dignitas brand together makes sense. That Dell brand now has such a wide range of products that have a broad appeal, from the high-end competitive gamers at one end, all the way through to novice gamers at the other end.”
The approach Dignitas is taking with Dell parallels what the esports team is doing with the Sixers. Dignitas expanded its livestreaming outreach beyond Twitch to reach Facebook gamers. “We have so many different new things that we’re bringing to the team and to esports that we are appealing to a really wide demographic of fans, not just the hardcore, and that is reflected by what Dell is doing with their range of computers as well,” Kemp said.
A week before E3, Dell was integrated into a boot camp for Dignitas’ all-women Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team. Sixers players competed against the pro gamers at the Dell Mobile Gaming Station. The pros were also featured in video packages using Dell gaming hardware.
As Dell expands its gaming footprint—something seen in a television campaign featuring new Spider-Man: Homecoming actor Tom Holland—its brand is now featured on the Dignitas jerseys, replacing Alienware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpyTlGIW_H8
The CS:GO team also spent time at the Dell booth during E3 to do media interviews and autograph signings for the fans who attended the show. While the focus in these first four months has been getting its CS:GO team prepared for competition, Kemp acknowledged that these pro gamers open up new opportunities for brands and sponsors. As part of the Philadelphia boot camp, the team talked to Sixers executives about products and brands they use in everyday life.
“The primary focus right now is about getting the best out of the team and enabling them to be as successful as they can be in the tournaments that they attend,” Kemp said. “The commercial opportunities will no doubt follow as we move forward.”
A recent report from PwC researchers found that 22 percent of women are involved with esports, compared to 18 percent of men. The report also found that women watch esports for enjoyment and the social aspect, while men are more interested in the actual competition.
Dignitas’ women’s team played at the Intel Extreme Masters Finals in Katowice, Poland earlier this year as part of Intel’s commitment to women in games.
“We have a women’s team because we want to support women in gaming,” said Kemp. “We think that’s a really important thing. The fact that we are able to give them the same opportunities as all of our other teams gives them a chance to push on and be the best team in the world, and that’s what we’re all aiming for here for every single one of our teams.”
Dignitas has one of the top League of Legends teams in the world today, so Riot Games’ shift next season to a franchise structure is something Kemp believes will help his organization stabilize its business. “It gives us an opportunity to invest in our players, which gives us more certain rosters so we can commit to games for longer periods of time,” Kemp said.”That allows us to build our fan bases and engage more with them. Franchising is hugely empowering not just for us as a team, but for player stability and fan engagement.”
Kemp has no doubt that more publishers will look at Riot as a model to see how they can make their games fit into it. “People will look at franchising and find it interesting, but to come out and say you’re going to develop an esports game is a tough challenge,” Kemp added. “That happens organically. Gamers are looking to play the best game they can. And if fans like to watch them play, there’s the potential for that title to become an esport.”
The Sixers, along with the Miami Heat (owners of Misfits), are in a unique position for 2018 when the NBA and 2K Sports launch NBA 2K ELeague. Kemp said things are still being worked out regarding whether the Sixers brand or the Dignitas brand will be used on the pro gamers’ jerseys. “There’s no fixed decision yet on what the branding piece is going to look like, but we as Dignitas being owned by the Sixers will have a role to play there,” Kemp explained. “We have 13 years’ experience in managing and running esports teams and understanding how that dynamic works. Clearly, that’s a skill set that the Sixers and Dignitas will leverage to make sure that we can be successful.”
Super League Gaming is an interactive operation that taps into fervent esports fan bases by hosting competitions in movie theaters across the Unites States.
Since its formation in 2014, the company has secured more than $28 million in investments. It’s most recent backing came Monday with a $15 million Series C funding from companies like Nickelodeon, DMG Entertainment, Toba Capital and owners of aXiomatic, and Jeffrey Vinik, owner of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning. The initiative is to expand Super League Gaming into the Middle Kingdom, as well as bolster its footprint in US metropolises.
Ann Hand, the chairman and CEO of Super League Gaming, joined AListDaily senior brands editor Manouk Akopyan for our second podcast episode to explain how their grassroots-level esports operation has evolved to produce over 1,500 live events across 12 cities. Below is the transcription of the entire conversation.
Akopyan: Ann Hand of Super League Gaming is here to discuss a more interesting element to esports, which is building competitive gaming events at movie theaters around the country. Ann, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here and taking the time.
Hand: My pleasure. Thank you.
Akopyan: For listeners who are not familiar with Super League Gaming, what’s the elevator pitch that you generally introduce them with?
Hand: Our founders loved the fact that their kids enjoyed video gaming, especially around Minecraft, which at that time was what they were spending a lot of time with. And yet, they were struggling to get their sons excited to go to their soccer game or little league game. And so, the notion kind of sprang that “why don’t we try to create a little league-like structure around games,” and bring kids physically together, with all of the good things you learn from traditional sports like sportsmanship, teamwork and collaboration. What better place to do that than physical movie theaters that are often empty a lot of the days, and equally provide a really good [audio-visual] experience and allow us to project something on the big screen that’s really unique. So, we’ve been at this now for two years. We run over 1,500 live events. We now run events with both Minecraft and League of Legends, and they’re meant to be recreational all the way up to pretty heightened competitive leagues that allow us to find the best amateur players and give them a venue to compete in a tournament-like structure.
Akopyan: With the title of CEO, there comes a multitude of responsibilities. Can you take us through your day-to-day as far as some of overarching strategies that you focus on
Hand: Yeah, absolutely. So, in the early days, a lot of the focus, because we managed to sign up some great movie theater partners right out of the gate and we really wanted to understand the live-event component of the business, we really immersed ourselves in those events. Just understanding and fine-tuning what happens in those experiences in the theater, what’s on the big screen, what’s a compelling league structure that would make people want to sign up again and again and track their progress and vie to be the winning team in North America. And then, there was a big shift about a year ago where we knew that we had the live events piece somewhat under our belt, and then it became about how do we have Super League have a reach beyond just our theater footprint. We have about 100 theaters in North America and north of 40 major metros. But the idea of the company was always to create a social home base for a wide, diverse group of social gamers across different ages, levels of play and different games. And so, that means that we need a Super League offer for everyone. So a pretty significant breakthrough, and where I’m spending more of my time today, is an announcement that we started last November and have continued to supplement over the last few months—the introduction of city club teams. So we now have 12 city clubs established across North America. Those are branded city clubs that create a unifying banner for all amateur gamers to affiliate with. For example, in LA, it’s the LA Shockwaves. What I’m spending more time thinking about now is live events; [it’s] one piece of an offer that we bring to those social gamers. What are the other things we can do to make the experience of being a member of the LA Shockwaves go beyond just what happens in the physical theaters? What we love about it is those city clubs start to allow us to have people really identify and feel that they’re representing or rooting for their hometown in a way that we think esports is lacking today. So, that community and local connection is a pretty big idea.
Akopyan: Putting myself into the seat of the fans, if I’m a fan of Minecraft or League of Legends, how can I get involved? How can I learn more about it? Can you take us through the process of how you’re reaching out to the consumers? What is your marketing strategy to get people excited about taking a part in this new, live program?
Hand: In the early days, a lot of it was very grassroots and local. It was our theater partners doing a good job of putting up posters, running trailers and really kind of promoting it in local theaters. We did some school outreach with the Minecraft product. You know, did some geo-targeted placement on Facebook and on other relevant social channels, really trying to get the word out because the marketing challenge in the early days is tough—it’s a completely new category of gaming. It’s play-space gaming, so almost we’re more akin to a modern-day version of the arcade because everyone coming in our theaters are coming in with their devices, and they’re all playing together and seeing their gameplay in a unique perspective on the big screen. So, you’re trying to educate an audience that it’s not coming to watch someone else play in the theater, it’s actually you coming to play yourself and be a member of that team. We’ve been fortunate now that the game publishers that we work with have now offered to do more of that communication to their own community directly. So, the marketing challenge has . . . I don’t ever want to say it’s easy when you’re launching something very new in a new space. But certainly with the game publishers like Riot Games behind us saying “hey community, this is something that you’ve been asking for, and we think this is a neat way for you to experience something that only enhances your love of the League of Legends product.”
Akopyan: Super League Gaming is all about community, which is a very big component to esports as well and how it got here in the first place. The community is what brought it here. A lot of brands are trying to reach out to these communities and trying to garner their attention and their dollars as well at the same time. What is your advice to the partners that you work with? What are those conversations like when you’re talking about reaching out to these consumers?
Hand: In the early days, it’d be very easy to get excited about the brand integration opportunity from a dollars and cents point of view. I give credit to our partner Riot Games for really forcing us to continue to think about making sure we’re giving fantastic experiences to the players firs, and that all good things will fall from that. So I’d say, what I think now about the role of other brands with Super League, it’s much more thoughtful. We’re creating these unique city teams, and I think that there’s an opportunity over time for local brands to get behind these gamming communities and really just be another stakeholder, just like the players themselves, that’s trying to create the rich fabric of “what does it mean to be a gamer in LA?” So, where my head is at right now is the notion of trying to first identify what is the LA-gamer lifestyle about, and how is that different from the Chicago-gamer lifestyle. That will tell us what are the right partners that really should come to play in that space whether with Super League holistically, or maybe by geography. We’ve definitely been, as an early-stage company, stepping in very cautiously because we do want to first understand our customers really well.
Akopyan: You already have partnerships with Riot Games, like you mentioned. With you being a player in the space as well, how are you leveraging relationships to continue building the Super League brand? How can esports start-ups identify key players in the space and tag-team along for the ride?
Hand: In a way, I think we do look at it a little differently. We looked for games and game partners that were hugely relevant, that are fantastic games, top-tier games and also games that actually would work very well in a tournament-like system. They function and design well in that space. We were very fortunate that our office is just a few blocks away from Riot Games. We were able to very quickly build a lot of trust, prove the fact that we’d be very thoughtful with their community and with the fact that they’re giving us this beautiful brand that they’ve created. So, I would say, in a way right now, we’ve been given a bit of a gift and we don’t look at it so much yet as trying to leverage things off of it. We just take it quite seriously that they’ve given us an opportunity to construct leagues for their recreational and amateur players. So I guess my advice to people would be to really go . . . game publishers do something very wonderful. They hold their community very dear and close, and they have a lot of the answers. If you listen to them, I think they’ll guide you down a direction that’s really true to what their community needs.
Akopyan: So it’s safe to say to always be the 1B, and not try to be the 1A?
Hand: Yeah.
Akopyan: There are a lot of conversations today about the difference between esports and competitive gaming, and how those are two different audiences. I’m curious as to what you think about some of the opportunities competitive gaming presents, and how esports can fit into that as well?
Hand: It’s such an early space that we’re all trying to sort out the nomenclature. For us we do believe that we offer recreational competitive gaming. We are clearly not trying to go after the kind of 0.001 percent of esports elite and what is traditionally labeled as esports and the professionals, just because we think there’s such an underserved large market of the amateurs underneath of it. And we like the fact that we’re offering something that’s highly complementary to what the publishers already have established. So instead of fighting what is out there, feed a separate need that tethers nicely to those things.
Akopyan: You recently were speaking at the alist summit, as you were a featured speaker there. When you’re in front of a room of marketers, a room full of industry executives who are not necessarily in the gaming space but are looking at entry points into esports, the non-endemic brands as we like to call them—what do you tell them?
Hand: I’ve sat in previous roles on their side. So one thing I say often is “we’re all learning as we go in this space, and the numbers don’t lie.” I think it’s important that these people looking at the space take time to really get their heads wrapped around the numbers and to trust that, even if this is something that you can’t personally relate to, it’s something that’s a very real space. Another way to validate that is to just look at the number of other very credible brands and partners that are jumping into the space as validation. What I would encourage people to do is, just like I would say for all good brand marketing decisions, be willing to [invest] a bit of money to really try talking to new audiences and to make your brand a little bit more relevant to millennials. Trust the process that the numbers are proving this is a very important way for you to have a conversation with millennials and be willing to do a little trial and error. If you look at [esports] it’s almost like a tsunami, and sometimes if there’s a tsunami coming after you and you’re trying to apply traditional CPM metrics, you kind of won’t see the forest through the trees. I do take heed in the fact that the number of avid gamers is real and meaningful and that brands need to find a very different way to talk to them.
Akopyan: Everyone likes to also use the metaphor that we’re in the wild west of esports. And of course, during the wild west there was a gold rush. Do you think sometimes there are opportunities that are fool’s gold? Are all the numbers out there kind of fooling companies to jump in [esports] when they really shouldn’t?
Hand: It’s a great question because the numbers are huge, but I think if you then compare it to the amount of dollars coming in as far as revenue being generated from professional esports or branded-integration dollars, you’ll still see it’s a fraction versus the market size. That balance hasn’t swung the wrong way, where there’s over investment relative to the number of gamers out there and the potential revenue streams. I would say it hasn’t gone the wrong way. It’s actually a very smart time to jump in and really get smart now with a little trial and error because it’s going to quickly get defined here in the next three years. There will be some people who got in early and got smarter faster, and I think they will have the bigger benefits on the back end.
Akopyan: So if anyone is listening right now and is unsure as to which door to enter in, what would you say is the right entry path as a sponsor, a marketer, or even as an investor?
Hand: Look, I’m biased. I think we’re going after a very beautiful, large and serviceable market that gives a very real, local, intimate conversation with everyday gamers. There’s not a lot of ways to talk to everyday gamers today outside of the games themselves, and so we think that’s a really differentiated position. So certainly when we’re talking to potential investors or brand partners, we amplify what we think makes us unique and special. It’s probably more important than trying to spend time jumping too fast against professional and amateur—it’s good for a brand to do some reflection on themselves. What are they really trying to achieve? And especially for the non-endemics—this isn’t a NASCAR race, and I don’t mean that disrespectfully to NASCAR, but it’s a very different audience that you just can’t put a logo on something for the sake of it. So be true to your brand enough that you know what places in the esports ecosystem actually genuinely make sense for you to be a part of. It’s a segment that your brand talks to but equally is a segment inside esports, and also being okay with the fact that there’s certain segments you may choise not to talk to because it’s just not authentic to your brand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgxxCcjPyFs
Akopyan: What are some of the brands Super League has worked with?
Hand: Well we’ve worked with a lot of great brands. In the early days, we started out with our product that was geared more toward kids ages six-to-14-years-old. We had a lot of parents coming to our events. So, certain kind of brands like Logitech, who already are endemics but actually very generously gave us a lot of prizes so that we could create a lot more excitement to the experience. But in truth, we have had a lot of brand conversations and very few activations because we have made a decision strategically as a company that we want to walk before we run in that space.
Akopyan: With you being at the helm of the company, I’m sure not everything is smooth sailing on a daily basis. What are lessons you’ve learned along the way that have impacted your strategy and eventually made you better?
Hand: When you’re an early-stage company, there’s so much trial and error. Every day is trial and error, and you’re pivoting your strategy almost weekly, which can kind of make you feel bad about yourself, but equally, you realize that’s what comes with defining a new category of gaming. Early on, we had a lot of influencers out there trying to promote our product. Wonderful people, but we didn’t have enough of a product developed to know how to get the messaging right and even “who are the right influencers based on our targets?” So those were kind of some early marketing lessons that we learned. We didn’t have a defined enough brand and marketing strategy to know how to use that channel of influencers as well as we could have. But it’s just part of our learning curve. Certainly too, we now are much more selective about what events we run, which theaters are right for the gaming audience we’re trying to attract based on the game that we have. We just know a lot more demographically about those locations and how to really bundle the right programming based on the demographics of those different cities that we’re in. So just a lot smarter on the theater footprint, the types of programs we run and also the different marketing channels we use to drive great attendance and great satisfaction.
Akopyan: Before we close, one of the big driving notions of esports is the daily diet of surveys, studies and reports that hit our mailboxes and predict nice, flowery depictions of money, audiences and social engagement. I’m very curious about both sides to the coin. What are some things you’re truly concerned about in the esports industry and competitive gaming? And frankly, what are you most excited about?
Hand: It’s shifted over the last couple of year for me. In the early days I was concerned about the negative attributes people attach to gaming, and that starting to amplify over time. So much of why we exist is we want to bring even better attributes to it. We know it helps people with their computer literacy and other aspects of how it’s leading into a lot of jobs that don’t even exist yet. But what Super League is doing is bringing all of those great attributes that come when you put people together physically to play. I was concerned that the negative would outweigh our opportunity to prove that we could make video gaming even more permissible and more positive. Thankfully, because I think the esports explosion is so large and vast, I feel I spend less time worrying about that today. If anything, it’s just helping people realize this isn’t a fad. As we earlier, the numbers are material, and some very smart people out there have some bold predictions about how esports will eclipse traditional sports. I’m seeing a tipping point where more people are seeing the positives of gaming itself, and the positive direction the size of this market can go.
Akopyan: We look forward to seeing Super League Gaming at the epicenter of the entire industry and again, I’ll let you remind the listeners how they can get involved in Super League, and some of the cities that you’re located in as well as we close.
Hand: Absolutely. We currently run events in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Dallas. And, more importantly, we’ve just launched events in Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Boston and New York. We’re really encouraging people to do join those teams because those city clubs are a way for all social gamers to unite. So, right now we’re running Minecraft and League of Legends leagues, but we encourage you to join those teams as a fan and follow through SuperLeague.com and our different social channels. What we’ll be doing over time is finding more and more ways for those local city teams to really connect in a meaningful way that goes beyond the physical theater events. I often say a 28-year old League of Legends player walks down a street. He passes a 10-year-old Minecraft-playing kid and they can’t identify with each other—that they have one thing very much in common, which is their love of gaming. With both being members of the LA Shockwaves, it’s a way for those two very different audiences to find that they do have a real connection with each other. And really, at the end of the day, we are trying to create local, social gaming communities.
Akopyan: There you have it ladies and gentlemen. Ann Hand, CEO of Super League Gaming, thank you very much for your time. Looking forward to continuing the conversation again down the road.
Ever since the first television set, the movie theater industry has had to compete with in-home entertainment. Despite digital distractions, domestic theatrical revenue reached $11.37 billion in 2016—a two percent increase over the previous year. Although the industry is adopting to the latest technology, serving alcohol and even encouraging phone use to keep young consumers in their theater seats year after year, they’re still struggling for growth.
Audiences between the ages of 18-and-24 attended an average of 6.5 movies over the course of 2016—more than any other age group, according to the Motion Picture Association. In addition, 79 percent of all frequent moviegoers own at least four different types of key technology products (smartphones, tablets, etc.) compared to 60 percent of the total adult population.
Young consumers keep coming back, but Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical distribution, Dave Hollis isn’t satisfied with the lack of growth.
“Even though we’ve had these gains in overall box office, we can also see that attendance has been more or less flat,” Hollis said during a state of the union presentation at CinemaCon in April. He stressed that while ticket prices have largely masked the problem, attendance simply isn’t growing—most likely due to increased internet usage and home entertainment. “This is disruption personified,” he said.
It’s not just gourmet food that keeps young audiences going to the movies. In an age where films can be binge watched anywhere and home releases are happening in shorter time frames, theaters entice moviegoers with the latest technology they can’t find in their living rooms.
There are 72 Dolby Cinema theaters in the United States with partner AMC, complete with laser projection and an advanced 360-degree ring of speakers wrapped around the audience. IMAX has opened a number of VR Experiences across theaters in the US, as well. The attractions offer movie tie-in experiences and video games for audiences headed to the movies.
“In the same way an IMAX movie gets you off your couch and into a multiplex, an IMAX VR Centre needs to be different and better, with premium content that’s highly interactive,” Rob Lister, chief business development officer at IMAX, told AListDaily.
Kids these days may not know who Sid Grauman was, but that doesn’t stop the historic TCL Hollywood Chinese Theater from attracting thousands of tourists each day. Among the hand and foot prints of Marilyn Monroe and the Marx Brothers, you’ll find celebrations of more current hits such as Harry Potter and Twilight. The historic location that hosted so many Hollywood premieres in its golden days now offers an IMAX 3D Laser theater, behind-the-scenes videos on social media and special offers for those to venture inside for a show.
The Chinese Theater also recently partnered with MediaMation MX4D for a “theater-to-arena” esports announcement geared to fully take advantage of the “dark weekdays” of movie theaters. The potentially game-changing model was on full display at E3 earlier this month. Sponsors like Soylent have already formed sponsorships with hopes of leveraging a new audience.
Meeting young consumers on their digital home turf certainly helps sustain ticket sales. Fandango allows social media users to purchase movie tickets through Apple’s iPhone messaging app and partnered with Facebook last year to do the same.
“I think these offerings we are unveiling are an important shift, not just for Fandango, but for Hollywood as a whole,” Paul Yanover, president of Fandango, told The New York Times.
These days, tickets are purchased online, phones are scanned at the theater and hashtags appear on-screen before the previews. Movie theaters post frequently on social media, offer giveaways and serve movie-themed cocktails at the concession stand.
“We’re competing with your home,” Hamid Hashemi, CEO of Florida-based iPic Entertainment, a theater chain that offers cocktails and gourmet food, told the LA Times. “It’s really simple. If there’s a way to watch a movie and improve the experience, why not do it?”
Some day, we may be able to step inside a film itself, Star Trek Holodeck style. In the meantime, theaters will continue to evolve with changing technology and consumer preferences to pursue that ever-elusive growth in ticket sales.
HTC Vive is one of the three major players in the virtual reality marketplace, joining the Facebook-owned Oculus and Sony PlayStation VR as key companies trying to shape the visceral vertical by pouring millions in moolah into funding content creation for a growing consumer base.
The Taiwanese consumer electronics company took another step forward with hopes of growing the VR/AR ecosystem by welcoming 33 new startups to its accelerator program.
According to research firm SuperData, the VR industry will grow to $4.9 billion in 2016. Creating immersive experiences that will garner widespread consumer attraction is primarily the name of the game.
HTC Vive, which differentiates its product with room-scale VR, marked their first anniversary in the marketplace in April by celebrating the launch of the first-ever subscription model for a VR app store.
Developers are celebrating them, too. According to a VR/AR Innovation Report compiled from responses from 600 professionals last week, the HTC Vive is the most popular (56 percent) VR platform to develop for.
Rikard Steiber, president of Viveport at HTC Vive, joined AListDaily to offer some updates on the current state of the industry.
Rikard Steiber, president of HTC Viveport and SVP of VR
On HTC Vive joining forces with Warner Bros. and Steven Spielberg for Ready Player Oneto create content experiences . . .
VR is very exciting, but it’s also very hard to explain to people around the world. That’s why we’re so excited about our partnership with Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. around the new movie Ready Player One. There are movies that are the defining films for robots, and artificial intelligence, for example. We believe the VR experiences for Ready Player One could be the defining movie that explains VR to everyone. We’re partnering with them to create various kind of content experiences, to make it come alive all the way until the movie’s theatrical release in March 2018. . . . We’re most proud of the content creators and developers. We have over 1,600 [experiences] being developed just this year, and this will be the year we have the triple-A titles. I think Hollywood is really stepping up the game. Most of the big movies and IPs are creating VR experiences today. Ready Player One is going to have more native VR experiences from Hollywood. This is just the beginning of things to come. We’ll see what kind of experiences we’ll create after that.
On launching a $10 million program showing how VR can lead to positive impact and sustainability . . .
With this great technology, you can now democratize access to the experience. So places where only a few could go before, everyone can go now. I think that space is kind of the final frontier, and everyone’s really excited about space. We have one initiative with VR For Impact where we’re using this technology to try and save the planets. We’re working together with the United Nations on their 17 sustainability goals. We recently announced that we’re having our first content project. They’re going to send the world’s first VR camera satellite into space so that we can all join them to see our fragile planet. Hopefully, we’ll take actions to take good care of it.
On the impact VR has on marketing and advertising . . .
VR will have a huge impact on advertising and marketing because it’s the most immersive and experiential media. Brands always want to create experiences. Now consumers can go into VR and really experience the brand and the product in a completely new way. There’s a good opportunity because developers and creators need funding for their projects. It’s a great way for brands to engage, and not to have advertising in your face, but to actually be a part of a creative experience for the consumer. Consumers want to have great experiences from great brands. We’re starting to see brands like Nissan and BMW engage with great IP to basically fund these experiences. When it comes to VR technology, premium content costs a lot of money to create. There will be good opportunities for brands and advertisers to engage, like they did in television in the early days.
On the marketing challenges of VR . . .
VR clearly has a marketing problem because it’s a very experiential medium. It’s like The Matrix with Neo and Morpheus—you have to take the pill and run down the rabbit hole to experience the matrix. You cannot explain the Matrix. That’s why it’s so important for us to make VR accessible to everyone in places like retail stores and VRcades so that anyone can try it and understand its potential. For us to market VR and work with the industry, our strategy is essentially to let others speak for us, let the developers show their content, let them show their experiences. When we’re at shows, we want to show off the developers. We want to show all the awesome stuff they’re doing. We want to show how you can create things in VR, how you can basically be social in VR or how you can build your business in VR.
On the current consumer adoption rate of VR . . .
It’s mainly gaming and entertainment consumers who are the early adopters. But we’re seeing a lot of interest from schools and education sectors, from creatives to designing arts. I think that consumers are very curious. I think that most people now have heard about VR, but clearly everyone hasn’t tried it. They may have tried some simple 360-degree videos. But I do believe with all of the experiences in VRcades, retail and shopping malls, most people will have tried it by the end of this year. Hopefully then they’ll think it was such a great experience that they’ll get one for their house. In the not too distant future, VR will be like the internet. It will just be there. It’ll be like a utility; we won’t even think about it. It will be natural to go somewhere or learn something in VR. When we build our car, we won’t do it on a web page. We’ll do it in VR—it will be very natural. It will take a little bit of time for people to get used to the idea and to build these experiences. But the interesting thing with VR is it is not about the future—it’s here today.
Many of the 15,000 consumers that packed E3 last week spent hours standing in line to play Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey. The game was a unanimous best of show winner across a variety of mainstream and gaming sites. Additionally, it’s just one in a strong line-up of Nintendo Switch titles that has propelled the console on a successful trajectory of over 1.2 million units sold in the US and over one million sold in Japan. In fact, Nintendo is having trouble keeping up with demand for the system and has recently increased its manufacturing output to try to keep up.
AListDaily sat down with Doug Bowser, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, to discuss the Japanese company’s turnaround since launching the Switch.
Doug Bowser, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America
What are your thoughts about the role of E3, now that the public is attending?
Nintendo fully supports E3 and the ESA and we have a strong presence here. E3 is still, in our opinion, the number one video game show in the world because it’s the first time everyone in the industry gets to premier all their content as we look to 2017 and beyond. E3 is constantly evolving with the choices that EA has made, and the choice we made this year to bring 15,000 consumers in. We’re learning from it, but it is an extremely important milestone within the video game calendar year.
Nintendo has been leading the way by directly addressing to its consumers via Nintendo Direct and Nintendo Spotlight livestreams. How has that opened things up from a marketing perspective?
One thing that has changed with our presence at E3 is we don’t do a big stage show anymore. We stopped doing that five years ago. We’ve used Spotlight videos, which is as affective a way to communicate to the masses. And then we focus our energy on the floor and let people come engage in the content and create an open environment with as many kiosks as possible for people to engage in. We also ran Treehouse for most of the day, which is a great direct streaming opportunity to everyone that’s not here on the floor. It provides a chance to get much deeper into the content.
What role does esports or competitive gaming play for Nintendo?
In our mind, the definition of esports is pretty broad. It can go from one end of the spectrum—which I would call underwriting sponsorships, team support, etc.—to the other end of the spectrum, which is just fun, competitive multiplayer gaming. I would say we’re really trying to promote fun, competitive multiplayer gaming. We’ve obviously had a few tournaments at E3 with ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Pokkén Tournament DX going on. And we’ve been involved in esports competitions in the past with Smash Bros. at E3 and Comic-Con. Two years ago, we had the Nintendo World Championships at E3. But that’s not to indicate that we’re planning to get into esports as many people are defining it. It’s just that we want to be able to promote some great games that we think have an ability to be fun and competitive and that you can play on the couch with your friends and family—and/or they could be introduced to other esports venues potentially down the road.
Do you think E3 has offered a way to test the waters for new esports titles?
Exactly, ARMS is brand new and that tournament was a great way to show its depth because, quite honestly, it is a very deep game with a lot of strategy involved with the way you can structure your fighter.
How does esports impact Nintendo developers as they create new titles like ARMS or Splatoon 2?
I don’t know that we designed the games with an esports end-game in mind. It’s more that we know that players like these type of fun, competitive games, and we’re looking for different ways to design games that meet that need or desire, so you see that. To your point, in Splatoon, it’s a very different way to have a combat turf war. ARMS introduces more of a fighting mechanic, but it’s fun, it’s competitive. Then Pokkén Tournament DX has an orientation more like a Smash Bros. in terms of its gameplay style. So, it’s more that we want to create a variety of different competitive games.
Last year, some people were counting Nintendo out after the Wii U, but the Switch is clearly an early hit. What went right this time?
Well, we’re pleased with the results so far. There clearly is a demand for the product and we think it’s a combination of factors. First of all, it’s the uniqueness of the platform itself in that it’s a home console that you can pull out and take on the go and play in a variety of different styles. Then there’s the ability to play in different modes with different controllers and with different numbers of players. When you get to the portable nature of it with Tabletop Mode, you can stack a number of Switches around the table so everyone can compete against each other with different perspectives either on one device, or each on their own respective devices. That unique playing proposition is what’s been driving the demand to this point, and then it’s about great content. It started with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was attaching pretty much one-to-one to every unit sold, and then it continues on with the titles we’ve launched since then like Mario Kart 8. So, it’s that combination of unique hardware proposition with some great games that people are looking forward to playing
EA has a separate team working on a special FIFA soccer game for Switch. How is the early success of Switch getting third party publishers interested?
Back in February, we announced we had 70 developers or publishers building 100 games. Since that time, each of those numbers has more than doubled, and it runs the gamut from indies all the way to major publishers. At the E3 press conferences, with the exception of Sony, everyone mentioned Nintendo Switch. Even our friends at Microsoft talked about some of the cross-play opportunities. That’s an indication of support, and we thank them and we look forward to it.
What’s the marketing messaging for Nintendo now?
Well, it’s about a couple of things. It’s definitely Super Mario Odyssey, which was the main focus of the floor and will be a large game for us coming out on October 27. But our booth had Splatoon 2, ARMS, Pokkén Tournament DX, Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. We had FIFA set up to show folks the different game styles for in-home or an on the go. We had a nice variety of titles we wanted to show because it’s not just about Super Mario Odyssey. But that will be a large one. We want to communicate to folks that we’ve got this steady cadence of titles, both first party and third party, coming throughout the rest of the year and beyond.
Despite some efforts from developers, Apple isn’t exactly known for being a game platform—at least not on desktop or AppleTV. But on mobile devices, the world’s most valuable portfolio is embracing its active (and high spending) audience of gamers with a new App Store design, subscription services and an expansion into AR/VR.
Playing To The Crowd
Gaming is the most popular category on the App Store, according to the company, and with the latest update, Apple makes it easier to find something to play. With a dedicated home just for games, the new App Store layout features recommendations for new releases and updates, videos, top game charts and “hand-picked” collections.
Apple has good reason to keep mobile gamers happy—iOS users spend twice as much on mobile games than on Android, according to a study by AppsFlyer. The average purchase of gaming apps is at $12.77 for iOS versus $6.19 for Android. Mobile gaming is the largest sector in interactive entertainment and consumers spent a whopping $41 billion on mobile games last year.
“Apple is currently the clear leader in mobile gaming with a forecasted total earnings of $28 billion in 2017E,” Superdata CEO Joost Van Dreunen told AlistDaily. “However, over the years, Android has been catching up and is expected to total $20 billion this year. Given this circumstance, it is clear that Apple has to start clearly differentiating itself.”
Sign Me Up
Rolled out last fall, Apple is encouraging developers to adopt its new subscription model by offering them 85 percent of the revenue for all users who stay subscribed for longer than a year.
“[IOS] subscriptions benefit developers from a revenue standpoint given a higher revenue share with the app stores, potential promotion of customer loyalty and revenue predictability,” Terence Fung, Storm8 chief strategy officer told AlistDaily. “For 2017, I expect developers to launch games with fresh game mechanics and/or episodic content that’s highly valued by consumers and are much better tailored for subscriptions. By the end of 2017, there will be a new top 50 grossing game that garners more than 50 percent of its revenue from subscriptions.”
Gaming Into The Future
AR/VR has become a major focus for Apple, as demonstrated during the company’s 2017 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC 17). Powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) technology, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) showcased its HTC Vive real-time cinematic demo which ran on Macs for the first time. Director Peter Jackson’s company, Wingnut AR, also took the stage to give a preview of what AR gaming could look like using an iPad Pro and a tabletop.
On stage at WWDC, Nick Whiting, technical director of VR and AR at Epic Games, said that Niantic helped pave the way for Apple’s move into AR with Pokémon GO.
“Pokémon GO brought the whole idea into the mainstream, so you don’t have to convince people to buy a device,” Whiting said. “The barrier to entry is zero. A social experience can only work when a critical mass of people you know in real life have a frictionless entry point, and that’s the case with iPhone and not the case with any other platform in the world.”
Apple caught the attention of developers and gamers alike by partnering with Nintendo last year for both mobile devices and the Apple Watch.
“Already we saw a timed platform exclusive release with Super Mario Run last year, which had the markings of a test to see how much Apple should invest in original content,” Van Dreunen continued. “So far, Apple TV hasn’t done much as a gaming console, and despite a growing inventory of games on its App Store, its laptops and iMacs are by no means considered ‘gaming computers.’ It is likely that Apple will regard augmented reality as the next frontier where it can set itself up for a first-mover advantage. Since WWDC 17, the company has been on a road tour to recruit content creators, which suggests that we might have a few interesting years ahead of us.”
“Business models, marketing mechanics, and organizational structures required to run apps/games as a service have been pioneered through Apple’s mobile devices,” Newzoo CEO Peter Warman told AlistDaily. “During this process, hardware revenues have always been the main focus of Apple. Now that unit sales are dropping due to a longer lifetime of smartphones and tablets, Apple will need to revisit who they are and what else they can offer to consumers.
“Naturally this includes more peripherals, for example, voice control devices and VR headsets, but will it play a more significant role in (interactive) content? With gaming fast becoming the world’s favorite pastime, it’s only natural to put “game enthusiasts” at a central position in any interactive media strategy that Apple develops. Apple can play a more active role in providing consumers with the tools to create communities, content, and their own business.”
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into esports and competitive gaming from large game publishers and big brands, the global landscape is very much still the wild west on the business side of things.
After spending time as a co-owner of Team EnVyUs, Amish Shah, founding partner of venture capitalist firm SierraMaya360m, knows this first-hand.
“Here you have all these sponsors writing six-or-seven figure checks and no one has it figured out on the business side,” Shah told AListDaily. “We found the esports market is devoid of senior management-type people who bring best practices to the marketplace, and we’re uniquely suited to do that with our management team.”
That was the inspiration for ReKTGlobal, Inc., a startup that launched last September and has raised $2 million to date, mostly through sports and entertainment investors. The company is focused on a number of business opportunities, including connecting esports teams with traditional sports teams and venues across multiple sports through ReKTVenues.
“The big vision is that every city is going to have an esports venue—that’s happening now, and that every professional sports team has an esports strategy,” Shah said.
ReKTGlobal co-founder and CEO David Bialek, who spent 25 years in traditional sports marketing, said the company is already working with professional teams and entertainment spaces across the country.
“We’re taking the unused days in these venues and transforming them into esports experiences, or more broadly, gaming experiences or viewing parties,” Bialek said. “This will allow traditional sports teams and venues to tap into the elusive millennial male. There’s a symbiotic relationship with this initiative.”
Bialek noted that the NBA, NFL and FIFA have been proactive with numerous pro sports teams’ owners already investing in esports teams, but no one has cracked the code on how to have a model that works for the venues.
“ReKTGlobal’s venue model offers a customizable approach to finding offerings and solutions for both pro sports and non-sports venues,” Bialek added.
Shah said traditional sports owners realize they’re losing millennial fans to esports. Plus, there are hundreds of nights that sports venues go dark. By connecting esports with traditional sports venues, teams can develop relationships with millennials through competitive gaming.
Another area the company is focusing on is ReKTLive, which Bialek said will focus on live festivals and events.
“We’ll be announcing a joint venture with a preeminent experiential festival operator in the US, where we’re creating a gaming and VR experience that we can drop into existing festivals to attract millennials and entice existing customers to stay longer, and eat and drink more,” Bialek said. “We’re also going to be creating stand-alone gaming festivals that will quickly be pervasive throughout the country.”
ReKTGlobal is also targeting university and jobs verticals by focusing on esports devotees and those interested in either working in the space, or getting scholarships within the collegiate market.
Rounding out the executive team is Kevin Knocke, vice president of esports, who brings experience from working in the games industry at companies like IGN, Blizzard Entertainment and Ubisoft. Knocke said his knowledge of the esports business will help traditional sports and entertainment companies better understand how to connect with fans.
“ReKTGlobal was the first company I saw to take a profitable, long-term-minded approach to the esports industry, and the first to truly understand what it takes from a professional sports perspective to leverage high value brands and locations,” Knocke said.
Shah said new deals will be announced in the coming months, but ReKTGlobal is already working with teams, tournament providers and Twitch-like, esports-centric platforms of the world.
“We have creative things going on with esports teams and pro teams,” Shah said. “These new ventures are designed to help bridge the gap between the multi-billion-dollar business of traditional sports and the burgeoning business of esports and competitive gaming.”
For this week in marketing research and reports, vertical video isn’t quite all the rage, and marketers weigh in on what technology is part of the major game plan.
Believing Or Boycotting: Brands Beware
What makes customers happy? Not a lot of brands, apparently. According to Forrester’s Global Customer Experience Trends report, only 18 percent of US brands were ranked “good” or “excellent,” and a majority of brands (nearly 60 percent) were rated as just “OK.”
One issue millennials have with brands is their failure to listen. A study by the Fashion Institute of Technology found that 47 percent expressed a desire for brands to take ownership of their mistakes and take the consumer’s feedback into account.
A brand’s position on social and political issues is another driver for 57 percent of the world’s consumers, who will either buy or boycott a brand according to Edelman’s 2017 Earned Brand Study. The survey of 14,000 people in 14 countries found that 50 percent of consumers consider themselves to be belief-driven buyers. The top issues brands are expected to speak out about, according to respondents, are immigration, gender equality and environmental regulation. Out of those surveyed, 67 percent said they bought a brand for the first time because they agreed with its position on a controversial topic. Illustrating the polarizing results of a brand taking a stand or not, 65 percent said they will not buy a brand’s products when it stays silent on an issue they consider important.
Beware of taking a social or political stand just for the sake of it, however—23 percent of consumers indicate what they dislike most about brand marketing is false, misleading or phony advertising, according to research from the CMO Council and Dow Jones. The report was based on data from a survey of more than 2,000 consumers in North America and the United Kingdom. “Stupid” TV/video commercials and false promises tied for second on the list of most bothering traits, at 11 percent each.
Vertical And Virtual
In the first quarter of 2017, MediaRadar found that only 112 (out of over 100,000) mainstream websites and mobile sites contained vertical video ads. Thereport also found that around 70 percent of vertical video ads are 15-second spots.
Dedicated AR and VR headsets collectively are expected to grow strong for five-year CAGR of 57.7 percent, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The company’s Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker predicts that shipments of AR and VR headsets will grow from just under 10 million units in 2016 to just shy of 100 million units in 2021.
An accessible alternative to VR is 360-degree video, and Google used heat map technology to study immersion within the medium. Google found that viewers spent 75 percent of their time within the front 90 degrees of a video. For many of the most popular VR videos, Google noted, people viewed more of the full 360-degree space with almost 20 percent of views actually being behind them.
AI And AR
Thirty percent of marketers worldwide plan to prioritize AI in the next 12 months, according to a poll by NewBase (formerly Publicitas International). AR is also high on the list at 24 percent, compared to just 18 percent in 2016. The poll asked 1,019 marketers worldwide to pick the top five types of technologies they plan to prioritize over the coming year.
Social Drinkers
In March, 98 percent of beverage conversations on Facebook happened on mobile, the site reported in a press release. More than one in three people use Facebook or Instagram in restaurants and bars, and more than 50 percent of respondents report trying a drink that friends and family posted about on Facebook.
Facebook-owned Instagram Stories has reached 250 million daily active users—surpassing Snapchat’s 166 million—according to Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s global head of sales.
“If you think about it a year ago when we sat together, Instagram Stories didn’t exist,” Everson told CNBC. “Today on the platform, we not only have 250 million people using it, but actually a third (of the most viewed stories) are businesses using Instagram Stories and one million are advertisers.”
Gaming On The Move
Mobile gaming sessions have declined by 10 percent year-over-year but time spent in gaming apps has remained steady over the last year, according to a report by Flurry Analytics. The average US consumer now spends 33 minutes per day in mobile games, and the average session length rose to seven minutes and six seconds in 2017. In other words, while gamers are opening gaming apps less often, they are spending more time playing them during each session.
Mobile continued its strong growth, up year-over-year by 16 percent in May, according to SuperData, with free-to-play and pay-to-play games growing 17 and 12 percent respectively. Fueled by mobile purchases, the worldwide digital video games market grew nine percent year-over-year in May. Gamers spent over $1 billion across all platforms in May, despite a seven percent decline in console and a large 30 percent decline in the premium PC market.
Top-Selling Games For May 2017:
Mobile*:
Clash Royale
Clash of Clans
Monster Strike
Mobile Strike
Game of War: Fire Age
Fate/Grand Order
Candy Crush Saga
Lineage 2 Revolution
Fantasy Westward Journey
Honour of Kings
*Mobile is iOS and Android only and does not include China App Stores
