Esports provide a burgeoning platform for marketers looking to reach an increasingly elusive consumer. Interest in professional competitive video gaming is growing, with one in five fans globally beginning to follow esports just within the past year. Esports fans around the world include some of the hardest to reach consumers for brands because of their cord-cutting and ad-blocking tendencies. While esports unites them as a fan base, their digital-first mindset is pervasive in their approach to broader entertainment consumption.
Brands have the opportunity to get involved in the action through advertising and sponsorship relationships with all of the key stakeholders in the esports ecosystem including game publishers, leagues, teams, event operators, streaming platforms/broadcasters, and gaming personalities.
Both endemic and non-endemic brands are earning valuable exposure through esports, with endemic categories like computers, processors and peripherals maintaining a strong foothold from an exposure perspective. But non-endemic categories, like snack foods, men’s grooming, automobiles and insurance are making a splash too—and that splash is getting bigger. Across esports events that Nielsen measures, non-endemics’ share of sponsorship value grew by 13% year over year—with absolute value growing across all brand categories.
