09 Jul The importance of flexible tools in esports marketing
Created in collaboration with Omnicoach.
As more CMOs and marketing agencies turn to the esports audience, storytelling has become increasingly important. Flexible tools, such as those offered by Omnicoach, hand creative control over to brands and feed their creativity so they can tell the compelling stories that customers will remember.
One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing to esports fans is that all audiences are alike. If you are new to esports marketing, approach video game communities as you would social media outlets, in that each has developed its own tone and dedicated audience. While Instagram focuses on beautiful photography and hashtags, TikTok is to-the-point and funny. Likewise, one strategy for League of Legends fans might be different than those who play VALORANT.
For this very important reason, esports storytelling tools must be as flexible as they are effective. In addition, marketing tools should reflect each brand’s individual persona, mission, and goals.
Three flexible storytelling tools
Hungarian startup Omnicoach has created a white label gamification and monetisation system that integrates marketing campaigns into challenges inside League of Legends and VALORANT. To put it simply, anyone can launch a campaign and offer prizes or discounts to gamers just for achieving a flexible set of goals.
Here are three of many possible ways that this system can help tell your story:
#1 — Your story, your way
Since Omnicoach is a white label platform, each setup is customised to its user. That means that the campaign website fits seamlessly into existing brand voice, colour schemes, languages, and more.
There’s nothing more frustrating as a marketer than being confined to someone else’s tools. Plus, a blocky interface can mean the difference between audience participation and ignoring a campaign altogether.
“Brands are like artists,” Omnicoach Founder and CEO Dániel Ágoston told Esports Insider. “Everyone has their own style and preferred medium. You wouldn’t tell Picasso to colour in the lines, and we don’t tell brands and marketers how to tell their stories. We just hand you the art supplies, if you will.”
Image credit: Omnicoach
#2 —User-generated content
A positive brand interaction becomes part of a consumer’s life just like a fond memory. This is especially true of gamers, who pursue accomplishments and satisfying experiences in a digital environment.
Through the Omnicoach platform, anyone from a talent agency to an esports team or marketing firm can offer branded experiences. Participants are given a set of challenges to complete, such as ‘destroy an enemy Tower/Inhibitor before a certain minute in League of Legends or ‘diffuse the spike in a single game at least five times in Valorant’.
Gamers who participate in these custom challenges enter to win by uploading their video clips into the AI video analysis tool. Omnicoach’s own image recognition system verifies that the challenge was completed, and presents the reward, etc. depending on the campaign.
A campaign with Japanese esports organisation DeToNator resulted in over a third of participants sharing their results on Twitter. In fact, Twitter impressions for the esports organisation rose 10 times during the campaign.
#3 — Owned data
Omnicoach’s white label campaigns compile data automatically, so there’s no need to worry about complicated setups or oversight. White label partners own any data that originates from a campaign, as well. This allows marketers and decision-makers to adjust their storytelling approach or be inspired by new ideas.
As always, ROI is imperative to a successful marketing strategy. Pilot campaigns with Omnicoach have shown that user acquisition cost decreased dramatically over traditional efforts, such as a banner on a livestream video. In addition, over two-thirds of participants actually preferred to work for their reward rather than view traditional advertising.
Conclusion
According to Smart Insights, 92 percent of marketers consider video to be an important part of their marketing strategy, compared to 78 percent in 2015. As the demand for video content expands, marketers will not only need to embrace this strategy but adopt new ways of standing out among the competition.
There’s a good reason that over $833 million will be poured into esports sponsorships and media rights in 2021. As we have seen over the years, gaming audiences are young, tech-savvy, and early adopters. This makes them especially attractive to marketers from every industry. Just as every video game tells its own story, so can every brand — as long as you have the right tools.
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Commercial, Data, Features, Games, Insights, League of Legends, MOBA, Partnerships & Sponsorships, Shooters, VALORANT, Esports Marketing, esports user acquisition, marketing to gamers, Omnicoach, storytelling marketing, storytelling tools, Valorant, white label marketing tools
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