ESports wants advertisers. Machinima has a playbook
Advertising agencies know to air commercials for sugary cereal with cartoon shows, and ads for outdoor furniture in gardening magazines.
But what in the world are advertisers supposed to offer those who pass hours playing gunfighting video games such as “Call of Duty” or watching strategy videos on YouTube?
Red Bull drinks and fancy gaming headphones are obvious. But online video company Machinima Inc. thinks it can go further and attract top-tier advertisers of all kinds to bankroll video-game-related entertainment.
The West Hollywood company presented its case in New York City on Friday as part NewFronts, an annual event where online media companies woo advertisers with announcements of new shows and ad-buying tools. Winning them over could be huge for the hundreds of companies betting that eSports, or video game tournaments, will be a multibillion-dollar business.
Few advertisers have backed eSports despite online viewership for certain weekend tournaments topping that of professional baseball or hockey games. Machinima wants to make it more cost-effective for advertisers to get involved in video games. It’s scouring social media and viewership data to pinpoint whether a company such as Coca-Cola should be advertising to the “Call of Duty” fans, or to, say, those who prefer puzzle games. The insights also can guide an ad’s look.
“ESports is like rock ‘n’ roll in 1959,” Machinima Chief Executive Chad Gutstein said in an interview. “There’s hundreds of millions of young people engaged and passionate. But marketers in 1959, your best view of rock ‘n’ roll was it befuddled you. The worst case was that you’re wondering, ‘Why are people listening to the devil’s speak?’”
But just as rock went mainstream, Gutstein expects eSports to follow.
“Marketers know why they should care but they don’t know what to do,” he said. “If there’s no strategy, there’s no case to allocate money.”
With its data, Machinima’s new Mach-1 agency is offering a playbook to advertisers.
The company tries to identify consumer preferences based on Facebook posts, likes and other data sources. It can match that up with the data about who watches what videos -- say, the puzzle-fanatics-versus-the-shooting-game distinction. That’s already used to decide the types of videos to invest more money in. Now, the new combination can tell Coke that among gamers, those who participate primarily to master them or gain lots of virtual achievements are more likely to buy its products.
Creating content that relates to mastery and rewards will tap into why those players “are gaming” and increase sales, Gutstein said. “It’s a sweet spot.”
Machinima produces shows that talk about video game news, analyze industry trends or just poke fun at characters and players. Its online videos get 151 million viewers a month.
Advertisers insist on a high level of detail, Coca-Cola vice president Matt Wolf said during a discussion about eSports at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this week.
“We want to know exactly who we are reaching, how many times we’re reaching them … and we need to know it to continue forward with” sponsorships,” he said.
Companies with male-oriented products have extra reason to come to Machinima for help. About 86% of eSports fans are men, according to SuperData Research released by Machinima on Friday. That demographic spends so much time online that it’s hard to find alternative media to show them ads.
Machinima, which has previously worked with brands such as Hot Pockets and Acura, plans to have advertisers place ads not just during gaming videos, but also across all of YouTube as part of a partnership with ad tech firm OpenSlate.
Twitter: @peard33
