Photo credit: Blinkfire, Chicago, IL | Facebook
With the rapid growth of esports and its gradual climb in popularity and audience numbers as compared to traditional sports, there are some companies that may have seen successes with their involvement in either territories, and one of such companies is Blinkfire Analytics.
Blinkfire Analytics is a Sponsorship Data Platform i.e. it uses data from computer vision to give rights holders and brands accurate media value to be able to engage fans and sponsors better. They do this for media, entertainment, sports and esports industries using artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide insights on metrics for large esports and sports clients. A number of these sports and esports clients include Real Madrid, FC Bayern, MotoGP, FaZe Clan, Misfits Gaming Group, ESL Gaming and Giants Gaming.
Trends
Blinkfire from the previous year has been able to identify about three major trends in the esports industry:
- Short-video dominance with platforms such TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, generating millions of impressions for esports brands.
- An increase in partnerships and sponsorships through the massive patronage in the following assets: headphones, jerseys, and chairs.
- More content series or “scenes” – game preview posts, birthday announcements for esports players, with the tendency of getting sponsored by esports brands.
Esports Trends
Since Blinkfire started as a sports data company, it is in a position to analyze data and make comparisons with both traditional and esports. Sports brands are using familiar formats such as livestreams, short-video interviews, behind-the-scenes content and more. The difference between traditional and esports operations are the inventory they are using to sell to their consumers. With esports organizations, there isn’t much to sell as compared to traditional sports, who use physical activations such as in-venue billboards and beverage partnerships, but things are changing now. Using digital activations with products like birthday posts, the engagements are three times bigger than average posts, and with that format you can use that to sell other activations to help sell other products they have.
The Future
With the esports industry having a grip on the Gen Z demographic, it is likely that going forward will be much easier for them unlike the traditional sports who do not really have that. The ad rates are what will change the dynamic in either spaces — traditional and esports.
Esports has helped create jobs for lots of people. Interested in knowing about the business side of esports? Listen to the Gamers Change Lives Podcast! We get experienced guests from all around the world featuring.
By Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
