Esports continues to make strides in the world and the gaming industry. Streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch have seen surges in gamer profiles and game enthusiasts, with millions in hours of watch time. The business of esports continues to be explored, with careers being built and developed in this sector. Today we have Robert Gax, who is the head of creative at Ampverse, which is Asia’s largest ecosystem of gaming communities and IPs.
“I can't go to a single restaurant without seeing someone playing a game somewhere, and it's quite impressive.” — Robert Gax, Ampverse.
From having hours and hours spent on playing arcade games back in the day with his brother at the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Theater, his interest for gaming, had been born. Furthering this interest into the creative agency space, Robert would then find himself doing advertising for Oglivy, FCB among others. His interest to design games led to him taking courses late at night – a hobby he would soon be recommended for at Ampverse, and with a transfer of knowledge, take what he had learned from fashion shoots and branding into the agency.
“With gaming, it's like ‘I'm a creative director. I've been working with brands, been launching whole brands for years and years. Yeah, I can bring some of that to our pro teams.” — Robert Gax, Ampverse
The work done with Ampverse currently being done includes in-game items, so there are a lot of presentations being made to pitch the idea to clients. These take a while unlike TV commercials which can take less than three months to happen. Or there is the development of tournament concepts, physical or online, depending on the markets they may find themselves in. They often require the use of influencers, as they will help amplify the brands.
Photo credit: Marketing-Initiative
“The first thing is the creative brief to help you want to know what you're going to do.” — Robert Gax, Ampverse
With most of the work done via social media, speed is really a factor to consider when carrying out a brief, and if that is not aligning properly, there is the likelihood of things going wrong in the end. Preferably to enable the brief to be kept intact and consistent, it is best that it is written down, because there may be offices that will not have English as their first language, and as such you would not want anything lost in translation. Even in markets that may both speak English, it is still necessary to write down the brief, because stuff can still be lost in translation.
“If you put just two odd things together, you get something new and just combining things and trying to.” — Robert Gax, Ampverse
The esports scene in South East Asia according to Robert is on a beautiful growth; with people of all ages into games of all kinds – trivia, adventure, strategy – and a much better education on esports. The sponsorships may be taking a while, but there is the hope for things to be better in some months’ time to come.
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.
Written By Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
