How to Bring Esports to Brands

We have two guests today: Nick Smith and Romain Tixier – Co-founders of GosuRabbit a next gen marketing agency based in the UK. Nick is in the UK and Roman is in Lyon, France.

Our discussion included:

The story of how both Nick and Romain became interested in the business side of esports after a few years of competitive playing.

“One night my dad came downstairs, me playing World of Warcraft, and he said ‘Can you stop what you are doing. We need to talk.’ And he told me ‘Well you are playing video games. Amazing. Good for you. But you need to transform it into something that will help you make a living from it.’ – Romain

They also explain the origin of the unique name for their marketing agency: GosuRabbit.

Both Nick and Romain describe the work done by their agency, focusing on helping brands reach out to new generations and customers using gaming and esports.

The first thing to find out, to understand is ‘what does a brand mean by esports’. They are looking to help brands move away from just wanting to test something new. And the importance of truly understanding what the brand is looking to achieve.

Romain describes how the process involves not only learning more about the brand, but to be able to match up the right esports partner.

A common theme that we hear often on the Gamers Change Lives Podcast is that pitch decks that talk only about the esports team or event and not referencing the brand rarely make a positive impression.

Hear the call to have more marketing people involved in esports, at all levels.

The discussion includes hearing how an esports organization can get people talking about them, and it involves much more than just social media.

How important is winning to the brand?

Listen to how culture and language makes an impact on esports marketing through their agency.

We briefly touch on the Metaverse – what it is and what it isn’t. And their predictions about the future.

And hear their take on whether the Olympics should be including esports into their official program. They have definite opinions on the games that have been selected.

Episode Webpage: https://www.gamerschangelivespodcast.com/how-to-bring-esports-to-brands-with-nick-smith-and-romain-tixier

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FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:

Nick Smith

Having spent time working as a director at other gaming agencies, Nick's decade worth of experience in marketing strategy and consultancy lead him to co-found his own gaming and new media marketing agency - GosuRabbit.

As GosuRabbit's CEO and influencer marketing and consultancy specialist, Nick is passionate about connecting brands with new generations through gaming and esports.

Nick’s gaming origin story begins with Mario, Zelda, and Tetris on the NES. Eventually, he graduated to CSGO where he founded his own esports teams, fulfilling player, coach, and managerial roles.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickgosurabbit/

Email:  nick@gosurabbit.com

GosuRabbit: https://www.gosurabbit.com

Romain TIXIER

Romain is a subject matter expert when it comes to gaming and esports, having 22 years of experience in the field.

He was previously the owner of the gaming club oXmoze, from 2003 until it was sold in 2010. Since then, Romain has worked in various business and marketing roles in gaming and esports including influencer marketing campaigns for PMU, Melty, Bouygues Telecom, Sony PlayStation etc.

Upon co-founding GosuRabbit, Romain focused his abilities on consultation and providing creative marketing communications solutions. With his decades of experience in gaming, Romain’s strategies and executions are always authentic to the gaming community.

Romain is a PC gamer and FPS pro. He grew up with games such as Wolfenstein 3D and Doom but began his career in gaming with Half Life Deathmatch and Counter Strike.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rtixier/

Email:  romain@gosurabbit.com

GosuRabbit: https://www.gosurabbit.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chouwanga

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PRODUCTION:

Creator and host: Tom Leonard (USA) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomeleonard/

Producer: Reginald Nsowah (Ghana) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginald-nsowah-09352929/ 

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Play Games. Create Jobs. Change Lives.

This is a show about how to build an esports business from literally anywhere in the world where each week we showcase the journey of esports entrepreneurs and others to learn how they solved a particular problem that everyone will ultimately face.

In Season Two our theme is “Follow the Money”.

I am your host, Tom Leonard. I have a background in entertainment marketing. After working with many amazing esports entrepreneurs from emerging markets, they inspired me to create a show to tell their stories so that others can be motivated to create their own esports business. Gaming and esports can create jobs tackling the problem of global youth unemployment. Creating jobs from playing games. What could be better than that?

Thanks for listening to The Gamers Change Lives Podcast!