Tag: thought leadership

Brand Reputation Sheds Light on Pandemic Learnings

Posted on by KemperLesnik

The COVID-19 pandemic was (and still is) incredibly impactful on our communities, schools, workplaces, healthcare system – and everywhere in between. It is a moment in time that has changed society. Each phase of the pandemic had us asking questions. For example, how contagious is COVID-19, when do we wear a mask, what places should we visit, do we send our kids to school, and when do we return to the office? Now, the conversation has shifted to reflect on what we have learned – what pandemic changes do we want to keep? In certain aspects, the answer to this question is deeply connected to a company’s brand reputation.

Vocal Impact

Brand reputation may be hard to measure, but it is an asset during times of crisis. Reputational crises remain one of the major risk concerns for organizations anywhere in the world. According to Aon, a global insurance broker, reputation crises destroyed $1.2 trillion in shareholder value (across a 40-year study). This is a strong reminder that being vocal during times of crisis as well as having strong business resiliency and risk management programs can make an impact on the future success of a company.

Changing Opinions

When it comes to brand trust, consumers put a premium on how companies treated their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study by the Gustavson School of Business. Many of our opinions about certain business sectors have changed in the past 15 months. This change has typically been based on the brands’ various pandemic responses. For example, a study by Opinium found that supermarkets came out on top for having been vocal and quick to act in responding to the pandemic, followed by the healthcare, pharma, and food and drink sectors. Meanwhile, research also shows that automotive, fashion and beauty, and gym and fitness were lagging in their responses. How leaders responded to pandemic risks are a key indicator of the overall strength of their leadership, their business, and their connection to their consumers – i.e. their brands.

Repairing the Brand

While consumers are now asking themselves what changes to sustain after the pandemic, some businesses are left trying to figure out how to repair their reputations and regain lost followers. Aon’s latest report simply states it – “reimagine the risk landscape, acknowledge the seriousness of the event, and translate understanding into action.”

During a crisis, time is of the essence and response means everything. A brand should strive to be thoughtful, purposeful, and genuine. This approach will help connect the brand with the consumer, offering sensitivity and understanding during the time in need. Empathy offers much more than just awareness. It creates a true connection – one that can withstand the current crisis and continue on for years to come. An open mind mixed with a bit of creativity and a drive for change can help most brands secure a successful future.

 

 

 

Six Games Leading the Growth of Mobile Esports

Posted on by KemperLesnik

In mobile esports, players use a mobile device like a tablet or a phone instead of a console or PC. This style of gaming increases player base access across the globe, and recent technological advancements, such as the proliferation of 5G internet, have made gaming on a handheld device a legitimate option for esports players and fans. For example, the ESL recently announced a mobile league covering North America, Europe/MENA, and Asia-Pacific. In China, mobile gaming makes up over half of all esports in the country. 

To stay up to date with all of our esports content and news, click here to subscribe to our Esports Newsletter.

As this wave of growth sweeps across the gaming landscape, mobile publishers are investing more time, money, and energy into making sure their games have the healthy esports ecosystems required to drive continued interest and revenue long after an initial release date. So, which titles stand above the rest and appear poised to dominate esports in the near future? 

PUBG Mobile is the mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the popular online multiplayer game that was the first to introduce players to the battle royale format back in 2016. Despite heavy competition and many newcomers in the space, PUBG Mobile remains the most popular mobile battle royale. Available on Android and iOS, PUBG Mobile has been downloaded over 730 million times. PUBG Mobile was one of the highest-grossing games in 2020, generating more than $2.6 billion in revenue. At its peak, the game was bringing in more than $270 million per month.

The game’s tournaments boast considerable amounts of prize money, with more than $14 million up for grabs in PUBG Mobile tournaments this year. Competitions for PUBG Mobile take place in 12 different regions around the world, with the best players from each region advancing to compete in a worldwide tournament this summer.

Call of Duty Mobile  While the Call of Duty League on console and PC may be the most recognizable competition for the COD franchise, Call of Duty Mobile has quietly built up an impressive audience over the last several years. Available on Android and iOS, the game produced one of the largest mobile game launches in history by generating over $480 million in revenue and 270 million downloads in its first year.

The competitive scene for the game has grown rapidly, with more than $2 million up for grabs at this year’s Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship in June. The Championship, which is presented by Sony, will be open to players across the world. Players who meet the minimum ranked criteria can participate in events and qualify for the regional stages. Sony’s newest flagship smartphone, Xperia 1 III, will be the official mobile device of the event. The tournament will be live-streamed on the COD Mobile Esports YouTube channel.

Arena of Valor  Arena of Valor is a 5v5 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) designed by Tencent Games and available to users on Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. In 2020, the game recorded over 100 million daily users. The Arena of Valor International Championship (AIC), Arena of Valor’s biggest tournament, recorded more than 109 million total views last year. The event was live-streamed to fans worldwide through various streaming platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and Valor TV, and commentary was provided in five different languages. AIC 2020 was recognized by YouTube as one of the most-watched live gaming events of 2020 globally, reinforcing Arena of Valor’s position as one of the top competitive mobile games.

Garena Free Fire is a mobile title published by Singapore-based Garena in the wildly popular battle royale genre, with up to 50 players dropping into a battleground and fighting until only one champion remains. The title’s broad appeal made it the most downloaded game globally in 2019. In May of 2020, Free Fire was averaging 80 million daily players and has grossed over $1 billion within a free-to-play format. 

Piggybacking off this success, the game has wholeheartedly embraced esports, with Garena launching the Free Fire World Series (FFWS) and Free Fire All-Stars competitions. Viewership numbers are staggering across the globe with Brazilian competition in January peaking at 449,565 viewers and Asian Free Fire audiences averaging 828,986 concurrent viewers. Garena has announced plans to release an enhanced version of the game titled Free Fire Max. 

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang or MLBB is a mobile massive online battle arena title developed by Montoon which pits two teams of players, each player controlling a single unique character, against each other on the battlefield in a game of base defense and attack. First released in 2016, the title has seen incredible popularity in Southeast Asia, even being chosen for the first medal event esports competition at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.

The game hosts the annual Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asian Competition and more localized leagues such as the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League. In 2019, the first Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship took place, with 16 teams fighting for a prize pool of $250,000. 

Hearthstone is a free-to-play mobile online collectible card game created by Blizzard Entertainment and first released in 2014. Building off the success and established base of the Warcraft series, this title borrows the same universe to offer a turn-based, two-person game using decks of 30 cards and an additional selected hero with unique powers. 

The title earns nearly $40 million per month and has long surpassed the 100 million player mark. The game supports a thriving esports ecosystem with an annual Hearthstone World Championship and a Hearthstone World Tour featuring four three-month seasons and over $1 million in prize money. The 2020 Hearthstone World Champion winner, Kenta “Glory” Sato, took home $200,000.

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Five Brands Making Major Investments into Esports in 2021

Posted on by KemperLesnik

With the popularity of esports growing across the globe, brands are not sitting idly by on the sidelines. While some mainstays have been around the scene for years, others are using 2021 as a springboard for diving into the industry. The promise of a captive, youthful, and massive audience is even enough to make a 148-year-old blue jean company roll the dice on competitive gaming. However they arrived here, these five brands have already found innovative ways to make a splash within esports over the first few months of the new year.

To stay up to date with all of our esports content and news, click here to subscribe to our Esports Newsletter.

Cash App 

Cash App, the money transferring service, has recently announced a partnership with self-described “premium lifestyle brand and gaming organization” 100 Thieves. The two have joined forces to launch the “100 Thieves Cash Card”, which will cost $5, with a dollar from each purchase going to the charity organization Gamers Outreach. The card will also come with ‘exclusive boost incentives’ that have yet to be announced. At the time of this writing, the new cash card is entirely sold out and won’t become available again until later this summer. 

Cash App has worked with 100 Thieves since 2019 and is the title sponsor of the Cash App Compound, a 15,000 square foot esports team facility in downtown Los Angeles. 

Red Bull

A mainstay on the esports branding lineup, the drink that grants wings has continued to make its presence known within gaming. The company currently hosts over a dozen annual events around the world, sponsors a variety of teams and individual athletes, and has a dedicated full-time esports content production team.

Just last week, Red Bull Racing Esports announced a partnership with gaming equipment manufacturer HyperX for “gaming mice, keyboards and the HyperX Cloud Gaming Headsets.” 

Commenting on the partnership, Red Bull Racing Honda’s Chief Marketing Officer, Oliver Hughes, said: “We are incredibly proud of the growth and success of our Esports Team, which is, in turn, enabling us to partner with other market leaders in this space.”

Levi’s 

The longrunning (founded in 1873) American blue jeans company made its first serious foray into the esports space this year by announcing a partnership with NRG Esports, a competitive gaming organization. The deal grants Levi’s a physical presence inside NRG’s headquarters, Hot Pockets Castle, where visitors will be able to personalize their apparel. On the digital side, Levi’s will be incorporated within the upcoming “A Day in the Life of an NRG Influencer” social content series along with the NRG Twitch and YouTube channels. 

Levi’s VP/Marketing Stacy Doren stated that esports “have become such an important part of today’s youth culture, and with NRG being one of the biggest players in that space, they were an ideal partner to help bring Levi’s into the world of gaming.”

Mercedes-Benz 

Unlike Levi’s, the famous German car company has been invested in the esports space for quite some time now. Mercedes-Benz joined forces with ESL in 2017, a partnership still going to this day. The brand also signed an agreement with the Chinese League of Legends organization Royal Never Give Up and fielded a team in the F1 Esports Series.

In 2019, Mercedes’ parent company purchased 67 percent of ESforce’s stake in German esports organization SK Gaming. The deal included high visibility branding opportunities for the luxury car manufacturer. 

This year, The Polish branch of Mercedes-Benz became the title sponsor of esports and gaming venue “ESPOT Powered By Mercedes-Benz” in Warsaw, Poland.

DHL 

In a newly announced multi-year partnership, DHL will continue to serve as the official logistics partner for ESL events. The company is in charge of moving equipment, such as monitors and gaming chairs, and will be coordinating on the ESL Pro Tour, ESL Mobile, and all Dota 2 events.

“With this partnership, we are very successfully addressing a young target group that can hardly be reached through traditional marketing channels,” said Arjan Sissing, Head of Brand Marketing at Deutsche Post DHL Group. “As digital natives, esports fans naturally have a strong affinity for e-commerce, and for us as a logistics operator, e-commerce is a mainstay of our business.” 

DHL first partnered with ESL in 2018 and previously used some creative marketing tactics to blend the brand within Dota 2.

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Four Technologies That Will Define the Future of Gaming

Posted on by KemperLesnik

Speed is the name of the game. As technology evolves so does the esports industry. Here are four technologies influencing the future of gaming.

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Augmented Reality – Augmented reality (AR) is defined as “a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.” AR has already hit mainstream gaming culture, most notably in the summer of 2016 when Pokémon GO had endless waves of gamers wandering the streets in search of their elusive prey. Now, Nintendo is looking to double down on its investment in AR technology.

The gaming giant has etched a new deal with Niantic, the creators of Pokémon GO, to develop AR games based on Nintendo franchises. The first of which will “encourage walking in a way that will combine elements from the Pikmin games and Niantic’s real-world AR technology.” Nintendo is known for pushing the technological envelope and this new deal ensures that AR won’t simply be a forgotten fad, but a legitimate player in the future of gaming.

Virtual Reality – Virtual Reality (VR) refers to a computer-generated simulation where a person can interact with an artificial environment. VR has been involved in gaming since the late 1960s in some capacity, but recent hardware innovations have made advanced VR systems available to consumers at an affordable price point. As the technology continues to improve, VR will allow developers to create gaming experiences unlike anything the industry has ever seen, dropping players directly into fictional universes that are essentially indistinguishable from reality.

Widespread adoption of VR will also enable developers to create their own “metaverses,” which are shared virtual spaces hosted within a game. These metaverses will allow users to connect and interact with each other virtually while remaining in the comfort of their own homes (or wherever they may be connected), ultimately making gaming a more social experience.

5G – 5G is the fifth generation of technology for broadband cellular networks, which began deploying worldwide in 2019. 5G offers up to 10 times the speed currently offered by 4G LTE, allowing players to stream and download games like never before. This will enable more people to play games directly from the cloud, eliminating the need to download games to a device. The biggest impact of this technology will likely come from the improved latency that 5G enables. With response times as low as five milliseconds, gamers can expect to play on the network without suffering any lag between user input and the game’s response.

The technology is already being used to hold esports competitions, with the finals of Asphalt 9: Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds during this year’s Milan Games week both being hosted on Vodaphone Italy’s 5G network. As the technology continues to roll out across the globe, we can expect this trend to become more widespread, allowing gaming competitions to take place from wherever there’s a mobile network available.

Next Gen Consoles – While getting your hands on a PS5 or Xbox Series X may seem impossible, the next gen consoles are set to have a significant impact on esports in the coming year. Most obviously, the increased computing power from these consoles allows for games to stably run at a minimum of 60 FPS, something current iterations often cannot run. This eliminates some of the advantages PCs long held over consoles and makes the PS5 and Xbox Series X more viable options for a competitive gaming scene that relies on split second accuracy and smooth uninterrupted frame rates. In addition, Microsoft and 343 Industries have promised an expansive esports ecosystem in the upcoming Xbox title Halo: Infinite and Playstation just purchased the Evo Fighting Game Championship Series, indicating both console creators are committed to fostering competitive gaming on their platforms.

While it’s extremely unlikely these consoles will take over the esports realm, the lineup of next gen consoles are closer to PCs than ever before. This means more people will have access to esports capable machines, which could create a rise in demand and interest for the growing industry across all platforms.

To stay up to date with all of our esports content and news, click here to subscribe to our Esports Newsletter.