Esports 2023: Advertisers are in the game now

For the Indian gaming and esports industries, 2022 was a true game-changer. India showed its potential in esports at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where it also experienced enormous growth across segments and cohorts, by defeating New Zealand to take home the bronze medal in the DOTA 2 esports competition. Expectations are high with India competing in five different titles and esports being included as an official medal event at the Asian Games the following year. And given all the activity in the industry, advertisers are certainly keeping an eye on things.

According to the FICCI-EY media and entertainment report for 2022, online gaming, the fourth largest sector of the Indian media and entertainment industry, is predicted to reach Rs 153 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 15%. Innovations in NFTs, metaverse, and esports will fuel this growth.

According to the most recent statistics from the Internet and Mobile Association of India, there are currently more than 430 million mobile gamers in India, and that number is anticipated to increase to 650 million by (IAMAI). Additionally, advertisers are signing in.

According to Aditya Pandit, Associate Director- Media, Carat India, with brands uniting to establish their presence in the gaming industry and ongoing technological advancements, there are countless opportunities for advertising today. "Brands can no longer communicate with gamers using plain banner ads E-sport competitions are rife with opportunities for in-game promotions, in-game integrations, live-stream advertising, KOL partnerships, and physical integration. He claims that the gaming industry has a lot to offer, and the opportunities keep expanding.

Experts claim that advertisers are now squarely in control of the situation. Brands from a broad range of industries, such as e-commerce, education, food, BFSI, consumer technology, automobiles, telecom, FMCG, and many more, are interacting with gamers on a regular basis. So, “if your audience is present but you are not, you are already late”, Aditya Pandit quips.

The growing cultural influence of gaming and esports, with their enormous reach, frequency, and interactivity as guiding pillars, is an opportunity for display advertising for brands, according to Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and Co-Founder of TheSmallBigIdea. It is also the'massier' option for brands to advertise. In India, eSports are developing as a fresh form of entertainment. Advertising on this platform is a much more extensive and sustained exercise in brand-building for businesses. With constantly developing innovations and technology, he contends that gaming and esports are better positioned for bigger and better opportunities.

According to JetSynthesys founder and CEO Rajan Navani, some of the biggest brands in a variety of industries have already expressed interest in gaming and esports on a global scale, including Red Bull, Pepsi, Intel, Monster, MTV, and others. This culture is now spreading to India.

"I think that given the recent growth the industry has experienced, it is only a matter of time before the number of major brands grows even more. A recent study found that advertisers increased their average spending on gaming by 32% year over year. According to Navani, "the amount of ground the sector has covered in the last three years is much higher than what we witnessed in the last decade, and it is only set to go higher. This in itself shows how the advertisers are noticing the constantly growing and diverse audience gaming companies potentially reach.”

Event (s) Horizon

The union government's official recognition of esports as a component of "multisport events" on the eve of 2023 will be another significant driver, removing any prior cognitive dissonance between esports and gaming and attracting more advertisers. This will be accelerated by India's participation in numerous prestigious international sporting events.

According to Lokesh Suji, Director of the Indian Esports Federation and Vice President of the Asian Esports Federation (AESF), there will be a significant increase in the number of large-scale physical LAN tournaments played across various esports titles in 2023. "As esports (which is a sport) and iGaming become increasingly distinct from one another, we can hopefully expect to see them treated equally to other sports in our nation (fantasy, fantasy, teen patti, rummy, poker, online gaming, gambling, betting, etc.). To make India the next esports hub, our community must speak with one voice, he exclaims.

This is a good development in the run-up to the Paris Olympics in 2024, says Animesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of 8bit Creatives, and it will support the IOC's efforts to steer esports in the right direction. "On top of that, we've seen an increase in significant sponsorships from non-local brands hoping to profit from the esports market. Influencers in the gaming industry have taken over as their go-to source for connecting with their key demographic, Gen Z and Millennials.

The target market for gamers is extremely digitally savvy and fiercely devoted. Gamers will be the most sought-after influencers in 2023 thanks to their highly engaged fanbase and ability to create engaging content rather than just conduct brand plugs.

Agarwal continues, "Last but not least, in-game trade, monetization, and transactions via blockchain and play-to-earn games, which have caught the attention of Indian gamers across all demographics, will also play a significant role in the industry's rapid expansion next year.

Ready Players

Piyush Kumar, the founder and CEO of Rooter, thinks that today's gamers are special because they not only spend a lot of time playing games, but also participating in the gaming community's culture by sharing content with them, watching streams, experimenting with the newest trends, and being more willing to spend money on new categories of goods and experiences 

They frequently hold the top "purchase influencer" positions in their circle of family and friends as well. They are already a perfect audience for brands looking to raise brand awareness, encourage product usage and experience, and ultimately increase sales. In order to connect with highly engaged 18 to 35-year-olds, more and more local and international brands are beginning to realise the value of concentrating on gaming platforms, according to him.

Anirudh Pandita, the founder of Loco, predicts that brands, advertisers, and publishers will make significant investments in advertising through inventory purchases as well as content and community initiatives in 2023. "Advertisers always follow audiences' attention minutes, whether it was the transition of advertisers from radio to television and then from traditional media to digital media. He claims that gaming is the same.

"With over 400 million gamers in India, esports and gaming have developed into an essential channel for advertisers to reach audiences and have meaningful conversations with them, with 150 million+ engaging with esports content. According to Pandita, another motivator for using these platforms is the degree of user engagement.

According to Kumar, "In the past few quarters, we've seen close to 100 brands engage with the Rooter platform through a variety of formats, including sponsorships, influencer marketing, display/in-video advertising, and performance marketing. H&M, Airtel, McDonald's, TVS, Flipkart, Spotify, Intel, ACT, HP, Amazon, Shopsy, Moj, BYJU's, Unacademy, Prime Video, Mivi, Infinix, Wings, ICICI, Vodafone, Logitech, and Philips are a few of our brand partners. We are concentrating on informing more brand partners about the advantages of funding esports and gaming, he says.

According to Pandita, Loco has more than 55 million registered users, and those who watch live streams on the website log in for more than 60 minutes daily. "With such engagement being offered at such a large scale, the offering becomes very appealing to advertisers. With catalysts like 5G, which will hasten consumer adoption of games as a mainstream entertainment platform, this situation will only get better.

Tech-In

Speaking of 5G, there are also a tonne of new technologies that will be used in gaming, from established players like the metaverse and NFTs to more recent arrivals like Web 3.0. While it used to be said that adult entertainment and hospitality were the first industries to adopt new technology, gaming has now obviously moved up to take a third-place position.

More Web3 / Metaverse-related innovations in the gaming ecosystem will enable a new type of gaming experience and competitive gaming, while the adoption of 5G would speed up the mobile gaming industry, according to Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director of Alpha Zegus, a marketing firm specialising in the gaming and lifestyle sector.

"With more games and players, there is a greater need for a wide range of segments, campaign types, creatives, in-app events, and—most importantly—user experiences. As a result, big data analysis that aims to improve performance is extremely difficult. In order to meet their KPIs, gaming app, marketers must overcome this challenge by either creating internal solutions or using external tools AppsFlyer India's Country Manager, Ritu Sharma.

However, as consumer privacy issues continue to be a priority, data usage restrictions will start to become the norm as they are implemented on more platforms. First-party data gathering has developed into a highly strategic endeavor, and this trend will only accelerate in the years to come. Marketers need to come up with creative ways to promote, evaluate, and optimize their efforts while also coming up with alternatives for user-level data. They must do this by taking metrics into account, such as the overall cost per install and reinstall or the return on ad spend (ROAS)," she continues.

"We can expect to see increased commercialization of the industry with bigger events, larger prize pools, and even stronger audience interest, which will help draw even more advertisers," says Pandita, adding that all of these factors, along with the likelihood that there will be additional integration with traditional sports entities and authorities, "will help bring in even more advertisers."