Why sport and gaming are a powerful combination for consumers?

November 2020

Marketingweek.com

 

There has been a rise in the consumption of both sports and video games videos online through platforms like YouTube. Marketers have noticed this behavioral trend and sees valuable marketing opportunities. Games such as FIFA, Madden NFL, and Pro Evolution Soccer have a global popularity selling over 100 million copies through their lifetime. And most recently, gaming has become a spectator sport with eSports being established. This market is valued at over $950 million in 2020 and projected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2023. 

This creates the opportunity for brands to market towards engaged consumers consuming sports and video game content on YouTube. With sports, people like to watch the highlights, live streams, behind the scenes content with their favorite athlete. With gaming, people like to watch YouTube creators play, discuss, and review video games.

Brands understand that there is a great opportunity to market towards sports and gaming enthusiasts on YouTube. Between June 2019 and June 2020, time spent by consumers watching rugby increased by 100%, golf by 120%, and cycling by 70% in the UK.

Sky Sports marketing director Robbie Balfour says that YouTube allows them to broadcast their online content to create a story through advertising and retargeting for future conversions. The brand times its YouTube campaigns to the start of an important sports event such as a new football season or Formula One to initiate their action to become a customer of their TV sports channel and live streaming online.

Watching gaming content is gaining broad popularity with Goldman Sachs forecasting eSports will reach the same number of viewing audience 300 million as the NFL by 2022. In 2019, there has been more than 35 million channels that uploaded a gaming video on YouTube. And 55,000 new channels that uploaded at least one gaming video saw subscribers exceed 100,000 during the same time. Gaming content is driving this growth in channels and brands. Consumers not only want to consume content but also follow commentary and reviews of professional gamers. This is great news for marketers who now have access to an engaged audience that is looking for a total experience.