The number of times I’ve mentioned the impact non-endemic brands have on esports is honestly becoming nauseating (even for me). The interest from these “outside” organizations were one thing, but we’ve yet to actually see a finite number tied to the value of such partnerships. One in particular which raised a few questions was media group RFRSH’s joining of Audi and Astralis back in January. Audi came on board with Astralis for the ELEAGUE Major and Dreamhack to “test the waters.” The initial idea was to tap into the millennial market associated with the industry, but Astralis went on to win ELEAUGUE thus adding value to the partnership.
RFRSH COO Jordi Roig recently talked about some numbers, giving us our first indication of the impact these types of partnerships have both on esports and the companies themselves.
“With more than 25 million impressions across Astralis’ own Social Media channels, more than 12 million stream and TV Viewers exposed to the Audi Brand, more than 160,000 video plays of the advertisement alone, and already 163 online articles in 27 countries mentioning the cooperation, it is already obvious that the campaign has done what we set out to do.” (via TEO)
We first caught wind of the partnership via Twitter in early January, and then saw the Audi logo on the Astralis shirt. As mentioned above the partnership was set to tap into the younger markets with the launch of the Audi Q2. This of course included adverts and activations by the Astralis organization which is shown in the above mentioned stats.
It’s important to note that these numbers are much high due to Astralis being put in the spotflight for their win at ELEAUGE. That wasn’t the only factor as other Danish teams rose beneath them bringing light to the current Danish-domination of esports, with Astralis at the helm.
“The results from the campaign confirms the enormous potential for activation and exposure,” Roig continues, “And it demonstrates RFRSH’s way to create content and activate the target audience. We will use the coming weeks to assess the Campaign and evaluate our commercial opportunities. There is no doubt that new, large-scale partnerships are in the pipeline, and for us it would be logical to continue the very positive co-operation between Audi and Astralis.”
This report is extremely important as it highlights the potential esports brings to the world outside. In South Africa we’ve seen companies like MTN, Vodacom, and others show interest in esports which is setting the stage for major investment going forward. Just this past weekend MTN hosted their inaugural CS:GO tournament alongside Mega8 who have already announced their second, larger, tournament featuring Dota 2 in May. We’re not in a particular position to start boasting millions of impressions on social media pages, but there is a notable increase in exposure of esports on television, radio, and press taking notice of esports. Just the other night Mettlestate’s Barry Louzada was on eNCA talking about esports, as others have done before him.
We’re still following the international scene as a guideline, but soon South Africa will reach a similar stature and it will be our news dominating the local and international press.
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Last Updated: April 6, 2017
