Entropiq and Deloitte Welcomed European Gaming in Prague

Entropiq and Deloitte hosted an esports convention Entr the World of Esports 2022 on Thursday, 22 September, with leading esports and multionational brands representatives attending.

The main topics addressed throughout the day by the invited experts during their presentations and subsequent panel discussions were: How is this entertainment industry phenomenon gaining popularity so quickly? How big are the opportunities and benefits of esports from a brand communications perspective? How can we measure the success of connecting the esports and brand ecosystem?

“At Entr the World of Esports 2022, we wanted to show the way to create mutually beneficial partnerships between esports clubs and their clients. To find a model of how clients’ investments in esports can be monetised, not only in terms of fan-funding and sales, but also in supporting the individual brand attributes that clients want to communicate through collaboration,” says Entropiq’s CEO Daniel Kloud.

“At Deloitte, we see esports as a marketing and investment opportunity. Traditional big business clients still approach the industry with caution. Through events such as Entr the World of Esports, we want to show the potential of esports and help big business players enter this field,” recalls Martin Bohuslav, senior partner at Deloitte Legal and leader of the esports initiative at Deloitte.

“Many esports and also traditional sports clubs help build brand awareness of their partners through logos on jerseys, stadium and other places, sometimes some activation, but few are looking to connect club and client at the brand image level. A connection or intersection, where the brand attributes are aligned with the attributes of the club or any particular game title. In line with what the target audience needs,” adds Kloud.

The convention aimed to present interesting case studies of successful collaborations between esports organisations and brands that appeal to the same target groups. It wanted to show how to link the needs of target groups with the attributes of individual brands, together with the attributes of the esports organisation in question. To show that successful collaboration is not just about “sponsorship” but about partnering to communicate shared benefits.

“With the onset of the pandemic, more of our clients started to take gaming and esports seriously, and this was reflected in their research assignments. This gave us a unique opportunity to get to know the gaming environment and the relationship to gaming in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in depth. We understood that all parts of the ecosystem – players, teams, and companies looking for captivating sponsorship opportunities and engagement with their target groups – lacked data that would describe the gaming community and its attitudes and motivations towards esports in detail. From there, it’s only a step to systematically measuring the impact of investments in the entire ecosystem. This is what we would like to help with our approach to measurement,” says one of the speakers, Jan Al-Amel, Partner at Simply 5.

As already mentioned, the whole event was made possible thanks to the cooperation with the international consulting company Deloitte, whose representative could not miss the conference. “It was a great pleasure to present the initial findings of the seventh edition of our study “Let’s Play! – The European Esports Market”, which will be published in November. In this study, we examine the evolution of the esports market at both the consumer and organisation level and present a detailed, data-backed roadmap on how to successfully manage the esports ecosystem in these turbulent times,” says Kim Lachmann from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte Germany.

“For sustainable economic success and stability in the industry, it is crucial that every esports organisation recognises the key performance drivers and addresses them correctly. These include, for example, creating attractive competitions, effective revenue diversification and the right approach to sponsorship and investment partnerships. But the most important thing is to know your audience and respond perfectly to their needs, because digital channels are a very direct feedback platform and the audience is really diverse and equally demanding. Everyone must realise that there is no one” customer in esports and that no two esports are the same,” adds Lachmann on his vision for the development of esports.