How to receive a digital feedback in three days – in the interview with CEO of Blacklight Gaming Dmitry Beseda
Today eSPORTconf Russia 2018 has met with the CEO of Blacklight Gaming, a digital agency working in the e-sports field, founder of the famous platform Cases4Real and several other gaming services, marketer, entrepreneur, and e-sports fan Dmitriy Beseda. He excellently understands the needs of his target audience and has shared the peculiarities of marketing in e-sports.
Interviewer: eSPORTconf Russia 2018 (eSp)
Respondent: Dmitriy Beseda (D.B.)
eSp: Dmitriy, is Blacklight Gaming one of the directions of Blacklight Creative Communications or an independent agency?
D.B.: Technically, we are an independent agency with our own specialists, structure, and a separate office. However, we closely communicate with the team of Blacklight, often work together on projects, exchange resources and experience.
eSp: How and why did the idea of such a structure intended particularly for e-sports emerge?
D.B.: First, I would like to note that the notion of e-sports is not all embracing in our case: we work with all kinds of gamers and geek themes.
It is important to understand that every gamer is interested in games as a sport. Most of them play for their own pleasure, but they represent an audience adjacent to e-sports.
All stars aligned to make our agency ‘happen’: there were many queries from large companies for this field; people experienced in digital and keen on games have surrounded me for a long time. Demand has created supply. Besides, the idea had been lingering in my mind for a long time. At some point, I understood that there is no way to postpone it anymore.
eSp: Among other things, your company provides performance marketing services aimed at desired actions and instant results. Will you give us several ideas of how to obtain them in three days?
D.B.: In fact, you can obtain targeted traffic in two hours by providing context related to the hottest queries. However, in case we have three days:
Day 1. Study the available landing pages and previous marketing activities. If analytics works correctly, try finding ‘narrow spots’ in the product funnel.
Decide which tools you will use: Direct, AdWords, targeted advertising, social seeding, bloggers, or streamers. Ask developers whether it is possible to introduce amendments to landing pages quickly before adding traffic. If yes, write recommendations.
Day 2. Check whether you have available methods of reactivating the existing customer base (email messaging, push notifications, social, remarketing lists). Make a final list of communication channels. Start working on creatives, and order advertising materials from a designer. Depending on tools, work on targeting settings, semantic core, and influencer briefs. Prepare money for refilling advertising accounts.
Day 3. Check the performance of landing pages, accept the graphics from the designer, add creatives, check the availability of link tagging for analytics. Launch traffic and attentively monitor results in order for everything to work seamlessly and avoid untargeted junk.
eSp: Let’s make the task more complex: what should the marketing department do if the executives unexpectedly cut the budget after the confirmation of the PR strategy and in the midst of the advertising campaign?
D.B.: You can look for a new job (jokingly – editor’s note). You can work efficiently almost with any budget. During the periods of slack, the marketing department should check on the contact points between a customer and a product: landings, groups in social media, content of advertising messages. Everything plays its own role. You can always find something to improve, take a deeper look into analytics, cut off the inefficient traffic.
eSp: Which channel is more efficient to market an e-sports brand (tournaments, thought leaders, streams)?
D.B.: Marketing should work in synergy. At the conference, I will explain why using a single channel does not work.
For a long time now, on average five contact points are required for the customer to make contact with the brand. Regularity is important in any marketing strategy. Do not forget about the methodology of work with every channel – there are nuances for each of them.
eSp: Most of e-sports fans are millennials. How can one (and is it necessary to) catch the interest of the younger generation?
D.B.: Of course, it is necessary. At least, for the reason that millennials tend to grow up. And one should start competing for their attention and trust. The earlier, the better. It is also important to monitor their interests to avoid the situation when you launch the advertising campaign via outdated channels in 2018.
But I would debate the statement saying that most of e-sports fans are millennials. According to the latest data, 90% of gamers are above 18 years old, 62% are above 25 years old.
Therefore, when running an e-sports event, you automatically work with people of different ages.
eSp: In your opinion, what is the main advantage of e-sports over the traditional sports in terms of marketing?
D.B.: Sensitivity of the target audience to advertising. I will cite our presentation: “The target audience of e-sports is comfortable with advertising that is wisely integrated in different activities. More than 50% of players positively take advertising of brands, and only less than 10% take it negatively. For TV advertising such loyalty of viewers has been unattainable for quite a long time”.
Besides, e-sports allows targeting modern, confident Internet users with easy-going attitude to technological novelties. That is an attractive part of the audience, which is growing with every year and getting more and more financially reliable.
eSp: Will the e-sports market be able to grade up to the market of the, perhaps, most profitable sport, football?
D.B.: Yes, this is a question of time and change of generations. I am looking forward to e-sports competitions in virtual and augmented reality.
By the way, today finals of the most popular tournaments (DOTA2, CS: GO, League of Legends) take place at stadiums.
eSp: On April 3, you will speak at eSPORTconf Russia presenting the case study of DOTA2 middlers tournament – #HELPFLOW. Why have you chosen this case study?
D.B.: It is interesting from many perspectives and includes everything: non-standard solutions, synergy of creativeness and performance, failures, successes, competition between the best players in the CIS countries, and even charity. By the way, Alexander “Flow” Sazonov will have his next surgery on April 5, and you still have time to help him*.
*Website to support Alexander “Flow” Sazonov.
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