Live sports, like most industries, have been drastically affected by the impacts of COVID-19. In the month of March alone, the NCAA canceled March Madness entirely and several professional leagues including the NBA, MLB and NHL postponed their seasons. The impact of the pandemic on sports has now reached a global level, with the IOC…
No global event has ever affected sports like COVID-19. While other disasters have caused games to be postponed, the uncertainty of the virus poses a unique challenge. While sports leagues scramble to figure out how to reschedule events, fill airtime and stabilize sponsorships, some associations are pivoting to esports. While live sports are on hold,…
Health experts and journalists are trying to push people toward helpful resources on the COVID-19 pandemic. Even Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are getting into the act. However, misinformation across social media has echoed through various online communities. After big names in the gaming community shared facts on the virus, the responses from their fans worried…
Within days of Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert testing positive for coronavirus, almost every major sports league in North America has paused or suspended play, which has included the cancellation of the NCAA’s annual March Madness tournament. While the extent of the virus and the length of postponements remain unclear, sports leagues like the National…
This week, it felt like another major sporting event was canceled just about every 15 minutes. After two Utah Jazz players tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on Wednesday night, the entire NBA season was suspended. Thursday morning, the MLS, MLB, NHL, UEFA, Rugby’s Six Nations, Formula One, tennis events, golf tournaments, marathons…
On Thursday, Comscore announced that the measurement company has partnered with Amazon-owned live streaming service Twitch to provide audience data around Twitch content–much of which involves gaming. “Our new partnership with Twitch is more proof of Comscore’s dedication to innovation within audience measurement and across screens,” said Carol Hinnant, Chief Revenue Officer, Comscore in a…
As Super Bowl ad spends continue to climb, with an estimated $435 million (nearly $100 million more than last year) spent during this year’s Big Game, brands are looking for other ways to leverage the spectacle of the Super Bowl. One prime example from this year was Verizon. As a partner of the NFL, Verizon…
Some celebrities are quintessentially New York. Sinatra. Jeter. Biggie. From Central Park to Madison Square Garden, New York’s brand is strong. And the sports teams in the city have some of the most fervent fans in the world. Andbox, a new multi-franchise esports organization backed by Sterling.VC (the owners of the New York Mets), is…
Gamers know the experience when they are deep into a session and really want a snack but can’t bear to take their hands away from the controller for even a second. To satisfy even the most focused of gamers, Pringles created the Hunger Hammer, the perfect gag gift for the holidays. The brand and agency…
At the Nike Sport Research Lab in Beaverton, Ore., two young athletes are put through a gauntlet of tests. These aren’t NBA rookies with new shoe deals or local university runners; they are esports players from Shanghai. Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao and Zhen-Ning “Ning” Gao are two of the world’s best League of Legends (LoL) players….
Esports and sports are intertwined. Sports owners are running esports teams, football players are streaming on Twitch, and sports leagues are bolstering their digital counterparts. But, until recently, the major sportswear companies had only been testing the esports waters. That’s changing quickly. At the end of August, Adidas released a new clothing line featuring Fortnite…
The gaming industry is one of the most revolutionary and innovative fields around, and with the competition being so fierce, it has no choice but to be. Looking at some of the gaming giants, here are five lessons brands can take away and implement in their marketing strategies. Create a community Fortnite’s evolution over the…
As esports experience massive growth and are thrust into the mainstream, statements like “League of Legends had more viewers than [major sporting event]” become more common. Various esports events have been credited with dwarfing The NBA Finals, the Champions League and even the Super Bowl. These statements try to show that the esports industry–no matter…
Measurement firms are hoping to rack up their own points in the growing world of esports advertising. A flurry of major brands have signed on for sponsoring the rapidly growing world of esports. In July, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Snickers all announced sponsorships of the Madden NFL 20 Championship Series. Earlier this month, Honda became…
Bumble was able to stand out from the crowded dating apps field by using a female-first mentality, and now it is trying to bring that same mentality to gaming. While global gaming trends have moved close to an even split between the sexes, competitive gaming–better known as esports–is still male-dominated. Yet the platform with more…
Fortnite streaming phenomenon Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja, caused a tectonic shift in the world of gaming this week when he abandoned his massive following on Amazon’s Twitch platform for Microsoft’s lesser-known rival service, Mixer. On Friday, Ninja made his Mixer debut from the Lollapalooza music festival with launch sponsor Red Bull in front…
As esports continues to grow from a subculture to the mainstream, one New York City franchise is combining gamer branding with streetwear. AndBox–a new esports organization that hosts the city’s esports teams, watch parties and competitions for the popular games Overwatch and Call of Duty–has collaborated with the agency Mother Design and the fashion brand…
The way fans want to experience live sports is changing, and the esports world is only growing more and more rapidly, creating a challenge for marketers to capture and keep their attention. At Adweek’s Women Trailblazers Summit this week in New York City, top marketers from Activision Blizzard, the Philadelphia 76ers and Nascar said they’re…
What does it mean to be the “official beer of esports?” Not much. Yet. Still, Anheuser-Busch may be able to officially claim that title after filing a trademark request last week. Unlike spendy sponsorships to become the official beer of a major sports league, the wide open esports scene only required an opportunistic filing. No…
Nielsen will soon lend even more legitimacy to esports advertising by measuring sponsorship deals through Riot Games. Riot Games, the gaming publisher and esports event organizer, said it will begin working with Nielsen to measure the value of brand deals for Riot’s League of Legends leagues and competitions. The deal, announced today, could help show…
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