Gaming, Esports & Interactive Media

Is Online Gaming and Streaming Generational or Life Stage?

What is Interactive Content?

The term “interactive content” refers to content that demands active participation from its audience. Audiences are more demanding than ever, expecting all content to be interesting, relevant, and available at all times and on any device. Therefore, any material that a user may click on, click through, answer, or engage with is considered interactive. These content pieces require more effort to generate, including more money, but consumers spend more time with them and gain more value.

EA — Electronic Art

ESports are swiftly becoming the next big thing in the entertainment industry, with professional players competing in multiplayer video game championships watched by massive global audiences. The expansion of this sector is catching the attention of business experts from various disciplines who want to be a part of the activity. However, for eSports to achieve its full potential, marketers have become innovative in engaging with their consumers.

Electronic Arts Inc. is the world’s largest provider of digital interactive entertainment. EA creates and distributes games, content, and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices, and PCs. EA has over 450 million registered players worldwide.

EA is one of the largest and first companies that started using and setting the trend of interactive content. Fifa is one of the most common games that explore renewing exciting content, not only on consoles but has different applications and goes beyond purchasing online to competing against anyone in the world versus a machine.

FIFA

I have grown in a culture of football (soccer). For me growing up going to games, watching them on T.V. was family time. I have also watched the development of games related to soccer. I have seen for the last six years someone very close to me play video games and play FIFA ultimate teams. I have seen the development of content, angry moments, happy moments, and excitement.

As a marketer, I have seen this in a different view, as an opportunity to learn in an industry that I don't know anything off. Streaming and online gaming have been on my research for the last year, understanding the in and outs of the games and how EA make their objectives. How amazing they create content, games, interactions, and how every year they innovate.

Marketing Objectives

The eSports landscape is evolving rapidly, and fans need to embrace a new viewing of sports. Esports will continue to grow, and fans will attend events via virtual reality.

In the eSports environment, the word interactivity describes the level of interaction between viewers, streamers, and other participants. Household brands are investing in video games. In China, Alibaba and Tencent own Riot Games, Amazon has bought Twitch, Geico sponsors the E-League, and Coca-Cola sponsors the League of Legends World Championships. The attraction for sponsors is to market to a highly-engaged, dedicated millennial fan base. The fan base builds on passion and loyalty. With these attributes in a consumer, you can create a particular strategy.

EA has been a trendsetter of in-game advertisements as well as in-game purchases. Games like Fifa have made consumers believe that to become better, to win against the best, you have to be the best. Over the previous year, income from Ultimate Team alone accounted for half of EA’s live services revenue, or $1.1 billion.

Generational vs. Life Stage — Here to stay?

The composition of the fan base is of most interest—the target audience of millennials with good incomes who consume content online rather than traditional channels. Marketers are starting to realize that the way to reach Millenials via social media is to build connections via user-generated content. This is the newest form of word-of-mouth marketing. Understanding these types of personas and audiences helps achieve their marketing objectives.

Multiple marketers and enterprises have advised on connecting with millennials: connect personally, build relationships with viewers and allow them to connect, use live chat and live to stream, work with social influencers and encourage customers to write product reviews. The marketing trends and findings of its target audiences apply to eSports. Social influencers and customer product reviews have led the way in the interactivity of the internet. Viewers can make donations, contribute to prize pools, chat publicly and privately on the channels, and form groups.

With mobile gaming accounting for 51% of all gaming income in 2018. EA has been somewhat controversially promoting players of two of its most significant money-makers, Fifa and Madden NFL, to engage in Ultimate Team mode. They pay money on in-game digital ‘packs’ of randomized footballers. However, because the top players come infrequently, gamers invest considerable sums in their teams, and the cash and packs are lost with each new game release.

This trend has been for a while, and interactive content is here to stay. We as millennials prefer the easiness of an in-game purchase, the facility to react, interact, purchase, or click directly from where we are currently. Seeing the birth of a brand or an idea being born or developed makes us feel connected. We like to see connections being structured.