Produced | People's Esports
The author | Lu Wenzheng
Edited | Kevin
"Let's congratulate Wuhan eStarPro!" On December 25, 2021, at the Gymnasium of Suzhou High-tech Zone Cultural and Sports Center, Wuhan eStarPro returned to the top of the KPL Professional League after 924 days. After beating Guangzhou TTG 4-1, they lifted the Silver Dragon Cup. It is worth mentioning that this is also the first autumn champion in the history of Wuhan eStarPro team.
As one of the most popular teams in the KPL, Wuhan eStarPro has once again reached the top this time, directly rushing to the Weibo hot search and becoming a hot topic on the whole network.
Before the Wuhan eStarPro won the championship, a Weibo related to the team of BYD Automobile also became the focus:
"The Finals of the King of Glory Professional League Autumn Tournament are about to open, and BYD Auto will set up a million prize Flag to cheer for the Wuhan eStarPro championship!"
After the release of this Weibo, it attracted many fans and e-sports circles to forward, "BYD Auto for Wuhan eStarPro set up a million prize to win the Flag" has become a widely concerned event in the field of e-sports.
Now that Flag is standing, BYD Auto is also seen as the big winner of this "e-sports event marketing".
Some netizens also found that BYD Auto is not only a "big winner" in e-sports marketing, but also an "old player". Before joining hands with Wuhan eStarPro, BYD Auto also reached a cooperation with the League of Legends Shenzhen V5 team.
And this is not the first time that BYD Automobile has spoken out through e-sports event marketing, in November this year, at the Guangzhou Auto Show, BYD Automobile launched a joint version of the Dolphin model with Wuhan eStarPro, and launched the Dolphin Tide Reform Co-creation Plan, inviting more young people to participate in the model tide reform, which also became a circle-breaking event across the automotive field and the e-sports field.
The value brought by BYD Automobile's event marketing around the team is not only the amplification of brand voice, but also creates an industry case for reference in the field of e-sports marketing.
Enterprise value: brand rejuvenation is further
The biggest difference between e-sports marketing and other sports marketing is its role in promoting the dimension of "brand rejuvenation". At present, the average age of the audience for esports events is much lower than that of the audience for traditional sports events, which is why many brands are interested in esports marketing.
We have interviewed countless brands that have entered esports marketing in the past, and the common reason for their esports marketing is that as a content industry, the audience is mostly young people, and they are young people with certain purchasing power.
The incident of BYD Automobile setting up a "million prize Flag" attracted the attention of young people and triggered a heated discussion. In the comment area, comments such as "the golden lord's father is domineering", "e treasure wants to fight for gas", "can't say that it is impossible not to win this championship".
Since the cooperation between the two sides, BYD Automobile has not only appeared on the competition uniform of Wuhan eStarPro, but also sent home game tickets and joint peripherals on its official micro from time to time, while BYD Automobile has also joined hands with Wuhan eStarPro to launch the "Dolphin Tide Reform Co-creation Plan", which has become a variety of marketing games after becoming a partner of Wuhan eStarPro, which has brought them closer to young people.
Bydir car LOGO on the right shoulder of the contestant
To cut into the e-sports marketing market is to stand with young people, and the e-sports marketing case of BYD Automobile once again illustrates this point.
As a young "post-00s" car company founded in 2003, BYD Auto used e-sports as a bridge to let more young people know about the brand after cooperating with Wuhan eStarPro, and even because BYD Auto sponsored their favorite clubs, it was full of good feelings. BYD Auto also said that it chose e-sports marketing because it attaches great importance to the spiritual resonance with young circles.
As for the marketing event that was concerned by the whole network, "providing a million bonus Flag for Wuhan eStarPro to win the championship", it directly pushed BYD automobile into the spotlight. Flag stands tall, illustrating the common tacit understanding between BYD Motors and young people, and also supporting the brand's efforts in e-sports marketing.
Whether it is the field of sports or the field of esports, the marketing value of clubs and athletes is based on "strength". The fact that Wuhan eStarPro was able to reach the final has already proved that BYD Auto has chosen a team with superior strength. And finally winning the championship directly increased the favorability of BYD Automobile among fans - in the "metaphysical" e-sports circle, the sponsors of the championship team are often regarded as "mascots" that can bring good luck.
Sponsored the champion team and brought more brand exposure to BYD Automobile. However, BYD Automobile itself also carries the "champion gene" - BYD Automobile has won the first place in China's new energy passenger car sales for six consecutive months, and in terms of current sales data, it has basically locked the sales champion of the annual new energy passenger car in 2021.
BYD Auto chose to cooperate with Wuhan eStarPro also because this group of young people insist on constantly innovating their playing style and never give up the spirit of e-sports and BYD Auto's brand concept of adhering to technological innovation and moving forward all the way.
Industry value: The new way of e-sports marketing has triggered industry thinking
From a business point of view, BYD Automobile's e-sports marketing is based on the importance of the e-sports crowd and the understanding of the e-sports industry, and it has invested "real money and silver" to get the harvest of brand or marketing effect.
For the e-sports industry, there are more partners entering, which also has a certain positive significance for the positive development of the industry.
In the first decade of this century, the e-sports industry mostly relied on manufacturers and hardware equipment brands to "transfuse blood", which is also one of the reasons why the financial crisis in 2008 was able to make the e-sports industry enter a trough - the industrial structure was single, and a healthy e-sports ecology was not formed.
Nowadays, whenever the e-sports industry competes, it can see "star companies" from different industries sponsoring it. The success of commercialization has made the "economic foundation" of e-sports more solid, and also allowed the industry to enter a positive cycle and develop in a healthy and orderly manner.
This healthy development is inseparable from the support of partners – public information shows that the highest source of income in the global esports market is currently sponsor sponsorship. In 2020, sponsorship revenue for the global esports industry reached $637 million, accounting for 57.9% of total global esports revenue.
Speaking of the automotive industry alone, in recent years, there have been Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Buick and other brands into the game, the playing style also extends from sponsoring events to sponsoring clubs and even extending to creating their own e-sports IP, coupled with the "event marketing" of BYD Automobile, diversified marketing methods have also made the e-sports ecology more healthy.
The million prize for Wuhan eStarPro to win the Flag, so that the e-sports industry has a "e-sports event marketing" landing case as a reference, and combined with the previous November joint Wuhan eStarPro launched a joint version of the tide to create a dolphin model and a series of marketing initiatives, it is not difficult to see that BYD Automobile has been based on its own professional understanding of e-sports marketing, the company itself and e-sports IP have been organically combined, in achieving its own marketing goals at the same time won the goodwill of young people - Compared with simple sponsorship and naming, the advantages and disadvantages are known at a glance.
We still take the more traditional sports industry as an example, most of the revenue of the event is only a few: sponsorship, copyright, tickets, sponsors with the investment is actually supporting the industry to move forward. Sponsoring large-scale events has also allowed the sponsor's brand to get huge exposure and gain a lot. In recent years, brands invested in sports marketing have become the focus of attention every time in the sports year - the World Cup in 2018, the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, there are many marketing successes and failures in the sports circle, and the e-sports industry also needs more classic cases to precipitate for subsequent marketing activities.
From this point of view, the "event marketing" of BYD Automobile has launched a brand with the help of the champion, and more companies have seen the benefits of e-sports marketing and promoted the development of the industry. After the success of this event marketing, we also have reason to believe that whether it is in the League of Legends project or in the e-sports marketing of the Glory of Kings project, BYD Auto will have more actions next year.
To say that e-sports marketing is another difference between e-sports marketing and sports marketing in addition to the age of the audience, that is, "e-sports" has a "big year" almost every year - on the one hand, the e-sports competition covers almost the whole year, on the other hand, the support of young people in their hearts can be regardless of the year.
Now, bydir's "Flag" is not only standing, but also a beacon that illuminates more possibilities in the e-sports marketing industry.