With one of the biggest sporting events, FIFA World Cup 2022, inching closer, brands and agencies are looking for every possible way to make the most of it.
But how? Gaming influencers it is! They have recently gained the attention of brands, for they easily connect with hundreds of millions of passionate fans.
Influencers in the gaming industry are a great way to spark interesting discussions about your brand during the FIFA World Cup and increase brand awareness. Suppose brands can utilize these influencers across all channels, from social media to live streaming, free-to-air TV, and OTT platforms. In that case, they can do wonders in engaging target audiences and raising conversion rates, especially when viewership is estimated to reach 5 billion this time compared to 3.57 billion in 2018.
Interestingly, an immense opportunity awaits this time, with the holiday season falling during the event. By working with these influencers, brands can capitalize on it with the right messaging to the right audience during the matches. Data shows that almost 37% of global football fans are women, making it much more critical for health, fitness, fashion, and lifestyle niche brands to leverage the event.
Big brands, such as Adidas, Hyundai, Nike, Budweiser, etc., proactively use content marketing, social media, and influencer marketing to generate awareness and interact with the audience through engaging conversations. Small businesses can also leap forward by planning their gaming influencer marketing campaign!
This article will walk you through how influencers in e-gaming promote brands, what type of content they create, and how to use them for your FIFA marketing strategy.
Let's get started!
Gaming influencers are professional or casual gamers who share gaming content, product reviews, reaction videos, and more on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and more. They stream live games and tournaments, create social media posts, and publish YouTube videos to share their gaming knowledge and interact with their followers.
There’s another set of influencers in the gaming industry: Esports influencers. Unlike casual gaming influencers, esports gamers participate in professional tournaments organized by esports companies like 100 thieves, Sentinels, etc. Esports gamers, including Tyler' Ninja' Blevins, Pewdiepie, and SSSniperWolf, play competitive matches with other gamers for money prizes.
The esports industry, estimated to grow to 577.2 billion dollars by 2024, is a great place for brands to promote products as the audience heavily engages with the tournament matches. The esports fans show up and support their favorite gamers, which helps brands attract their attention toward their product. Brands can easily piggyback on the tournament's engagement to boost their own.
For example, Aldi and Lidl, Coca-cola, Red Bull, etc., sponsor live streams to promote their core brand messaging by leveraging esports influencers.
E-gamers are excellent at subtly promoting brands during live-streaming games. They also publish sponsored posts on their social media pages to spread awareness and stir conversations about the product.
Although gaming influencers are an obvious choice for gaming brands selling products like gaming chairs, laptops, consoles, etc., many non-gaming brands like GrubHub, Domino's, Spotify, and Samsung, too, are approaching gamers to share content about their products.
For example, Hershey's, a chocolate and cocoa product company, leveraged the gaming sports event, Twitchcon to promote their Reese's Pieces chocolate bars by partnering with top gaming creators Ninja and DrLupo. As part of the partnership, both the creators did a collaborative live stream where they played games together. The live stream was to share the message that Ninja and DrLupo are amazing duos, just like Hershey's and Reese's.
Gaming influencer marketing is not limited to food and beverage or technology-related brands. Beauty brands also do a great job of reaching new audiences with gaming creators. For example, MAC, a leading cosmetics brand, promoted it’s core message - individuality and self-expression by inviting female Twitch gamers like Pokimane to play games at their booth. The brand organized giveaways and makeup application services to attract the audience's attention.
Research from YouGov shows that almost 1 in ten people in the world follow influencers in e-gaming, which means these creators are valuable for brands wanting to enhance their awareness.
Let's understand how video game players can benefit brands.
1. Reach new and untapped audiences
Influencers in e-gaming allow you to reach new audiences that are unreachable through ads or other influencers in health and wellness, fashion, beauty, or more niches. Gamers spend most of their time watching influencers play games on streaming platforms, so they rarely have the time to use social media or look at ads.
Gaming influencer marketing is an excellent medium for brands to reach such an audience as they're available on gaming platforms. For example, food delivery companies can target gamers to increase conversions as they like to munch on food or snacks while playing.
2. Win the younger audience
According to data, more than 150 million people in the US play video games, aged between 18-24. The data clearly shows that the younger generations, millennials and Gen Zers, are loyal gaming fans and a core audience of gaming influencers.
The influencers target these followers and shape the buying decisions of the younger generation by creating a positive brand image. They make the product look cool and in-trend by discussing it and featuring it in their videos. If followers see more and more people using the product, they are more likely to try it out.
3. Engage the audience at multiple touchpoints
Gaming influencers help you acquire new customers by engaging the audience at every touchpoint. It benefits gaming brands as they can engage the audience from the game's launch to downloads.
Related: Dwayne Waite Jr On How Gaming Influencers Help Bond With Target Audience
4. Boost conversions
The gaming audience has a strong purchasing power. Studies show that 52% of US-based gamers are employed, and almost 32% have an income between $50k - $100k, meaning the gamers have access to money and know where to spend it.
Gaming influencers are your best bet if you want to increase your conversions through creator marketing. The influencers have a close relationship with their followers and interact almost daily, encouraging them to try out new products.
Read more: How Brands can Collaborate with Gaming Influencers
Football championship events are the most streamed among sports and gaming fans. Most marketers or advertisers use this time to showcase their campaigns.
Leading brands like Coca-Cola, Adidas, and Nike have the resources to sponsor the FIFA world cup matches, but that's not the case with every brand.
Other companies have limited budgets and resources, because of which they have restricted means to reach their target audience. They cannot afford to sponsor such top-tier sports events to generate brand awareness. For such brands, gaming influencer marketing is a game-changer.
The gaming industry includes many macro, micro, and nano creators who have a loyal audience base and generate excellent engagement rates. Brands can find influencers within their budget and use their engagement to promote products before, during, or after FIFA.
Here are 3 ways brands can use gaming influencers for FIFA marketing campaigns:
1. By directly sponsoring their content
Many influencers in e-gaming are sports enthusiasts who talk about sports events like National Basketball Association (NBA) or FIFA on their social media channels, live streams, or reaction videos. The content creates heavy traction and engages fellow sports fans as they are always looking for the next trending topic.
You can pick influencers who are vocal about sporting events and sponsor their content or ask them to talk about your product in between their videos in exchange for free stuff.
If used well, the strategy will help you engage targeted sports and gaming fans, boosting brand visibility. Or, if you want to increase sales for your product, you can ask influencers to highlight discount codes on their content to encourage the followers to make a direct purchase.
2. By running advertisements with influencer content
FIFA is a worldwide event that is not just streamed on television but also social media and OTT apps. In fact, FIFA has launched its streaming app so football fans can watch live matches for free on their devices. Fifa+, launched in 2022, is an ad-supported digital streaming app that will live stream matches from the men's and women's tournaments, game highlights, player interviews, content series, and more!
The launch of the app proves that most of the audience will be streaming the world cup online, which is a massive opportunity for brands to interact with sports enthusiasts and build long-term relationships with them through the world cup.
Like many brands, you can book ad spaces beforehand and repurpose the authentic influencer-generated content to run engaging ads on social media, streaming apps, and gaming platforms. The influencer content will give your ads a fresh spin, making them look more original and genuine. Since the audience is more likely to watch an ad with a familiar face, using the content of gaming creators may help you gain the trust of mass consumers.
Leslie Ann Fu, popularly known as Fuslie, is a top female gaming influencer who creates lifestyle content and streams games for 100 thieves, an esports organization. Fuslie is a professional gamer on Twitch and is followed by more than a million people. She is equally active on her Instagram page, which talks about life, travel, pets, and more. She works with many gaming and non-gaming brands like Gucci, Refinery29, Lexus, Samsung, DrPepper, Friskies, and more. She mostly plays Leagues of Legend, Valorant, Minecraft, and more.
Valkyrae, a.k.a Rachell Hofstetter, the co-owner of 100 thieves, is an award-winning YouTube gaming influencer who advocates for women in the online gaming industry and is often seen playing games with all-female teams. Rae was the most-watched female streamer in 2020 and also gained a place in the Forbes 30 under 30 list of 2022. She is active on multiple platforms, including Twitch, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram, and posts a lot of lifestyle and fashion-related content. RFLCT, Gucci, Urban Outfitters, Adidas, and Sonya Dakar Skincare, are some of the brands she creates content for.
Pro tip: Hiring an influencer who is present on multiple platforms can help you target and reach newer and broader audiences. You can repurpose content across platforms and drive more traffic and engagement.
Sykkuno is a YouTube game streamer who is also active on Twitter and Instagram. He started streaming in 2019 on Twitch but, in 2022, switched to YouTube and streams exclusively on the platform. His streams include games like league of legends, Grand Theft Auto V, and Among Us. Sykkuno's YouTube channel consists of various content like gaming collaborations and snippets from his game achievements or failures.
Jeremy Wang, or Disguised Toast, is a Taiwanese-Canadian gaming video content creator for Twitch and YouTube. His followers love him for his jaw-aching funny and entertaining content. Besides live streaming, he has done brand collaborations with Celine, Axe, Walmart, Intel, etc., conducted product reviews, and created game snippets and reaction videos. The gamer collaborated with Madrinas Coffee, a US-based caffeine brand, and made a coffee flavor known as French Toast cold brew.
Peter Park, a Twitch game streamer for 100 thieves, is an American YouTuber and Instagram public figure. His Instagram feed has travel, lifestyle, photoshoots, and more. He collaborated with Secret Lab, a gaming chair and desk brand, in 2019 to promote their products. Park is also a co-host on the Boomer vs. Zoomer podcast with 100T Kyedae. He is more active on Twitter, posting game snippets, including fun moments, achievements, failures, etc. His brand collaborations include GrubHub, DoorDash, and HOT POCKETS.
Ryan Higa is a well-known internet personality for his funny YouTube content. Ryan joined Twitch to stream gaming content, where he became a popular content creator. Ryan is also active on other major social networks like Twitter And Instagram and hosts a podcast named Off the pill. He has 21.2 million followers on YouTube and talks about sports-related events like the NBA.
Tarik Celik is a Turkish-American Twitch game streamer active on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. He is a professional Valorant gamer who recently joined the esports gaming world with sentinels. He engages his followers on his Twitter and Instagram pages with personal life updates, gaming achievements, and memes.
Ludwig Anders Ahgren is a Twitch streamer, YouTuber, and esports commentator who creates gaming-related content and TikTok reaction videos. He talks about his interests on his live stream, like sports events, game shows, and gambling. The gaming influencer has a massive viewership on major social media networks due to his funny and entertaining content. He also creates branded content for G Fuel Energy, an energy drink for esports gamers.
Ali Kabbani, popularly known as Myth by his followers, is a professional gamer and a YouTuber in the gaming industry famous for his streams, informational content, and reaction videos. Myth is one of the top Twitch game streamers with more than 7 million followers. He mostly plays Fortnite, among us, Valorant, and more games. He also collaborates with other gamers like Pokimane, Ninja, and more. Myth has an interest in talking about sports events in his live streams.
Markiplier, or Mark Edward Fischbach, is a Hawaii-born American YouTuber who creates 'Let's play' gaming videos on his channel. Markiplier co-founded Cloak, a clothing company, along with his gaming companion Jacksepticeye. The gaming influencer is best known for his commentary-style content and mostly plays survival horror games like Five Nights At Freddie's, Happy Wheels, and more. He also does a lot of charity streams for animal centers, medical institutes, etc. Other than YouTube is active on Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram.
Discover similar gaming content creators on our top influencer ranking page!
Since gaming influencers mostly stream live videos, audiences can see their true personality. Unlike other influencers who mostly create scripted or recorded videos, gaming creators do live videos which are more raw and authentic. Through live content, the followers connect with the gamers on a more personal level and trust them.
However, live content also raises the possibility of gamers swearing or saying the wrong things on sponsored content which can throw the audience off and risk damaging their reputation.
To avoid such cases, brands can spend time understanding the influencer thoroughly before hiring them. Influencer marketing platforms like affable.ai provide all the essential data to vet a creator. Performance metrics like engagement, follower timeline, brand affinity, etc., help brands and agencies determine the perfect influencers.
Get a free trial with affable.ai to learn more about the platform's features!
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