Sports Marketing Executives: 3 Action Items to Help You Leverage the Next Big Thing in Sports Marketing

For sports marketers, advertising mediums are constantly changing, due in part to advancements in technology and in part to disruptions in the ad tech industry. After spending the summer working in the digital marketing department at Under Armour and spending four years at Northwestern University studying marketing, I have come across two articles on the future of sports video game advertisements that can help you improve your company’s return on ad spend.

The article “‘NBA 2K19’ And Other Sports Games Have Gone Overboard With Ads — And it’s Ruining the Fun” comes from Business Insider gaming reporter, Kevin Webb. Webb discusses the current state of aggressive advertising in sports games and how as games try to become more life-like, they are adopting a similar ad strategy to the actual sports leagues. Webb mentions the popular basketball games, “NBA 2K19” and “NBA Live 19,” which both have sponsorships with Nike and Jordan brands. However, the in-game ads transcend just equipping players with their product, but also include non-traditional marketing tactics like the Jordan-branded Parisian streetball tournament mode.

 

Citation: https://www.statista.com/statistics/516094/value-video-games-advertising-market-usa/. 

In Yahoo! Finance’s piece, “Teens Are Obsessed With Watching Netflix And Playing Video Games," Brian Sozzi explores a recent Piper Jaffray survey of 8,500 teens, which found that about 83 percent of teens own or expect to buy a current generation gaming console. The study found that teens are spending more time playing video games each week, and that “male teens spend almost as much on video games (and consoles) as they do on basic elements required for survival,” Michael Olsen, author of the report, said. The report also found that stocks were soaring for video-game publishers like Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take Two Interactive.

Based on these articles and my experience in the sports digital marketing industry, I’ve developed three action items you should consider when planning your next digital advertisement buys.

• Capitalize on Video Games - Teens are increasingly obsessed with video games, making effective video game ad content that much more important for garnering exposure to young audiences.

• Find Your Game - Finding the right video game to advertise in is important because advertising with an already crowded game can create negative consumer sentiment.

• Attract Gen Z - A recent survey conducted by Piper Jaffray showed that about 83 percent of teens own or expect to buy a current generation gaming console, making it that much easier to reach a broad generation through one advertising medium.

The next time you’re thinking about diversifying how your company shows up in the digital ad space, consider these three important items about advertising with video games.

Dan Waldman is a senior at Northwestern University, studying Journalism, Business Institutions, and Integrated Marketing Communications. He has previously worked for Under Armour and the National Basketball Retired Players Association.

You can connect with Dan on Twitter or LinkedIn.