Marketers, don’t miss out on the ‘perfect storm’ of esports

The $700 million global competitive gaming industry is one of the largest yet most underutilized marketing channels in the digital marketing space. In an era of growing skepticism toward traditional methods of advertising, esports offers a new and lucrative gateway for marketers to reach over 385 million people globally. In fact, even more than the hard-to-reach male population, esports is growing popular among women and the generation after millennials, Generation Z — the latter commands $44 billion in spending power, and is projected to become 40 percent of all American consumers by 2020.

You’d think that investing marketing dollars in a broad, digitally savvy, highly engaged audience like the esports fanbase would be a no-brainer. Surprisingly, only $280 million was spent on esports advertising last year, making up just a small fraction of the digital advertising market, which is projected to reach $130 billion by the end of the decade. Considering the opportunity for growth and obvious benefits esports has to offer, it’s strange that marketers are only just beginning to take notice of this new channel.