The price of marketing

[camcam]

Hey guys,

I hope most of you know about eSports (Electronic Sports) One of the main titles (Call of Duty) was actually featured at the Xgames this year. Here's an article to show the growth of eSports. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/esports-data

Being in the eSports scene since I was 11, the price of marketing can be very high for a targeted audience of gamers. After competing at the age of 16 up until I was 19, I noticed how much the big names such as Redbull, BenQ , Razer actually throw down into marketing. The rewards are HUGE in eSports but can be very risky.

So my question is - How much do you guys spend on marketing/advertising per year? Do you actually see good conversions? Would your product fit well into eSports.

Answers will help determine the angle of the idea I'm trying to push.

Thanks in advance -

 

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[parkerscott]

Its not esports its gaming, and the advertisement is going to convert dependent on the niche. With gaming the advertisements may be other games, computer hardware software, snacks (doritos, and mtn dew in particular) etc etc. If its a divorce court show at 1pm the advertisements are going to be for tech schools. If its a show on the history channel the advertisements are going to be coins, and memorobilia.

I love gaming although its sucks away my time (hopefully i dont get sucked in by the mfc, and destiny) but the advertisements are going to be a little different. The audiences are primarily younger although there are still some generation y kids that are still playing but its starting to subside. The advertisement will be dependent on the market. I wouldnt try and sell life insurance to gamers, but I would try and sell energy drinks, music, etc

 

[camcam]

It's funny you should say you wouldn't sell life insurance to gamers. MLG (Major League Gaming) acquired First Home Mortgage as a partner. A popular League of Legends team is marketing for Nissan. The same team also markets for a website called 'Homejoy'. Also the term eSports refers to the higher level of the so called gaming. Professional gamers are now considered athletes which there has been some wide spread comments about this.

It doesn't necessarily matter if it's not a gaming orientated product. 'eSports isn't just about gaming' Most of the players that compete at a high level are 18+ anyway for legal reasons. One take I've noticed popping up more and more is Street Fighter, that's going huge in Asia at a high level.

(Also I'm not too keen on destiny)

 

[parkerscott]

I can see why the home mortgages and nissan are advertising. The people playing are still in that demographic. Young adults who may be buying their first car or who may be moving out and need a mortgage. Life insurance is usually sold to people that need to support a family after death.

The product needs to match up with the market. It is becoming more popular though.

 

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[PSDSH]

Just thought I'd add that my 24 year son and two of his buddies have been up in Seattle watching some gaming championship. There's huge money involved there. My son and his friends represent two engineers and a math wizard/teacher. You could market all kinds of products and services to these young men...food, clothing, autos, insurance, financial services, etc...

 

[camcam]

Just thought I'd add that my 24 year son and two of his buddies have been up in Seattle watching some gaming championship. There's huge money involved there. My son and his friends represent two engineers and a math wizard/teacher. You could market all kinds of products and services to these young men...food, clothing, autos, insurance, financial services, etc...

You would be amazed how much you can advertise in this market. It's easy for me to say after being in it for so long. Newbies; it can be confusing.

The worst thing about it is that people see it as 'just' gaming. There is a whole other side to it.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

So my question is - How much do you guys spend on marketing/advertising per year? Do you actually see good conversions? Would your product fit well into eSports.

Answers will help determine the angle of the idea I'm trying to push.

Thanks in advance -

This is a silly question because every single market is different... and every product is different.

Some companies spend 10's of dollar... others literally spend billions.

Do we see good conversions? What is good? 1%? 99%?

No, my products and services would not fit well into eSports.

What exactly are you trying to do?

Just come out and ask the real question so we can give you actionable advice!

If you're super afraid of someone stealing your idea, PM it to me and I probably won't steal it.

 

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[camcam]

This is a silly question because every single market is different... and every product is different.

Some companies spend 10's of dollar... others literally spend billions.

Do we see good conversions? What is good? 1%? 99%?

No, my products and services would not fit well into eSports.

What exactly are you trying to do?

Just come out and ask the real question so we can give you actionable advice!

If you're super afraid of someone stealing your idea, PM it to me and I probably won't steal it.

The real question is exactly what I said ha - I've never spent money on marketing, never needed to. I just wanted to know the lengths of let's say your small/medium businesses go to for it.

As for the idea - it would be an eSports organisation. It's not new, there are ton of them left right and centre. If someone is actually worried about their idea stolen, they need to wake up. Someone will have thought of it/tried it

Serious note - it's just the general expense of marketing, the good and the bad of it really.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pickeringmt]

@camcam I agree with Kung Fu Steve - it is possible that you don't truly understand the purpose of marketing if this is your perspective.

Budget is a constraint on activity because most marketing does cost money, but the entire purpose is to identify the right channel and then sharpen that channel and increase the ROI. At that point, you can get a return on the money you put in and have access to scale until the point of diminishing returns is reached.

From what I can gather from this extremely vague question, you need to focus on identifying the right channel first - so research is the name of the game. The only way you can understand your budget is to test and research until you find the right channel. That will give you a cost you can base your budget on.

That channel should be 80% of your marketing budget - the other 20% goes to research and testing in other channels. This is where you focus on boosting the ROI on your 80% until your conversions rate is acceptable.

Just remember it can always be better

 

[LibertyForMe]

Just thought I'd add that my 24 year son and two of his buddies have been up in Seattle watching some gaming championship.

Yea, that is the DOTA 2 tournament. The prize pool is something like 8 million dollars. It is insane, and has a massive fan base.

I am not sure what you are trying to do, but maybe you could partner up with the gaming companies; give them some equity in your gig in exchange for promotion and stuff. If Valve has access to 20 million gamers, and you got them to be involved with your gaming headset startup, good things could happen.

 

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[Kung Fu Steve]

"How much should you spend on marketing?"

As much as you possibly can.

The winner in business is the one who can afford to spend the most to acquire a customer.

(Side note: because they have an intelligent funnel set up, know their numbers, and know they will have a positive ROI)