The Consultancy is in the blog

Lacoste In an era where consumers’ blind trust has disappeared across all industries , honesty and authenticity have become the qualities that matter most. More than ever, companies are being held to higher standards . New generations expect more from brands. From the shirt they wear to the poke bowl they post on Instagram, they choose products and services that align with the values they want to project online and off, increasing the need for brands to be value conscious. Of course, customers still want value for their money. But today, specific values now count more than price .  When talking about “new generations”, of course the famous Generation Y or Millennials come to mind. The catchword generation. The game-changers. The so-called “destroyers of industries”. They were born roughly between 1980 and 1995, and have been a point of focus for the last few years. The Centennials or Gen Z are another up-and-coming, yet still largely unknown, younger group born after 1996. 

Riot Games Of the USD1.5 billion worldwide eSports market , investors account for 50 per cent and sponsors/advertisers are close behind at 35 per cent . The remaining portion is comprised of prize pools (6 per cent), merchandise and ticket sales (5 per cent), and betting and amateur tournaments (5 per cent).  Intel, T-mobile, Coca-Cola, Airbus, Mercedes-Benz and Nike are some of the biggest sponsors at the moment. The link is obvious for internet-computer moguls Intel and T-Mobile, but what’s in it for Airbus and Mercedes-Benz?  Coca-Cola Company eSports puts brands in front of an audience that is becoming notoriously difficult to reach . The viewers of eSports’ content are less likely to consume traditional media . They grew up watching YouTube and getting content on demand. For them, heading to popular video game streaming site Twitch to watch a match is traditional. Primarily comprised of millennials, they are also v ery savvy at avoiding old-school advertising . 

Getty Images ESports exploded in 2010. Good players started posting their gaming sessions on global online platforms such as Youtube and Dailymotion , but they lacked the capacity to live stream interact directly with the gaming community. This led to a simple yet remarkable solution that changed the industry forever: Twitch .  Called ‘Justin.tv’ before being absorbed by its mother branch, Twitch is the No. 1 destination for gamers wanting to showcase their skills and for people wanting to watch them. The streaming service was branded as the online gathering point for gamers around the world. Its growth has been spectacular: in 2012, the number of minutes spent on Twitch videos was 72 billion. In 2018, the minutes jumped to 560 billion . This exponential expansion can be explained in part by gamers professionalizing their content and achieving more and better sponsorships, plus gaming companies’ choice to live stream their tournaments on Twitch.  Quick note: in 2014, Amazon