Hershey is gravitating toward opportunities in esports

The Hershey Company is looking to reach non-traditional audiences through esports, per Digiday. Hershey has traditionally allocated the bulk of its media spend to traditional TV advertising, but it’s increasingly diversifying its media spend beyond traditional TV and into more digital spaces. The esports phenomenon has opened up a channel to reach hundreds of millions of eyeballs worldwide.

Hershey is increasingly investing in esports as it looks to tap into audiences its traditional buys likely miss — in particular millennial and Gen Z males under age 25. Hershey decided to ramp up its commitment to the fast-growing space after seeing younger audiences flock to streaming sites like Twitch and YouTube to engage with gamers live-streaming their sessions.

Twitch, the No.1 streaming site for gamers, touts 15 million unique daily visitors, and over 2.2 million creators who live stream their gameplay. The global esports audience is projected to hit 600million by 2023 — up from 281 million just three years ago, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates. And revenue will rise with it: Global esports revenue is forecasted to reach $2.96billion by 2022, up from $869 million in 2018.

There are three primary methods for brands to advertise in esports:

• Event sponsorships. While brands can reach esports viewers by advertising on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, they can also reach millions of esports event attendees and viewers by sponsoring major live competitions. For instance,200million viewers tuned into the League of Legends World Championship in 2018 — nearly double the number that watched the Super Bowl that year, which clocked in at about 98 million viewers. That same event sold 23,000 tickets in under four hours, with game owner Riot releasing an additional 3,000 to meet the overwhelming demand.

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Categorized in: Esports News