- Nielsen has analyzed the way Fnatic has impacted the ROI for its mainstream sponsors and partners
- The analyst companies argues that esports organization are providing better value than some top-tier sports counterparts
- Nielsen expects the revenue from esports partnerships to continue growing as are audiences on annual basis
Nielsen Sports & Entertainment, a data analyst firm, has taken another look at the esports industry and the expected return on investment companies invested in the space stand to make. The company has collaborated with Fnatic, an established European esports organization for “The ROI of Esports” whitepaper which ponders the issue at length.
Esports Organizations Drive Robust ROI for Traditional Businesses
The whitepaper focuses on studying the monetization channels available in the esports industry and the brands that choose to participate in it. Fnatic has been used as the basis for this study, which focused on several key areas to name media exposure and reach, brand and business impact, and activation and engagement.
Fnatic has significantly increased its presence across social media and in real life thanks to several partnership opportunities, making it a strong case study for Nielsen. In fact, the whitepaper established that sponsoring Fnatic generated a better return on investment than sponsoring some traditional sports teams.
The traditional sports teams were on par with their esports organizations, meaning that Nielsen focused on top-tier organizations in both cases.
The report predicts that esports ROI will continue to improve in the future as the vertical is nearing a maturity point which makes it easier to leverage esports and traditional products together.
Commenting on the report, Nielsen Sports and Entertainment head of strategy Phelan Hill said:
“Esports is evolving. The best esports properties are now 24/7 multi-platform content businesses offering an unrivalled number of opportunities for sponsors to engage with a typically youthful audience that can have higher and more positive engagement rates than traditional sports properties.”
Nielsen Sports and Entertainment head of strategy Phelan Hill
Hill spoke about Fnatic’s own role in creating a strong brand that has been able to affiliate itself with not just trusted partners but collaborators within the video gaming space – such as content creators and streamers – in order to build a strong footprint that drives a strong ROI for sponsors.
ROI and Audiences Continual to Increase on Annual Basis
There has been significant growth in esports audiences at a compounded rate of 10-20% on annual basis, which means that esports is still growing and so is the number of consumers that brands can reach. Although Hill did not talk about the free distribution of content in esports, it’s evident that this model has allowed the industry to reach more people at a time when traditional sports charges hundreds of dollars annually to bring basic content.
Fnatic partnerships director George Mead welcome the whitepaper and confirmed that Fnatic has been aware of the progress made all along. The organization has continued to experience robust growth while also boosting ROI for its partners, some of which include BMW, AMD, Monster, Jack Link’s Hisense, L’Oréal and many others. The Survey found out that the increase in MBW brand preference has raised by 36% thanks to its partnership with Fnatic.
To dig into the specifics of the survey, you may access the full document at Fnatic’s official website.
