Engaging with ESports @ Gamescom
- ClientAirbus
- Services
- IndustryGaming, Aviation
- ProjectGamescom
- LocationCologne, Germany
2Heads developed an end-to-end campaign that included concept, experience design, events, ticketing, social and influencer marketing, content creation and PR/communications strategy.
Engaging with esports
Autumn 2019 was home to the world’s largest Esports events with Gamescom held in Germany and Madrid Gaming Week held in Spain. The highlights of the gaming calendar, bright young minds flocked virtually or physically to these events from all over the world to hear about the future and be part of the action.
01
The Brief
A Showcase with Meaning
As a digitally led business Airbus wanted to connect with potential new employees at international eSports event Gamescom in Cologne. At a show well-known for highly competitive engagement innovation, Airbus chose 2Heads as their agency to merge experiential marketing with digital solutions.
As a digitally led business Airbus wanted to connect with potential new employees at international eSports event Gamescom in Cologne. At a show well-known for highly competitive engagement innovation, Airbus chose 2Heads as their agency to merge experiential marketing with digital solutions.
Inclusivity and diversity were a crucial message and 2Heads designed an event that centered around the Airbus all-female gaming team, Out of the Blue and the crowd’s interaction with them. Using the hybrid event tech setup, we invited participants into a physical space to take part in a virtual tournament of ‘League of Legends,’ against the OOB team with the opportunity, once engaged, to learn more about Airbus via other digital solutions.
02
The Challenge
Creating a presence
The challenge was to take non-gaming client Airbus and enter the highly developed ESports ‘space’ whilst delivering on their objective of demonstrating diversity and inclusivity. We needed to create a comprehensive story around Airbus’s presence at major gaming events and ensure the concept had an engagement strategy that could be flawlessly delivered.
The challenge was to take non-gaming client Airbus and enter the highly developed ESports ‘space’ whilst delivering on their objective of demonstrating diversity and inclusivity. We needed to create a comprehensive story around Airbus’s presence at major gaming events and ensure the concept had an engagement strategy that could be flawlessly delivered.
Airbus social media wanted to use the campaign to promote worldwide visibility of the Airbus brand and career opportunities within, focusing on the interactions and sharing atmosphere of people both online and in the physical events. The challenge here was to create PR and social media engagement with a ESports community that do not normally follow or reference Airbus.
03The Process
Social Media
The campaign call to action #Levelup was promoted through the carry-away chairs, the environment, the twitch stream and via social media to show this was a activation with several meanings; equality, inclusivity, diversity and also a reference to the League of Legend tournament itself
Streaming
As part of the gaming and to connect with the virtual audience, 2Heads created a non-stop livestream event on Twitch that featured rich content; from live camera footage to high impact motion graphics and direct feeds from the 5v5 eSports gaming matches. Visitors could pre-book via an App to challenge the OOB team in 5v5 matches live.
The Event Hack
At ESport events, there is a need for content that resonates but also stands out from the noise. To solve this problem and create real energy around the space, our team developed a series of Event Hack moments. These takeover moments ‘hacked’ the event to run a tight crowd interaction sequence and giveaway exclusive branded swag.
The Compere
Well known caster/influencer #Lewpac drove crowd engagement and expanded the reach of the event via his own social following. Combining viewership across #OOB, #Airbus and #Lewpac’s channels, we drove strong engagement of the Airbus message beyond their core followership and into ESport audiences.
04
Solution
A Non-stop Streaming Hybrid Event
Airbus Social media wanted to use the campaign to promote worldwide visibility of the Airbus brand and career opportunities. We created the campaign #LEVELUP in support of the event as it spoke to both worlds, career progression and gaming; both fueled by the drive to reach the next goal. #LEVELUP was supported by press releases, a three-week social media campaign to engage key influencers and in-show promotional giveaways with all sign-ups to the tournament engaged online.
Airbus Social media wanted to use the campaign to promote worldwide visibility of the Airbus brand and career opportunities. We created the campaign #LEVELUP in support of the event as it spoke to both worlds, career progression and gaming; both fueled by the drive to reach the next goal. #LEVELUP was supported by press releases, a three-week social media campaign to engage key influencers and in-show promotional giveaways with all sign-ups to the tournament engaged online.
A key part of the strategy was to highlight diversity and inclusivity in tech careers. By opening up challenge matches with the OOB team to anyone from the audience, Airbus celebrated the diversity of people at GamesCom and the wider gaming community. Dwell time as a result was considerable, we recorded a big increase in brand awareness, and visitors came back day after day to continue the experience.
‘What we liked about the 2Heads concept was the way it told a full comprehensive story about our presence at gaming events as Airbus, and the partnership Airbus is building with eSports.’ – Airbus Employment Marketing
Key metrics:
- 36K Live Visitors
- 2.640 Virtual Visitors
- 1640K Social Media Impressions
- 36,000 visitors over the 4-day event with 3,000 direct interactions in the tech demos.
- The #LevelUp campaign enjoyed 11,300 social media interactions
- There were a further 1.6 million online impressions, including 62,800 Instagram story impressions and 158,000 Facebook impressions
- The twitch live feed enjoyed 2,640 visitors during tournament time and hundreds of video recording views.
- The tournament was fully booked throughout the 4 days with the original 8 team slots increased by 250% to 20 team slots. During the tournament 185 different people battled the OOB all female team
- Crucially, Airbus benefited from a substantial increase in applications and conversions for job applicants directly from the event
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