Engaging with eSports @ GamesCom
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. 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.
The 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.
The physical space we created was pure gamer architecture with the focus on the digital immersion once entered. We even put the full setup on show with full light and sound decs, 90” screens, live stream setup and caster control monitors. From engagement through VR showcases and Hololens Airbus demonstrations, we used digital aspects to create content opportunities for the audience to populate their own social media feed. Within the full packed agenda, we merged physical events such as live robotics programming experience with the digital such as the Airbus coding competition. To create real energy around the space, our team also developed a series of Event Hacks; takeover moments with screens, sound and lighting being ‘hacked’ to run a tight crowd interaction sequence, ending with giveaways of exclusive branded swag from Airbus and the OOB team. These moments only lasted 2-3 minutes but resulted in crowd surges of 180-200%.
The Results | A Focus on Guest Interactions
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
- 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.
