With Philippine e-sports on the rise and the growth of local gaming communities locked on a steady uptrend pace, more and more brands are gaining interest in being affiliated with them.
For global brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, it is only logical to be involved since a great majority of their target market (75% to be precise) are customers below the age of 35. Even Louis Vuitton’s artistic director for women’s collection Nicolas Ghesquière is collaborating with Riot Games, who is the developer of the famed online gaming title League of Legends in designing artwork and digital assets for the upcoming Worlds 2019 tournament.
But selecting which gaming influencers represents each brand the best, as well as deliver engaging brand visibility that actually gains results, companies who do not have experience on dealing with this industry can be easily swayed by players posing to be influential and have an increased following. To help brands navigate their way into finding who to sponsor, particularly for Philippine-based corporations, a new technology firm is bridging the gap between these brands and the e-sport sponsorship opportunities on the other end.
Meta.us is an online platform where both the gamers and sponsors can join in. Aside from the brands who can list their KPIs and expectations from the gaming athletes, event organizers who want their competitions to be legitimized and recorded on a database can track their players. In a nutshell, it’s a LinkedIn and online marketplace meshed into one, catering only for the gaming and e-sports industry.
“Brands want to reach the esports demographic but need transparency and confidence in the vendors they select and assurance that they will get an ROI. Our platform Meta.us is built to do exactly that,” said Alan Chou, CEO and co-founder of Meta.us.
When asked about the benefits that sponsors will gain from the platform, Chou replied that investors will be able to protect themselves against fly-by-night gaming teams, and instead will be introduced to e-sports players that are accountable and able to produce measurable results amidst the congested e-sports athlete landscape. Sponsors will have access to a backend system, and similar to a bidding platform, will be able to view and measure, as well as compare, their applicants.
Chou emphasized that the audience for e-sports is growing and noted that based on a study from game and e-sports analytics provider Newzoo, the projected global viewership for activities and content related to the gaming industry is 453.8 million this year alone, with a 15% growth on an annual timetable. That is why the discovery and development of talent in e-sports backed by a system that enables them to play and develop a track record of performance is beneficial.
“Our ultimate vision is to provide young people who are passionate about e-sports with an opportunity to live their dream of getting discovered,” shared Chou, who already has more than 10 years of experience in the video gaming space and enjoys, in his own words, “creating something from nothing.”
The current roster of games that Meta.us supports include Defense of the Ancients 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Arena of Valor, Players Unknown Battlegrounds, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, Hearthstone, Rumble League, Rules of Survival, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Garena Free Fire, and Auto Chess.
