Why esports betting company Rivalry uses a chicken mascot to get higher in the pecking order among esports fans
July 4, 2023 • 3 min be taught • By Alexander Lee
Ivy Liu
The esports making a guess company Contention is growing popular characters and IP to raise its profile among avid gamers and esports followers. As a replace of working straight with esports leagues or teams, Contention is the employ of a guerrilla advertising and marketing and marketing solution to organically insert its mascots into esports proclaims and dwell events, growing engagement and process spherical its social accounts and esports making a guess platform.
Since final twelve months, Contention has despatched actors dressed up as popular personality mascots into the stands at notable esports events. Its most incessantly frail personality is “the chicken” — a buff, vuvuzela-wielding man dressed in a huge chicken costume.
Since attending most original esports tournaments corresponding to Might well impartial’s BLAST Paris Principal and June’s CBOLAO event in Brazil, the chicken has change into a favored meme within the esports community. Twitch creators co-streaming the events time and again and gleefully called out the chicken, which was once then became into a fan-made in-recreation decal within the “Counter-Strike” recreation and even featured in just a few tweets by the legit BLAST yarn.
Contention representatives declined to attribute assert channel recount metrics to the chicken, but infamous that engagement has elevated by 12 percent month-to-month across Contention’s Brazilian Twitter and Instagram accounts following the chicken’s presence at CBOLAO. Across its appearances on a sort of most original event proclaims and social philosophize material, Contention estimated that the chicken has already quiet just a few million impressions. One of the most practical share? All of this attention barely impress a cent for Contention.
“That was once all entirely organic; this complete thing prices us nothing,” talked about Contention CEO Steven Salz. “In Latin The United States, this chicken has change into a known thing, the attach we send this guy to any ‘CS:GO’-connected thing within the plan, and folk slump crazy.”
When Contention signed a contract with the favored Brazilian creator collective Tribo in Might well impartial, it featured the chicken in its announcement video.
Though Contention believes the chicken’s recognition has raised avid gamers’ consciousness of its offerings, some esports followers are followers of the chicken in its dangle factual, without even connecting it to the Contention impress. Vladislav Zvonkikh, the artist who designed the chicken’s in-recreation decal, was once now not aware of Contention when reached for comment by Digiday.
“My excellent friend shouted at me, ‘dude, or now not it is a must must draw it! This would per chance per chance even be a monumental decal for the recreation,’” Zvonkikh talked about. “For me, this guy with the pinnacle of a chicken was once some of the highlights of the match.”
Zvonkikh’s lack of familiarity with Contention — in spite of his certain enjoyment of the chicken — presentations one ability home in which Contention’s popular-IP technique will be improved. The chicken himself has huge followers, but the pipeline to web these followers over to Contention will be improved.
“You esteem to must contain the integrity and the joy of the chicken swimsuit, and you don’t are making an try to accurate notify ‘Contention’ all over the attach,” talked about Jamie Wootton, head of esports on the advertising and marketing and marketing agency AFK, who was once within the stands for the interval of the chicken’s invasion of the BLAST Paris Principal. “But I don’t mediate it would possibly per chance per chance well be pleased entirely beaten the authenticity if he had ‘Contention’ somewhere on him.”
Still, by investing in popular characters and IP to promote its product in its attach of following a extra ragged advertising and marketing and marketing technique, Contention is signaling its native figuring out of gaming and esports fandom — and its enjoyment of the ridiculous. To this level, it’s been an efficient — and worth-effective — methodology to attain the esports viewers.
“Esports followers, better than most, esteem partaking in experiences and personalities — you gaze that within the upward thrust of influencer advertising and marketing and marketing over the final 10 or so years,” Wootton talked about. “Fans purchase into these storylines and that sense of community, and I mediate they actually acknowledge to that better than the ragged sponsorships.”
https://digiday.com/?p=509281
