PR Case Study: Kazoo – The Gfinity Elite Series
Kazoo created a media strategy and a wide range of content to help raise awareness around Gfinity’s Elite Series eSports competition through traditional and social media.
Campaign: Launching the Elite Series: the first eSports tournament of its kind
Client: Gfinity eSports
PR Team: Kazoo
Timing: March – December 2017
Summary
Kazoo was tasked with promoting the Gfinity Elite Series, an eSports tournament that gives amateur gamers the chance to make it as a professional and play alongside the best in the world.
The tournament was designed to raise the profile of eSports in the UK by creating a platform for undiscovered talent to shine and uncover the eSports stars of the future. It takes place at the Gfinity eSports Arena in London and there are two seasons per year.
Objectives
- Gain reach and traction for Elite Series beyond the gaming world, taking it into the mainstream to attract new eSports fans.
- Create a story to signify of Gfinity’s ‘From Bedroom to Podium’ strategy, telling the story from amateur to pro.
Strategy and implementation
Backed by a comprehensive press office, Kazoo developed a media strategy to help educate people about eSports in general, the tournament itself and the stars of the show – the teams and players.
Kicking off with a huge media relations programme to explain what Elite Series is and how it would benefit UK gamers, it then developed content to announce each team competing in the tournament to introduce them to the UK audiences and start to build a fan base.
Throughout the Elite Series the agency identified the best players with the most interesting backgrounds and characters and told their stories through the media, thus providing a unique insight into the exciting world of eSports and inspiring others to start their journey.
This included stories of where they’d come from, training regimes, behind-the-scenes access and what the world of eSports can offer aspiring gamers.
Kazoo packaged up video content of each week’s highlights throughout the competition’s run, with accompanying copy, and provided this to media so that they could follow the tournament through its 10 weeks of action.
The agency championed the overall tournament winners, ensuring that they were available for interview right across the media. Doing so positioned the Elite Series as a pinnacle eSports tournament in the UK and further elevated the Gfinity brand, placing it at the heart of the conversation about live eSports events.
This took the brand to new sectors and audiences including regular sports, business, marketing and national newspapers.
Results
Delivering against the objective of taking eSports into the mainstream in the UK, over 180 positive media articles were secured in media that had not previously written about eSports. Over 20 interviews with players and teams were placed, including standout features in The Daily Telegraph, London Evening Standard, Metro, MailOnline and the Daily Express website.
The Elite Series triggered a change in how UK media perceived eSports – from initially being reluctant to write about it during Elite Series season 1, to running weekly Elite Series video highlights in season 2.
Total circulation figures for both series:
Media
- Total pieces of coverage: 181
- Total reach: 6,476,870,152
- Total number of videos appeared: 37
Social media
- YouTube –163,933 minutes of premium content watched
- Facebook – 1,654,786 total video views and 1,153,955 engagements
- Twitter – 11,614,852 impressions
