Japanese Government x Esports & Gaming
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on verifying advertising value in esports and games for Gen Zs
On June 17, 2022, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a report on the “Reiwa 3rd Year Content Overseas Expansion Promotion Project (Project for Verifying Advertising Value in e-Sports and Game Spaces in Generation Z)”. The 151-page material summarizes Gen Z’s consumption behavior and advertising value in the game space with examples.
The “Content Overseas Expansion Promotion Project” is a project to revitalize international transactions and create new markets by providing opportunities for business matching related to content and content technologies such as anime, manga, movies, and music originating in Japan. .. In this report, we will analyze the needs of generation Z and communication tools that stick to them, analyze consumption behavior in game space such as e-sports, and analyze the potential when advertising is provided there, case of sponsor exposure in e-sports It summarizes study surveys and interview surveys with each company.
Generation Z, born after the latter half of the 1990s, is the generation that will lead consumption in the future. Their consumption behavior, which they have been accustomed to using smartphones and SNS (exchange sites) since childhood, is different from that of the previous generation. Generation Z products and brands are shifting from traditional TV and newspapers to SNS and video sharing services, and are easily influenced by influencers and the communities to which they belong.
In addition, Gen Z’s consumption behavior is characterized by the tendency for “pulse-type consumption,” which takes a short period from product recognition to purchase, to occur. One-way marketing may be used upstream of consumer behavior (cognition, appeal), but interactive marketing becomes more effective as it goes downstream (behavior, recommendation). It is interactive marketing such as user experience and communication that sticks to Gen Z who buys favorite products on the spot and posts them on SNS.
The global game market is estimated to reach $ 204.6 billion in 2011, and the player population is expected to exceed 3 billion. Generation Z has a high level of engagement with the game in terms of “playing” and “watching.” About 80% of Gen Z experience games and spend more of their disposable time playing games than other entertainment. Compared to other generations, it is also a feature of Generation Z that the viewing time of live games and distribution is long.
It is because games are one of the communication tools for Generation Z and are a place for community formation. Many game companies have implemented various functions in their games, such as voice call function, friend function, and group function, in order to promote communication between users. In addition, the game experience has changed with the progress of technology, and recently, metaverse-like movements that provide non-game experiences, such as performing live music in the in-game space, are spreading.
In addition, game-related video content also forms a community of distributors and users, and users. YouTube’s popular live game broadcaster has over 100 million subscribers. According to a survey result, about 46% of men in their teens and about 33% of men in their 20s watch live game videos and capture videos at least once a week.
Meanwhile, the global esports-related market is expected to grow to $ 1.62 billion in 2012, and the esports population is expected to reach 580 million. In Japan as well, the e-sports-related market is approaching 70 billion yen, and the current e-sports population is estimated to be 17 million.
Under such circumstances, the e-sports advertising market is drawing attention. Advertising methods are broadly divided into sponsorship and in-game advertising, in which the brand logo is displayed in the game or the product appears as an item.
There are “players / teams”, “events”, “facilities”, etc. as sponsorship destinations for e-sports, and various companies are entering as sponsors in order to obtain rights such as naming rights and exclusive sales rights. There are more than 20 companies that sponsorship, such as Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd. of the “National High School Esports Championship”, VH Retail Service Co., Ltd. of “Ninja ism Gaming”, and Tokyo Metro (Tokyo Metro) of “Crest Gaming”. Can be mentioned.
On the other hand, although there are many examples of in-game advertising being used overseas, the situation is that business development in Japan is yet to come. Compared to Internet advertisements and TV advertisements, the cost per impression is cheaper, and the targeting accuracy for Generation Z is high, so it is expected in the future.
The challenges in developing the esports market are increasing revenue and stable content creation. As new sources of revenue, NFT (non-fungible token) and crypto asset (virtual currency) businesses that utilize blockchain (distributed ledger) technology are attracting attention. Another challenge for the stable creation of content is improving the economic status of e-sports players. For that purpose, there is an urgent need to improve the environment so that athletes can concentrate on the competition and to build an ecosystem that can return profits according to the activities of athletes.
