6 May 2024 | Strategy & Solution Article
Esports is growing quickly but it still remains a young industry faced with many challenges as it seeks to establish its business model. Esports clubs and leagues are the protagonists shaping this industry, and one of their key challenges is fan engagement. Indeed, fan engagement is crucial for growth and ensuring financial sustainability, which is largely dependent on sponsorship deals.
Why is fan engagement challenging?
Understanding what truly excites the fan base is an art that requires going beyond conventional tactics. It's a difficult task because the industry still lacks the necessary knowledge and tools for effective esports fan engagement. Kboom.gg analytics studies show that traditional engagement methods only capture the attention of about 30% of the fan base actively participating in social media campaigns.
This is a go to tactic for all the existing players in esports, including clubs. While this tactic may still be effective in industries that aren't heavily dependent on their fans, it no longer excites loyal esport fans.
Even top brands with millions of fans continue to rely on old-school methods that dont really work. Lets consider the classic like-comment-repost lucky giveaway
fans indicated a preference for earning rewards through loyalty rather than luck!
This highlights a stark contrast with only 22% favoring random giveaways.This trend has been strengthening over the past two years, as earlier data showed only 65% preference for loyalty-based rewards, suggesting a growing desire for deeper, more meaningful engagement with their favorite teams.
Moreover, contests like this often motivate fans to act (like, comment, repost) with the aim of winning items like gaming chairs or keyboards, rather than to increase the visibility of the club they love or the company sponsoring it. While rewarding both motives can drive engagement, focusing on the right motives can bring long-term predictability and stability to the fan base. Currently, there is no way to connect with, track, and reward fans who wish long-term growth for the clubs they support. The laundry list of fundamental problems like this, makes fan management a real challenge and an unavoidable obstacle in the pursuit of a stable business model.
The benefits of a well executed fan engagement strategy can be a game changer for an Esport Club!
In short term, engagement strategies can increase merchandise sales or boost viewing hours.
In the long term, a powerful fanbase can be a substantial competitive leverage.
And hence teams can enjoy stable revenue streams, healthy relationship with sponsors and much more. Our esport-club-valuation-model indicates that clubs utilizing personalized engagement strategies see an average increase of 50% in active fan participation rates and thereby a 20% uplift in annual sponsorship value due to increased fanbase visibility and interaction.But how to find, design & execute an engagement idea that taps the right emotions of your fanbase and drives desired action?
Awe aim to help esports team to exactly do the same! Our work so far has helped popular teams to make their fanbase go crazy with gamified fan mangement strategies like Quests, Adventures, Match Predictions, and more. Later in this article, we will be talking about "Quests", a strategic feature of Kboom, that never fails to make fans go gaga.We don’t believe in Silver bullets, instead we aim to solve the fan engagement problem from the roots. This goal gave birth to research wing of, Kboom Fanalytics.At boom Fanalytics, we've delved deep into the minds of thousands of esports fans, uncovering insights that have reshaped the landscape of fan engagement. Leading clubs have embraced our findings, implementing strategies that have surpassed expectations time and time again. The beauty of our approach? It's not a one-time wonder—it's a well-oiled engine that delivers results consistently.Our recent Clash Of Clubs event proved that implementing gamified, challenge-based engagement strategies like "Quests" has led to a 65% improvement in weekly fan engagement metrics. Moreover, some clubs have noted a 40% higher retention rate of engaged fans over next 3 months.Let us get straight to the point. We discovered, in a recent fan survey, an insight and converted it into a powerful fan engagement feature.
Remember the thrill of a childhood dare?
"I bet You can't do this"
It's a timeless form of interaction, and in the realm of esports, it's pure gold.Challenges are the lifeblood of esports fandom. Whether it's a friendly wager over a game or the pursuit of a legendary Pentakill in CS:GO, challenges captivate fans and compel them to immerse themselves deeper into the community. The thrill of victory and the determination to conquer defeat drive fan engagement to new heights.But how can esports teams seamlessly integrate challenges into their fan engagement strategies?
What if there’s a way for esports teams to create personalised in-game & social challenges for it’s fans? Our teams started finding ways to convert this love for challenges into a tool. But a tool that challenges the fans at a personal level, that keeps track of it, and that rewards fan the right way was not an easy task, especially when the fan base is in the millions.
Kboom.gg the swiss knife of Fan engagement, finally created something. The fans like to call it Quests.
This innovative feature of Kboom empowers teams to create challenges that resonate with fans on multiple levels. Fans spend the earned energy (XP) to initiate quests and earn Gems & Coins upon completion. In this self-sufficient fan ecosystem, fans can exchange the earned gens to get privileged access to team merchandise and resources. And the coins boost the team visibility—a win-win for both fans and teams alike.Furthermore, Quests on Kboom works well for all the psychographic esports fan segments. Kboom Fanalytics categorises fans into three main groups: skill-based fans, entertainment-based fans, and relationship-based fans. Quests have the unique ability to fascinate, provoke, and engage fans across all three categories. Withflexible and traceable quest system, esports teams can tailor quests to suit the preferences of each fan group, fostering deeper connections with their audience.
Does it sound too good to be true? Click here to effortlessly create your first quest with just a few clicks. Let the journey begin...
