SKILLSHOT CONNECTS LEADING BRANDS, ENGAGED GAMING FANS, AND POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT.
Now why exactly would major brands — as diverse as Coca-Cola, US Army, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Piedmont, Georgia State University, Spelman College, DoorDash, Chelsea FC, Comcast, Cox, Turner, Intel, HP, Lenovo, Boys and Girls Club, Make-A-Wish Georgia, YMCA, Soccer in the Streets, United Spinal Association of Georgia, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Falcons, Pro Football Hall of Fame and so many other companies across various industries — choose to engage with Skillshot and videogames?
Gaming For Marketing Relevancy
Well, many are unaware that the videogame industry is the biggest entertainment industry on the planet, larger than the film industry and the music industry combined. The gaming industry is over $200 billion in global revenue and there are currently 3.1 billion active game players.
Even more telling is the clear trend in generational data. Gaming has evolved into a social activity, connecting players around the world and fostering shared excitement, particularly among newer generations. Gen Z and Gen Alpha rank gaming as their top source of leisure – well above movies, television, or music. And over 50% of Gen Alpha players discover and purchase from brands featured in games.
Simply put, leading companies across all industries are engaging with videogames and gaming culture because that is where the people are.
Gaming For Good
Gaming may be popular, but is that a good thing? Perhaps you fear that playing video games leads to social isolation, makes people violent, or is a waste of time.
Without personal experience or familiarity with the research, how would you know that gaming has the potential to help improve cognitive skills, socialization, mental health, education, and even career readiness?
Citing one recent study close to home, in 2022 Georgia State University’s Neuroscience Institute found that video game players demonstrate superior perception and decision-making skills. Another 2022 study found that 42% of gamers have met a very close friend, significant other, or even spouse from gaming. Gaming is, in fact, our most engaging and constructive form of social networking!
It may help you to reframe the situation by replacing “gaming activity” with the board game chess, which has a more positive intellectual reputation, despite the fact that many video games are as cognitively complex as chess. Many games also require cooperation with other humans like a traditional team sport. Games are an opportunity to learn teamwork, communication skills, social-emotional learning, resiliency, and STEAM skill growth.
With the right partner, companies can effectively market their goods and services via gaming while at the same time supporting skill development, community development, and workforce development. Brands can, in fact, do well by doing good.
Gaming With Skillshot
The team at Skillshot has decades of experience delivering “gaming for good” and partnering with leading brands to deliver that vision. Skillshot’s work includes:
- Community-centered gaming: Building out physical esports and STEAM labs and delivering academic curriculum for multiple underserved community centers and public schools.
- Middle & High-school scholastic esports: Bringing competitive gaming to Georgia as an official activity in middle-school and high-school, with the appropriate emphasis on academics and positive student outcomes. In high school alone there are now over 200 Georgia high schools competing for the GHSA state championship across multiple video games.
- Collegiate gaming: The Georgia Esports League (GEL), founded in 2017, became the first statewide college esports league in the US. GEL, operated by Skillshot, includes our largest state universities, smaller colleges, two-year technical colleges, and HBCUs with an inclusive and comprehensive offering.
- Professional gaming: Skillshot operates production for the Georgia Ghost, Georgia’s sole professional competitive gaming team within the national Ultimate Endgamers League.
- Bespoke custom gaming events: Skillshot provides turnkey event management, including an accessible live event venue in Atlanta or national remote broadcast capability, multiple production studio sets and advanced control rooms, live-stream production expertise, and brand integration. Skillshot has executed thousands of events, paid out over $10M in gaming tournament prizing, and delivered over 1 billion video views.
- Branded video game content: Imagine product placement within a film, but with your product or services highlighted within some of the most popular global videogames. The Skillshot management team has over 70 years of collective game development experience.
- Gaming influencer marketing: Gamers are the new rockstars. With a social media reach of 20M, and a roster of over 50 gaming influencers – half of whom are female – your brand messaging can be distributed in an organic way over social media to an audience who much prefers hearing directly from content creators vs. disruptive advertising.
Gaming has the attention of the next generation. The question is what we do with that attention. A partnership with Skillshot allows your company to improve brand sentiment and increase sales, all while delivering positive and meaningful community impact.
Skillshot will deliver a 360-degree gaming integration that can include experiential live events, live-stream broadcasts, influencer amplification, integrated brand messaging, and even brand integration into playable video game content.
