With HyperX hitting the big 15 this year, anchored with a mantra of developing “gaming products for gamers – high-speed memory, solid state drives, headsets, keyboards, mice, USB flash drives, and mouse pads – to the gaming community and beyond,” the brand continues to establish itself within the esports meta through long-term partnerships that include SK Gaming (which is now ten-years old) and IEM (five) as well as more recent alliances such as ELeague or naming NBA rookie De’Aaron Fox as a brand ambassador. Cynopsis Esports asked Daniel Kelley, Director of Corporate Marketing, HyperX, about the brand’s evolution as the esports industry matured, its partnerships and its keys to success for activation.
Kelley on the esports industry: We have learned a lot being one of the first brands to sponsor eSports. The are many opportunities as eSports continue to grow, with expanded interest from non-endemic brands entering into eSports, the market and viewership will continue to expand. The challenge with expanding into eSports will include staying authentic to core gamers and being entertaining to a wider group of people.
On the evolution of HyperX: Fifteen years ago, HyperX started offering memory for gamers and overclockers. In the last three years, we’ve grown to become the maker of quality gaming headsets, keyboards and mice. In the beginning, eSports was a way for gamers to play and earn a little cash. Now gaming is a big business with professional teams playing for large sums of money. At its inception, supporting eSports was putting a logo on a t-shirt. Today it is helping fill sports stadiums with fans and sponsoring influencers that stream to hundreds of thousands of viewers on Twitch.tv and supporting PC, console and mobile gaming, it’s changed quite a bit.
On the next 15 years: The world of eSports is one of the fastest growing segments of entertainment in the world, with live viewership exploding and surpassing that of the NFL and NBA. HyperX, with 15 years of experience within the eSports community supporting players and teams, now integrates a range of NBA players, celebrities and social influencers in their unique vision and experience in gaming globally. In the next 15 years we envision an eSports explosion, with eSports reaching the same notoriety and respect as traditional sports. Players will continue to be treated more like celebrities, with more media attention, and used by more brands as part of their influencer marketing programs.
On keys to a successful activation: The keys are staying close to the community and being authentic. We’ve been involved in eSports even before it was called eSports and now are involved with over 30 organizations, 95 teams and over 450 players. We provide players with products they like to use and that help them excel in gaming. We bring players to our HyperX studios in Southern California to get their opinions on new products we are developing, and include them in a range of marketing activities and content development at HyperX. They are a part of our team.
For more on eSports, check out the September 15 Cynopsis Master Class event:
http://www.cynopsis.com/events/2017-esports-master-class/
The Cynsiders column is a platform for industry leaders to reach out to colleagues, followers, and the public at large. In their own words and in targeted Q&As, columnists address breaking news, issues of the day, and the larger changes going on in the ever-evolving world of television, video and digital. Cynsiders columns live on Cynopsis’ main page and are promoted across all daily newsletters. We welcome readers’ comments, queries, and column ideas at Lynn@Cynopsis.com.
