As an official partner of ELeague for both its debut and second seasons, Arby’s made a play for authenticity as the brand looked to put down roots within the eSports community. With activations that included having some of the world’s top Dota 2 players take their shot (literally) at gunning down an Arby’s sandwich, the company is now looking to capitalize on its momentum with the new season. Cynopsis eSports & Gaming spoke with Jeff Baker, VP of Brand Experience about the company’s experiences in the space.
On leveraging eSports: We’ve learned through social media engagement that our guests are fans of gaming and eSports. Our team at Arby’s also has passion for gaming, so we are able to produce content that isn’t forced, and our guests have been very appreciative of that. The ELeague partnership particularly offered us a unique opportunity to be a part of building a program for eSports and CS:GO that was a natural next step in our engagement with gamers.
On its approach: We knew that a boiler plate “sponsored by” program would not work. Our approach was to speak the gamer language without it coming off inauthentic. That’s where our genuine love for gaming came into play. We were able tap actual gamers and eSports fans at Arby’s and across our agencies to create content and activations that resonated with eSports fans, while helping us stand out from other brands in the space
On the biggest takeaways: A key takeaway is validation that eSports is a thriving sector of the gaming world with passionate fans that rival the loyalty of traditional sports. We also reinforced that is a space that makes sense for Arby’s. eSports fans showed their appreciation for a brand that gets them and doesn’t try too hard.
