The luxury German carmaker BMW is making a monumental shift in its global marketing budget with a move into esports that it hopes will lead to mind share among the next generation of consumers.
BMW has formed partnerships with five gaming organizations such as Cloud9 (US), FunPlus Phoenix (China), Fnatic (UK), G2 Esports (Germany) and SK Telecom (South Korea) in order to increase their reach and involvement and to catch more eyes in titles likes DOTA 2, Fortnite, FIFA, and League of Legends.
The five esports organizations that BMW partnered with also have massive engagement and reach on social media, with a combined 8,1 million followers across Twitter, YouTube and Instagram – 11 times as many as BMW across the same channels. As part of the partnerships, the teams will challenge one another prior to tournaments, using a campaign motto “United in Rivalry” as a hashtag on social media and streaming platforms.
In addition to content sharing and involvement in social media platforms, BMW will also be integrated with immobilization on every team’s uniform that will provide the teams from respective organizations with personalized team-branded vehicles to go to events.
