Using Counterstrike to create empathy with ESports Fans

A few weeks ago my innovation team launched an eSports streaming offering to understand a new market for our business.

“Where do you even begin to explain to anyone over 25 what eSports is and why anyone would bother spending hours watching people running around shooting at each other in a game like Counterstrike:GO ?”

How do you get the rest of the business to engage with and understand the potential of this massive market? How do you get them excited to participate and take some risk to help grow our new customer base?

Creating an eSports event

What we came up with was to engage one of Australia’s top CS:GO teams, Team Immunity, to run an internal eSports tournament at our offices. They generously set up 10 gaming stations and we ran an elimination event over two days. The energy during the games is infectious and builds huge excitement.

It’s impossible to watch a game without getting hooked into the action instantly. It was interesting to see some of the sceptics wander in, have a look and, within minutes, scream, shout and get fully engaged in the action. We broadcasted the matches across the business and on a private channel on Respawn.sportsbet.com.au

Accidental empathy

What started out as a showcase of what eSports is turned into a customer empathy creating event. I could feel the buzz around the office and I think a few hundred people had the ‘AHA!’ Moment.

“People watching competitive video gaming is as real as people watching NBA on TV.”

This is important as people automatically associate gaming with a pastime, consoles and ‘not a real sport’. I suspect our job is going to be a whole lot easier working with marketing, branding, tech and the exec team going forward now that everyone gets it.

Inside innovation we talk a lot about the design thinking principle of creating empathy with customers, but this exercise taught me the value of creating internal empathy with my colleagues for our customer base. I’ll keep you posted.

☞ Please tap or click “♥︎” to recommend this article to others.