Esports has become increasingly popular in recent years, with millions of people tuning in to watch professional esports competitions. Major esports events can fill stadiums and attract audiences in the millions; thus, esports fans have become a vital part of the industry. Their enthusiasm and support, online and offline, help to drive the growth and success of competitive video gaming.
As fans are typically very passionate and engaged with the industry, they often take to social media to discuss their favorite teams, teamfight tactics, upcoming competitions, and much more. With a surge in online conversations comes a lot of data that needs to be monitored, measured, and analyzed.
In this case study, you'll hear from G2’s Natascha Sturm, who’s their Senior Data Analyst, on how G2 Esports have made social listening a key part of their social media strategy.
About G2 Esports
G2 Esports is one of the leading global esports and entertainment brands. They are based in Berlin, Germany, have over 42 million fans worldwide, and own ten professional teams that compete in a variety of esports titles, including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, and Rocket League.
G2 Esports is known for its strong social media presence and its focus on building a brand that is engaging and entertaining for fans. Their mission is to spark emotion and foster conversation through powerful stories of competition and beyond.
Understanding and communicating with gaming audiences
Language in gaming is very specific and nuanced, using lots of abbreviation and ‘insider’ terminology. “Language is evolving, and so are our fans. From memes to TikToks, many ways of talking will influence how to write”, says Natascha Sturm. Understanding their jargon and language makes dedicated monitoring necessary. Contextual understanding and tone goes beyond just looking at sentiment analysis.
Understanding what people are saying online, and using focus groups to understand what people enjoy, brings a more personal connection. This can then be utilized for a more targeted social listening approach.
Evolving takes time – as does learning what works and what doesn’t work for an audience. One of G2 Esports’ biggest challenges: discovering if the algorithm change of a social network or the actual content has caused a change in engagement. "Understanding and knowledge grows over time by being in the industry and spending time navigating it." says Natascha.
“Understanding and knowledge grows over time by being in the industry and spending time navigating it.”
Companies like G2 Esports need to stay up-to-date with current trends and language specifications in order to stay relevant, fun to engage with, and to not fall behind competitors.
Monitoring automation is key
Trawling through millions of posts and comments by hand is simply not possible for G2 on a daily basis – especially during peak competitive seasons. This means they’re almost always “on campaigns”. Natascha has set up notifications and alerts for customer feedback, allowing the team to engage with their audience after recent purchases and utilize direct feedback.
G2 Esports uses Brandwatch’s sentiment change system to identify how people are chatting online. This “gives us indication if things are steering more positively or negatively.”. A lot of negative sentiment stems from passionate fans and commentary around teams losing games or not performing well. Tracking fluctuating net sentiment allows G2 to look at performance throughout the year, compare it to previous campaigns, and give a real-time picture of where they are at. Natascha explains “The best thing about Brandwatch: you can build on top of it. You can segment campaigns, so you only need to build one set-up, and that will function as your holy grail.”
They also frequently use benchmarking performance of campaign sentiment to compare quarterly or yearly sentiment. Acting in a big competitive landscape, with many leagues and competing teams, and looking at the wider industry picture helps to gain a competitive edge. Net sentiment doesn’t require a constant manual check. This helps with time saving, especially for smaller teams.
“The best thing about Brandwatch: you can build on top of it. You can segment campaigns, so you only need to build one set-up, and that will function as your holy grail.”
Brandwatch’s benchmark component also allows for a smoother work life for G2. This feature calculates net sentiment, and compares it to a previous time period. It even allows for a visual breakdown by hour or minute. This feature is really powerful to display at an event like MSI in May, which is one of G2’s more high intensity moments.
Getting a minute-by-minute breakdown as a data analyst is what Natascha thrives to see and share with her stakeholders. It “gives an amazing live view on how people talk about you and when sentiment shifts happen in real time. When games end, you can immediately watch the conversations stop. This also allows us to determine things we did during this time, campaigns we launched and how people reacted to our content and products.”
“Brandwatch gives an amazing live view on how people talk about you, and when sentiment shifts happen in real time.”
Giving back to the community
Natascha’s team works with the goal to reach as many people as they can. That means spreading the message of esports in general – beyond gaming. It also means “giving back to the community and gaming fans”. So, they’ve put emphasis on the metaverse, their very own #G2Army, NFTs, and music.
- Reaching the G2 Army with the help of Social Panels. Social Panels enables G2 to get better insights into the times fans are online, and when they are most active. Organic posting data, compared to the most active times in social panels, indicates the perfect moment for new drops. This is especially useful when planning upcoming campaigns, launch dates, and executing on their social media calendar. This results in better performance, more reach, and increased chances of helping releases thrive.
- Tracking and monitoring campaign launches. With campaigns being year round, all launches of new jerseys and team outfits happen at the same time for all brands. When it comes to these launches, G2 are benchmarking their own performance against their competitors’ – as well as their own year-on-year performance.
- New ventures and giving back. Having released two songs in the past 2 years, G2 Esports were the first to branch out into the new venture of releasing music – finding a totally new way to give back to their fans. Social Listening enables the team to ask the right questions in order to come up with new campaigns and trending topics. When releasing new music, the team uses social listening to see how it resonates with their fans. They compared the launches to previous releases, as well as using net sentiment to see any drastic changes or drops. This helps Natascha report on the launch performance to the wider business.
“There is the desire and need to evolve and think of something new again.” - Natascha says. "Brandwatch provides an automatic way to understand conversations on a quantitative and qualitative level. We enjoy using the tool as it saves time and helps us get quicker and closer to actionable insights that are understood internally. Through Brandwatch we are able to discover more avenues for research and development!"
"We enjoy using the tool as it saves time and helps us get quicker and closer to actionable insights that are understood internally."