We’re a master set of brand budget: Akshat Rathee, Nodwin Gaming

A pioneer in the esports industry, Nodwin Gaming has taken some remarkable steps in the past year, creating new directions for the esports industry to grow in India – from culture to accessories to grassroots interventions. It has partnered with Star Sports Network to air one of the biggest events in esports – Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) Masters Series – on prime time from June 24, 2022 – July 17, 2022.

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In conversation with Adgully, Akshat Rathee, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Nodwin Gaming, shares why he remains bullish on esports and how it will dominate prime time television viewing in India. Excerpts:

What are your observations on the growth of e-sports in Tier 2 and 3 markets?

Esports was something that entire Bharat in the big cities of our country played. Just like Test match cricket was first the domination of the big cities and then came T-20, where you had people from Ranchi, people from Assam, everyone becoming really famous, based on their performances. I think the same is there with esports as far as the participation from smaller cities of our country is concerned. And our quest is of going and doing this with our digital distribution partners at Glance, our linear distribution partners at Star Sports, also our live streaming platform at Loco – just to go ahead and reach out to this community of people who are present all across India in the smaller towns.

Why is esports ready for prime time?

It’s like saying how football is ready for prime time or how ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ is ready for prime time. We are putting it on prime time because we think there is enough amount of affinity among the target audience and in sports loving people, where sports and esports have been blurring lines. This is actually going to be fairly awesome. We did not know that in case of Kabaddi, too, people put it up there to see whether there was affinity towards the sport or not. There are enough indications to say that it would be.

How do you see Esports revolutionising brand associations and the advertising space in India?

There are endemic brands that have normally been associated with esports. These are people who are either making cellphones or headsets or anything to do with the technology of gaming and esports. I think with the advent of the youth TG that is currently what Nodwin focuses on, it allows people who are normally media dark – for example, 16-24 year old boys, to be targeted very successfully by brands on both linear and digital at the same time, because gaming and esports used to be a traditional phenomenon. Brands used to have typically an ATL budget, a BTL budget, then a digital budget and then when we used to go out and have conversations with brands, they used to say perhaps we have a digital budget of Rs 5 crore and they will give a part of that for gaming and esports, because we were predominantly a digital-only phenomenon.

With us actually breaking the digital barrier, where we are both on-ground in stadiums, on air, on linear television and we are also on digital, we can now command a share of the total brand pie. We are no longer an ATL, BTL, or a digital subset, but we are a master set of the brand budget by going and saying “With esports, I can go and have an integrated 360 degree campaign, I can get behind the sport, just as it would be with cricket or any other sport”. That is the paradigm shift that we are trying to get hold of.

How is BGMI Master Series the next hot spot for brands?

The Master Series gives brands the opportunity to come across Glance, which is on hundreds of millions of phones in our country through a push. They are also on Loco, where the community of gaming sits and on Star Sports, where IPL sits. Brands are now getting both sponsorship-based placements, they are also getting ‘Man of the Match’ and similar other line item placements. They are also getting an opportunity to get standard FCT at 10-second ad spots conversations, so it allows brands to go ahead and choose what kind of KPI they want to go ahead with and reach, be it a brand ad spot or a CPM, CPV view or the ability to go ahead and target people in Tamil or Hindi or English. That’s the variability and the auctions to go ahead and target consumers, which have a direct affinity to youth and to gaming. This allows the BGMI Masters Series to be one of those simple mastheads that give different things for different brands to go and get behind.