In the previous article of our series about “Promoting online mobile games”, we have discussed the Real money card-based games, the approaches, and best-suited media/ platforms to target the potential audience.
In this article of our series we would be covering the following topics in the category of Fantasy sports:
- The growth of Fantasy Sports games in India.
- The audience profile of Fantasy sports players.
- What should be the approach for the promotion of Fantasy sports games?
- According to the approaches, what are some of the best-suited advertising platforms to reach out to your targeted audience.
Growth of Fantasy sports in India
While growing at an annual growth rate of (CAGR) 28%, Online Fantasy sport has become one of the tremendously growing industries in India.
According to a report by KPMG and IFSG “with over 50 million user-base in 2018, the sector is expected to cross 100 million active users club by 2020”.
Fantasy sports fall under the category of “Game of skill” where skill is a predominant factor to select a team based on the hold of one’s knowledge about the game and the players.
The Rising competition In Fantasy Sports
The industry has seen the growth of 7x in the number of operators over the past two years, whereas the jump in the players has been 25 times in the same duration.
The main reason for this stupendous popularity of fantasy sports in India is directly proportional to the following 2 factors:
1. Growth in the smartphone and internet penetration in India, a major share of appraisal goes to Jio.
2. An opportunity for passive game viewers to interact with their favorite sports and become an active follower.
What Are The Fantasy Sports Advertising Barriers
1. From 10 fantasy sports operators in 2016 to 70 in the year 2018, the competition is clearly touching the sky.
2. While the Supreme Court has declared fantasy sport as “Game of skill” and legal to be played in India, some of the states have their own rules around betting and hence consider fantasy sports as illegal to be advertised on most of the online social platforms.
(Those states are- Assam, Sikkim, Telangana, and Goa, Daman and Diu)
In this article, we would be covering the best-suited approaches and the advertising options to help you rise above the restrictions and strengthen up your game in this tough competition area.
Let’s start by having detailed information about your targeted audience.
Fantasy Sports: Your audience persona
Fantasy Sports Advertising Approach
Since the affinity among all of the regions (including metro and not-metro cities) in India is almost similar, following are some of the key factors according to which we will be choosing the best advertising medium to advertise the fantasy sports games:
1. Affinity– When you are running brand awareness campaigns in case of fantasy sports, targeting people who are highly interested in sports activities and the product similar to yours would give you more consideration.
You can target people based on their habits and tailor your real-time content to target the specific groups. Many digital advertising platforms allow you to target people based on the type of data they consume and the apps they have.
2. Demographics– Fantasy sports games are usually played by the age group of 18-35, male. According to the report by IFSG, 84% of people who play fantasy sports are well educated working professionals with high disposable income. So, targeting these demographics would be more beneficial.
3. Frequency– To grab the attention of your target audience, your ads must be exposed to your audience multiple times. Hence, platforms that have high frequency and reach are to be used.
Best online and offline advertising platforms for promoting Fantasy Sports games
Based on our approach (mentioned above), these are some of the best suited online and offline advertising platforms to promote your fantasy sports games:
Offline Advertising Platforms
- Television Advertising- TV channels like sports and news where people usually go to watch news activities is one of the best ways to grab the attention of people while they are highly engaged.
- Radio Advertising– Radio is a perfect medium to expose your product to your target audience repeatedly. It’s also one of the best media for city-level targeting and has always been proven to be cost-effective.
- Outdoor Advertising– On the basis of frequency, outdoor advertisement is the best-suited media to grab the attention of a large audience and helps brands generate trust and authenticity.
- Transit Advertising– Transit advertising medium is catching up real fast with having varieties of ad inventories. Advertising on premium cabs and metros will let you target your audience at a maximum reach.
- Tech Park Advertising- Tech parks are one of the best ways to directly grab the attention of working professionals. Hence, it can give you a considerable amount of exposure.
Online Advertising Platforms
- Google– With over millions of searches made every min on Google, running your search ad and Display network campaigns would be the best method to target people directly who are looking for your services or similar to yours.
- Influencer marketing– 80% of people who use social media marketing also prefers to do influencer marketing. It’s one of the fastest-growing trust-building communication media for brand awareness. Some of the best platforms for Influencer marketing are:
- Sports platforms–Targeting people on the platforms where they usually go to consume sports activities is one of the highly targeted ways to reach out to your targeted audience. Two of the platforms with the highest reach in terms of sports news consumptions are:
- CricBuzz
- Sportskeeda
- Video OTT platforms- On-demand video services are on the peak. The majority of people access video content on their personal devices, in this case of fantasy sports what could be better than targeting people who use video OTT platforms for watching their favorite sports? That’s where the following OTT platforms fit the best to grab the attention of your targeted audience:
- News Platforms-While possessing a decent user base in the market, news applications has also become one of the most effective ways for mass reach. With the combined monthly active reach of over 120mn, Dailyhunt and Inshorts are the two platforms that are the perfect fit to advertise your fantasy sports games with the numerous targeting options.
- Audio OTT Platforms– According to a report, Indians spend an average of 21.5 hours/week on audio OTT platforms, and almost 85% of smartphone users have one or more audio OTT applications on their phones. This makes it one of the best advertising platforms for your brand awareness campaigns of Fantasy sports games. The only two platforms that could pass through our criteria are:
- Truecaller– Truecaller is one of the most popular apps for smartphones in India. With advanced filters and cohorts, Truecaller can be a strong advertising platform for your gaming app.
Summarizing what we discussed in the article in a single table:
To know more about promoting Fantasy Sports or in case you would want to share any feedback, write to us at Help@TheMediaAnt.com.
