Division’s co-founders’ on how brands are engaging with gamers in a structured way

How do you see the growth of esports and gaming in the Middle East?
When we think of this industry, we identify two key elements within it. The first is gaming in general which constitutes anyone who plays a game on their console, PC or mobile phone. And the second is esports, the more structured element of the industry that houses teams, tournaments and events.

It is no surprise that we have seen massive growth in both segments over the last five years, and that trend doesn’t look like slowing down. Three significant factors primarily drive this.

1. Gaming is a huge source of entertainment for people, and with the explosion of game options, it is clear that there is any option for anyone.
2. The MENA region enjoys one of the world’s highest per capita ratios of gamers, driven mainly by the region’s natural culture.
3. We can’t deny that the investments being made by governments across the MENA region are driving huge growth in this sector. Esports and gaming are a serious strategic imperative for economic growth in the coming decade.

How can brands engage with gamers in a structured way?
Traditionally, we see various ways in which brands can engage with gamers and the audience of gamers, and at Division, we categorise those as with either traditional sponsorship models where brands will sponsor individuals, teams or even tournaments to more bespoke plays where by gamers are contracted at a strategic level with brands to create content and integrate the brand into their lives.

Social media today is witnessing a shift from impressions to relevance and highly targeted audience selection. Because of this, we always consult our client partners to focus on relevance and authenticity instead of reach and frequency. We have seen that this delivers far greater results and conversions for the brands we work with.

Tell us about Division. What was the fundamental idea behind launching it?
Division was built because we identified a gap in the market. That gap is that audiences are shifting to consume more gaming content than traditional media, and entertainment and talent are followed more rigorously than media channels. For example, we have seen some of our gamers shift from TikTok to Twitch, and the audience of those talents move with them when they are streaming.

We wanted a platform where brands can benefit from these opportunities at scale. So rather than working with one content creator or gamer over a period of time, Division allows any brand to deploy a campaign at scale. Simply put, we provide our client with the flexibility to deploy a campaign with one gamer for 365 days or 365 gamers for one day with the push of a button.

How does your platform allow gamers to monetise their content?
The approach is a very simple model where our platform is a marketplace that enables brands to identify and contract gamers to deploy content for them. This is not a new concept in the world of influencer marketing, however the one thing we are doing is deploying it at scale through the use of our marketplace platform.

Since the launch of the marketplace, have you faced any challenges? If so, how did you overcome it?
Launching any new concept in the world of media and entertainment takes time to build up a head of steam so I can’t say we have faced challenges that were unexpected. In fact, we are enthusiastic about the excitement that all our stakeholders have shown during the launch phase of our business. Our main focus is to continue building our network of gamers and relationships with the advertising and media community.

What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business?
Our focus has been on building our network of stakeholders, namely, working with gamers and esports teams in the region, along with introducing our platform to the numerous agencies and brands in the region. 2022 was our year of development and launch, and we are very excited about the traction and will continue to see growth in all aspects of the business in 2023.

Tell us about your roadmap for the year 2023.
The roadmap for this year is going to be ensuring that we are delivering a perfect solution to our clients and partners, so a heavy focus is being put on customer service and pro-activity. In addition, as we continue to onboard gamers and brands, we will be expanding our solution into new markets relatively quickly, with the establishment of a Saudi and Egypt operation on the cards for 2023.

Dan Moore is the co-founder and managing director and Nabil Moutran is the co-founder and CEO at Division

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