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Gravity Road unveils gaming and esports practise

NEW YORK, 10 February: Creative company Gravity Road has launched a gaming, sponsorship and esports marketing practice to be primarily run out of its New York HQ. 

The move builds on the company’s extensive experience of delivering successful work for brands through gaming, esports and entertainment vehicles. 

In addition, the company has, through holding company, brandtech group You & Mr Jones, made a strategic investment in gaming venture fund Griffin Gaming Partners (GGP), which provides Gravity Road with early strategic access at C-suite level to key partners across the global gaming ecosystem. GGP’s investments include gaming messaging platform Discord, interactive virtual concert business Wave, and mobile competition platform Skillz.

Cementing the discrete practice responds to the increasing need from clients for marketing and technology partners able to deliver in the distinctive gaming and esports environments. 

The creative tech company has not only created award-winning games for clients, such as  Gram Invaders for Three,  but also built audiences across gaming communities for brands including Mastercard.  You & Mr Jones was an early investor in Niantic, the creator of gaming phenomenon Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. 

Gravity Road has been a strategic partner of Mastercard’s League of Legends sponsorship and esports program since 2019 and is building Mastercard as the most loved brand in the world of esports. Mastercard has become an authentic and trusted voice with LoL gamers, created major growth in the community, and was nominated for 2020 Esports Awards Commercial Partner of the Year, was the most engaged brand on Worlds 2020 LOL Finals weekend, and voted esport Brand of the Year in the Tempest Awards. 

Gravity Road has always been rooted in the principle of Time Well Spent and creating a practice for the strategic, creative and tech capacities to deliver effective marketing in the areas of gaming and esports, where so many people are now spending so much of their time, is a natural extension of the work it already does, which rides the waves of popular culture. 

Gravity Road cofounder, Mark Boyd, says: “Some brands still pretend gaming is a subculture when it is now culture itself. It is where audiences and customers choose to spend their time and where they socialize. It is the single most potent cultural aesthetic shaping fashion, video, sport, music and beyond. To not be factoring a gaming dimension into your marketing plan is increasingly reactionary.”

The gaming and esports industries have grown exponentially during the pandemic and that is set to continue. It’s estimated that the world’s 2.7 billion gamers will spend US $159.3 billion on Games in 2020, and that mobile games alone will have generated US $77.2 billion, growing 13.3% year-on-year.

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