Nobody has ever enjoyed an event they weren’t aware of. It’s the job of the publicity team to help spread the word and communicate the narrative of the event. While publicity may be one of the most evolving and varied fields, here are a few projects to get you ready for your first esports event.
As mentioned earlier, publicity is one of the biggest fields in terms of diversity of jobs for event production. With a potentially overwhelming amount of possibilities and ideas for your tournament’s presentation, a good first step is to build a simple and structured concept that you can develop, refine, and act on. One way to do this is a technique called mind mapping. In mind-mapping, a primary idea becomes the focus of brainstorming sessions and is expanded on by connecting separate ideas, creating a branching web of interconnected elements. Here are some things to consider when mind mapping the themes of your event:
Overall Theme of the Event: Is your event “fun and casual,” “super serious,” or somewhere in between?
Color Schemes and Presentation: Consider the different color palettes, logos, and other aesthetic choices you need to make for your event’s branding, publicity, and other details. How does the event look?
Communication/Distribution Channels: Post flyers, use social media accounts, and more. How will we get the word out?
Any ideas contributed should be documented and considered (provided they are serious suggestions). Mind mapping is a useful technique to visually brainstorm in a collaborative environment, but it’s only truly done when everyone has come together and agreed on a unified plan.
When you tune into your favorite competitions, you don’t just do so for the thrill of the event. Usually, there are one or more story threads that help build anticipation for the competition. Maybe it’s the last game of one of the team’s greatest players, or maybe state rivals are locked in fierce combat with pride on the line. Everyone loves a good story to follow, and chances are there are stories to be told at your event. The key to a good publicity plan is to find them.
As with most things you want to do well, the first step will be to research. Look for any information about the competitors and the teams they represent. If anything seems interesting or odd, there’s usually a story behind it. You can and should always go straight to the source when looking for story threads. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the competitors and ask for their thoughts on the upcoming competition. As long as you approach competitors in a diplomatic and respectful way, plenty of competitors would love to provide you with some leads. If you have shoutcasters who are familiar with the teams and competition, they can also prove to be a treasure trove of information.
Once you’ve found your leads, do some investigating, and get to the bottom of the story. Do your best to back up any claims with facts or quotes, and try to connect human and statistical elements together when you can. Once you have your story beats, find ways to sprinkle in those storylines into your promotional material. Maybe your team can interview a competitor and use their story to build up tournament hype. Perhaps you’ll find an interesting rivalry that can drum up community interest in your tournament from both sides of the conflict. Better yet, don’t be afraid to ask questions at the event itself through post-game interviews and analysis. Just like how every event is different, no two narratives are exactly the same, so you can always find something that seems interesting to you and your team and see where it goes.
Make sure the students involved with narrative development are working closely with Broadcast Producers and Shoutcasters.
The broadcast team should tell these stories and continue to build them throughout gameday.
Just like the competitive team, the day of the event will be a time for your publicity team to show off and shine. Also, like the esports team, every publicity team needs a good gameplan to succeed. By the time you get to game day, you should have built up avenues to communicate with tournament attendees and viewers through social media platforms. It’s the job of the broadcast team to keep viewers up to date, but it’s the job of the publicity team to update and inform those interested parties who are unable to attend as a spectator as to what’s going on.
Well before the day of the event, you’ll want to create multiple templates for different types of posts you’ll put out during the event. Here are some things you’ll want social media post templates for:
Broadcast Going Live
Schedule for the Day
Upcoming Matches
Match Start Notifications
Mid-Match Updates
Post-Match Results
Tournament Winner
Official Announcements
Mix and match these and your own ideas to create a set of templates you can use for your own event to keep all your fans up to date and engaged with your event. Remember to keep your posts consistent with the rest of the tournament’s branding, including logos, colors, and sponsors.