Hey everyone - edition #20 is here!

Today’s SEG3 Report delves into Comcast rewarding viewers during the Olympics, Riot Games’ Valorant sneaking into Formula 1 and the ongoing successes of Monopoly Go for Hasbro & Scopely.

Let’s get into it…

Contents: Edition #20

• Comcast launches ‘Watch to Unlock’

• Yuki Tsunoda brings Valorant to F1

• Hasbro & Scopely pass $3 billion in revenue for Monopoly Go

Comcast launches ‘Watch to Unlock’

Comcast introduced "Passport to Paris" for Xfinity customers this week, with a new feature for the 2024 Paris Olympics. This includes a “watch to unlock” system where viewers earn digital passport stamps by watching Olympic coverage on NBCUniversal channels or Peacock. These stamps can be redeemed for rewards, including a limited-edition Olympic Games Paris 2024 pin for the first 20,000 participants. The feature aims to enhance viewer engagement with interactive content and exclusive rewards, accessible via the Xfinity app or online.

Why should you care?

We all know that traditional broadcasters are losing market share to streaming.

Although slightly outdated (from 22/23), the graphic above shows a fairly severe decline and the threat that they face.

Why are they facing this threat?

There’s been a change in consumption habits from younger generations, and broadcasters have not kept pace, with the experience not seeing much evolution in decades.

None of that will be a revelation to you I’m sure.

But with general cord-cutting in the US and across the globe, broadcasters are needing to innovate to find ways to keep their current audience engaged and to attract new viewers.

So a combination of live sports (which has always been a driver for customer acquisition - i.e. ESPN+ drove $16 billion in revenue for Disney in 2022) and a rewards/loyalty program, which brings more interaction with the content/events Comcast is broadcasting sounds like a very smart move.

Onto the product:

Passport to Paris

Passport to Paris quite simply incentivises/rewards viewers for watching the games through NBC Universal or Peacock.

Customers will unlock bigger and better rewards the more they watch and interact, and earn stamps in their digital passport through interactive quizzes and polls, which can be redeemed for rewards online or in the app.

What will the rewards be?

The only thing specifically called out in the release is the 20,000 limited-edition Olympic Games Paris 2024 pins which are available. Another pin collection for the Olympics (as we covered in last week's edition).

Collectibles are clearly a well-trodden route, so I understand why Comcast have started here, but the part of the release that is interesting/exciting is the quote from Comcast’s SVP of Emerging Product & Technology, Piers Lingle, who said:

Despite its decline, linear broadcast undoubtedly still has an incredible reach, so if Comcast are able to weave in more interactivity into their broadcast/streaming products, and integrate commerce as well as a blockchain powered rewards program, there would certainly then be more of an incentive/value exchange to consume through their channels once again.

It’s definitely one to watch (I’m intrigued to see how many of the 20,000 pins are going to be redeemed), but either way, it’s exciting to see another major broadcaster (alongside FOX with Blockchain Creative Labs) take the first few steps and experiment with emerging tech to try and win back consumers to its channels.

Yuki Tsunoda & Red Bull bring Valorant to F1

F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda will wear a Valorant-themed helmet during the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. The helmet features the character Jett and the Valorant logo, integrating Red Bull branding.

Why it matters?

More sports and games crossover 🙏

This partnership seems to have been pulled together by Red Bull’s gaming team (as per Christian Hesse’s Linkedin post), and combines multiple of Red Bull’s partners across sports & gaming together.

There’s a few interesting things about this campaign:

Cross-promotion

Red Bull have been sponsors of Riot Games’ League of Legends and other titles over the past years, and everyone knows their commitment to Formula 1 given a team bears their name.

With the number of partners they have across wider culture (sports, music, games, adventure sports, fashion etc), Red Bull are one of a short list of brands that are able to bring this type of collaboration to life by merging communities from across their portfolio and culture together.

This type of reach is hard to attain and is a powerful tool to have in your armoury, and something I’m sure they leverage for getting the best deal in their partnership negotiations…

Leaning into lore

Gamers love lore - as with interviews across sports & entertainment with actors/actresses and players, it gives the fans an insight into the main characters, their styles and powers, and helps the fan to relate to them/their identities on a much deeper level.

From Jett’s lore, one of the pieces of that stood out to me & made the Yuki partnership make more sense was the below:

Without being too much of an active F1 fan myself, I have watched Drive to Survive (who hasn’t?), and Yuki definitely has a driving style that ‘takes risks no-one else can’, so I’m sure that was a bit part of the rationale in choosing Jett to feature on Yuki’s helmet.

Although this partnership has been pulled together by Red Bull, we are seeing more organic crossovers take place as athletes unveil more about their passions as they grow their brands through their own platforms/content.

A good example of this is Noah Lyle and his Yu-Gi-Oh card walk-outs (which hopefully we’ll get to see more of over the course of the Olympics!), which opens the door for reactive campaigns by IP owners Konami/Shueisha to leverage Lyle’s fandom to attract new audiences to the cards/games, which disappointingly I still haven’t seen yet…

In any case, I have no doubts we’ll continue to see crossovers like Yuki’s & Noah Lyle’s over the coming months/years that further blend our industries from across the chasm of culture into one…

Hasbro & Scopely pass $3 billion in revenue for Monopoly Go!

Hasbro's recent earnings reveal that the mobile game "Monopoly Go!" has generated an impressive $3 billion in revenue, highlighting the game's success and its importance in Hasbro's financial performance. The company's overall revenue also saw a boost, driven by strong sales across its digital gaming segment.

Why should you care?

Those are quite staggering numbers, and show what’s possible with the right game mechanics, IP and distribution.

Those three things are core to the success:

Game Mechanics

Monopoly has been a much loved game for many a generation, but the Hasbro & Scopely team evolved the game to fit mobile and people’s behaviours, with new features and worlds to explore vs the typical gameplay from the IRL version, broadening the IP’s appeal.

IP Licensing

Hasbro are reportedly taking home $105 million (on the lower end!) in licensing revenue per year from the game.

There is no doubt that the combination of well-known IP (Monopoly has something like 98% recognition globally) and smart licensing of that IP into games can be a recipe for success (it’s worthwhile checking out a Licensors guide to games here for more).

Distribution

It’s all well and good having a fantastic game (Scopely spent 7 years in development of Monopoly Go!), but distribution makes or breaks it.

Mobile and free-to-play is undoubtedly THE avenue for scale, and lends itself to all types of gamers (from casual to hardcore), but it is a crowded environment, the cost of acquisition can be quite expensive (it’s reported that Scopely spent upwards of $500 million on marketing & customer acquisition), and then the conversion into paying customers tends to be a very small percentage.

But the marketing has clearly paid off, with an engaged audience they’re monetising well, and are now clearly the stand-out case study of how to adapt well known IP to meet the needs of a mobile/online gaming audience.

We’ll be keeping our eyes out to see how Scopely and Hasbro continue to evolve the product to keep their core audience engaged with the game, and attract new players - I’m sure they have some interesting updates up their sleeve…

In other news…

A quick round-up of other stories we found interesting this week!

• Pac-Man simulator to launch on Roblox

• Igloo, Pudgy Penguins parent company, raises a further $11 million to build Abstract

• Universal Music & Warner Music shares decline after streaming growth declines

• Blockstart Scotland starts this Thursday

• LEGO & Epic launch Fortnite themed lego sets

• Air Asia partners with Milk Partners for blockchain based loyalty program

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!