Daniel Cherry III, CMO, Activision Blizzard eSports
A series of interviews with creative and marketing innovators changing the business landscape at the 2019 Cannes Lions Creativity Festival: Daniel Cherry III, CMO, Activision Blizzard Esports.
Bruce Rogers: What is your vision for where eSports is going?
Daniel Cherry: Let me start with the market opportunity around eSports. Some stats that we shared here in Cannes – globally, eSports is going to generate about $1.2 billion in revenue by 2020, which is just next year and attract about 600 million viewers in the same time period.
Bobby Kotick and our team saw the vision for eSports early and decided to make a big bet with Overwatch. They had a competitive gaming experience in mind from the get-go. And today, we're properly leveraged to make the most of this opportunity.
We know this is a global experience. We know it's young 18 to 34-year-old consumers. We know they're highly engaged digitally. The question becomes, "What is the best model to deliver the competitive gaming and entertainment experience to these fans worldwide?" We happen to believe that the global city-based franchise model is one of the best ways to create value for everyone – our partners, our fans, and our pro players.
Rogers: What do you mean by City-based?
Cherry: Look at the best sports models in the world. The most profitable, valuable sports entertainment properties happen to be located in cities that represent a certain geography. So, we're taking that model and we're applying it to eSports. With the Overwatch League, we have 20 teams based in major cities across 3 continents.
In 2018, we had the London Spitfire playing the Philadelphia Fusion for the world-championship in Brooklyn at Barclays Center. More than 22,000 people attended over two days and we crowned the London team the champion. Fast forward to today, we now have 20 teams all over the world competing for the Overwatch League championship. We believe that's the future of competitive entertainment.
Rogers: Are those privately held? Do you sell those franchises?
Cherry: Just like traditional sports, we do have franchise slots that we sell to interested owners. We have an amazing world-class group of owners for both Call of Duty eSports and the Overwatch League. Many of our owners come from the traditional sports entertainment world, owners of some of the greatest sports teams that exist in the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL. They see value in this model and in this opportunity. We also have some endemic eSports owners who have been doing this for a long time and see something in this model they may not have seen in the traditional eSports model prior to city-based franchises.
Rogers: How do you integrate sponsors and partners into the leagues?
Cherry: You can think of the Overwatch League as the NBA and Call of Duty eSports as the NFL. Brands can sponsor teams or the league in the same way they can in other professional sports model. There are media rights opportunities, integrated sponsorships, branded content, as well as a live events and fan experiences to participate in.
Beyond the pro league, you also have something within the Overwatch League ecosystem that we call Contenders. This is our amateur circuit, just like AAA baseball, or an academy team if you love soccer, or the NBA’s G League. You can invest in that semi-professional circuit as well. In fact, think about what the NBA did with their development league. They partnered with Gatorade and it is now called the G League. The NBA provided a unique opportunity for a brand to engage their entire amateur (semi-pro) ecosystem, which is what we call the “Path to Pro.”
Rogers: Tell me about your personal journey.
Cherry: I am the third generation of Daniel Cherrys, which is a proud thing for me to say. I am the namesake of my father and my grandfather. I was born in a small town in Ohio – Alliance, near the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I spent time on the East Coast, and then I went to a boarding school near Santa Barbara called Cate School, not far from the Ojai Valley.
In many ways, I came of age in California. I learned to drive; I learned to shave; I went to prom. I basically grew up at this small boarding school in the foothills of California. Then I went back East to The University of Pennsylvania for college.
At UPENN, we ended up building a brand called AND 1. A few Wharton grad students were building this brand as part of their business school project. I was a young kid who understood sports and entertainment, and I had actually played ball. So, I became a young advertising director going around the country to playgrounds, getting players and producing streetball tournaments, and building a brand of playground legends out of what many called the “could-haves,” “would-haves,” “should-have-beens” of basketball. Many of them were featured on the cult classic AND 1 Mixtape Series we developed. That magical time was my first foray into grassroots marketing and advertising.
We quickly realized we needed an ad agency. No one really took our calls. But two people responded, Martin Puris and Ralph Ammirati – advertising legends. The real Mad Men. They didn't take the business, but they offered me an internship. So, I interned at their Ammirati, Puris, Lintas offices on 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York… and that was my first real job in advertising. We eventually hired Crispin, Porter, Bogusky as AND 1’s ad agency of record.
I went on to work at Crispin. Who could say no to South Beach as a young college grad? After time spent at Crispin, Wieden + Kennedy, Anomaly, and Diageo, I made my way back into sports with the New Jersey Devils and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. Then, a few friends from CAA Sports said, "Hey, you should probably talk to this guy, Bobby Kotick. He's ambitious and has a grand vision. You're ambitious and you love sports and entertainment. Take the meeting."
Well, I took the meeting…and the job. Honestly, this job is really a dream come true because of all the things you just heard me talk about. My entire career has led to this moment that I had no idea even existed. When I was playing streetball in South Philly, or creating Nike and Jordan Brand basketball campaigns, or producing hockey legend Martin Brodeur’s jersey retirement ceremony, there’s just no way I thought I'd be on the cutting edge of an eSports revolution at such an amazing company like Activision Blizzard and sitting and talking to you about it here in Cannes. But I love it!
Rogers: Thank you.
Activision Blizzard was a content creator partner at CLX, a new immersive and interactive programme from Cannes Lions and Medialink. Daniel Cherry III featured on ‘The Art of Building Beloved Brand Stories’ roundtable, held by Activision Blizzard at CLX.
