According to a report published by USNI News, the Navy will redirect its advertising funds from TV into modern digital e-sports and YouTube.
It was also reported that The Worlds 2019 League of Legends was closing in the viewership gap between the Superbowl, reaching 99.5m watching live at one point.
97% of the Navy budget will go to this online marketing campaign, and the remaining 3% go to radio and billboard ads. Robert Burke, vice chief of naval operations, pointed out during the Military Reporters & Editors Association Conference of October, the shift for the maritime branch is designed to improve its demographic target between the ages of 17 and 28.
“One thing we did learn is — paying for a lot of TV ads in the middle of Super Bowl games — [the] target audience is not watching that,” Burke said at the event.
The Navy has steadily decreased the television advertising budget since 2018, which effectively limited the procurement costs of the agency without hindering its objectives. The Navy plans to deploy nearly 5,100 new active graduates to 340,500 by 2020.
Through February, according to the paper, the Navy is to introduce its advertisement campaign in competitive e-sports. The huge expenditure of the budget will also make the Navy an ideal partner for numerous e-sport events. The company will also launch an e-sports team from all over the Navy.
According to the Navy Recruiting Command 2018 report of the Syracuse University, E-Sport viewing will hit 84 million by 2021. With the exception of the National Football League, the effort tops all professional sports leagues and is expected to reach 141 million people within one period of time.
This money-length clarification reflects the increasing presence of YouTube in the Navy. Navy staff compete with influencers of social media in different skills tests in one digital video series to show how Navy life is.
“It’s mostly digital right now that gives us better results,” said Burke. “Facebook, 5, 10 and 15-second versions replay that transforms into call centres for the viewer who shows interest in them.”
