At the start of 2022, Riot Games asked us to create and implement the branding for the grassroots VALORANT tournament VALORANT Regional Circuit: Beacon. We were given the opportunity to build the brand from the ground up. This included the vision, the overall design, the marketing, and the whole creative package for the brand to be delivered to partners. To see how we created the brand from the ground up, including what inspired our BEACON design elements, please check out the full design case study here.
It was crucial that the tournament resonated with the entire Northern European audience and was built around a concept that could connect all of the northern territories involved in the circuit. The name “BEACON” was also chosen to represent ‘something to look out for’, much like a BEACON in a lighthouse, which fitted the grassroots nature of the tournament and was synonymous with the circuit itself being designed to highlight the up-and-coming VALORANT pros in the Northern European region. The branding was also designed to reflect players ‘travelling safely on to their next step of the journey’ as BEACON was intended to give budding players a platform to progress to the next stage of professional play.
The design choices for the brand were carefully chosen by our team to create a bold, striking visual identity that would immediately draw attention and shine a spotlight on the players within the circuit itself. If you would like to learn more about how we designed the BEACON branding and the thought processes that went into it, keep an eye out for a future blog post that will deep dive into the topic further.
Once the lore and the purpose of the tournament circuit had been set, we then turned our attention to building a dedicated social media strategy for the BEACON Division Finals, which included setting the tone of voice, posting strategy, and posting cadence. As the players only had one weekend of live-broadcasted games all season, we wanted to ensure that our social media strategy amplified and celebrated the very best plays from our budding VALORANT pros, getting as many eyes on the teams and players as possible and ensuring we were able to support their journey towards higher levels of professional competition.
During the finals we focused heavily on live coverage highlight posts and ‘meme-driven’ content, encouraging fans to interact with our posts and share them on their own social media channels. As a result of our bespoke strategy, we saw a 100% increase in peak monthly impressions and a 110% increase in peak monthly engagements. Our social results saw the BEACON Finals placed as one of the best-performing grassroots tournaments of the year and allowed us to highlight some of the most exciting up-and-coming VALORANT talents in the Northern Europe region. A full breakdown of our social media success is showcased in the graphic above.
By implementing a reactive and responsive social media strategy tailored for the BEACON Division Finals, combined with a deep understanding of the community and core audience, we produced high-performance social media content that directly resonated with VALORANT fans and viewers. Posts that highlighted the skilful play of our competitors, such as this tweet, resonated especially well with our core audience, allowing us to create content that aligned with the core values of the BEACON audience and fan base, elevating players and showcasing their talent to a wider stage.
We created the tournament-linked hashtag #makewaves, as this tied into BEACON’s core purpose and namesake, representing the core idea behind the grassroots tournament. Our amateur players that played in the BEACON series were “making waves” in the VALORANT pro scene, looking to establish themselves as players and work their way up towards the pinnacle of professional VALORANT – The VALORANT Champions Tour.
If you’re interested in running your own esports tournament, increasing your brand relevancy or establishing yourself with the gaming audience, reach out to us at hello@hotdrop.gg to learn more about how we can help.
