At Hotdrop, we pride ourselves on being able to plug into your team, adopt your workflows, and get things done. For nearly two years, we have supported the ESL-FACEIT Group’s esports marketing efforts, helping with digital and on-site partner activations at world-renowned esports events such as the Intel Extreme Masters. We have been directly involved with hybrid digital activations such as DHL Ultimate 10 as well as the planning and execution of the extremely successful on-site activation DHL DROP.
DHL Ultimate 10 is both a physical and digital marketing activation that allows Counter-Strike fans the chance to experience playing live with some of the most legendary players in CS history. In 2022, Counter-Strike icons FalleN and GeT_RiGhT faced off with teams made up of eight fans from around the world in the inaugural DHL Ultimate Ten, taking place at the historic Rio Major. For fans who didn’t get the chance to play live in Rio, we introduced the DHL Ultimate 10 Custom Map through the Steam Workshop, which put players in the shoes of scenarios that legends of the game dealt with in professional play to ready themselves for competition.
We supported this activation through various means including social media and comms planning, asset design and print, liaison with the project team and client, and briefing of all involved influencers and parties. We wanted to ensure that we placed ourselves seamlessly into the internal EFG marketing team, adapting to internal workflows and ensuring that we were able to deliver throughout the product delivery process at every stage. Our team directly supported with planning and execution of DHL Ultimate 10 in the lead-up to Rio, and were on the ground at the event to ensure that both DHL and EFG were able to pull off an incredible fan activation that spoke directly to Counter-Strike fans.
We have also actively supported the incredibly successful DHL DROP for Counter-Strike fans, which is DHL’s most notable marketing activation taking place at Major EFG Events events. The DHL DROP is a mechanism for DHL to give back to the esports community, offering prizes to viewers watching live in the arena audiences or at home. For fans in the arena, they collected designated DHL DROP banners from on-site staff and were asked to write short messages, with the most creative messages being awarded prizes by designated DHL ambassadors. For viewers at home, live Twitch chatters were asked to type !DHLDROP into Twitch chat to be in with a chance to win an ESL Shop Voucher, giving fans the ability to buy esports merchandise from their favourite teams across the world.
In support of this activation, we curated prize packages for the on-site part of the activation, planned and ran the communication campaign on social media, and selected key influencers to act as DHL ambassadors. We also managed all of the on-the-ground activity and logistics including influencer handling, liaised with the TV and broadcast crew, and liaised with project and partner managers. We were able to effortlessly slot into the wider EFG team looking after the activation and support in a variety of places to ensure that all partner obligations were met and exceeded.
We’re proud of our continued successful working partnership with EFG and will continue to support them across all marketing avenues as they work with various partners across their esports events. If you’re looking for an agile and experienced marketing team that can quickly and easily slot into your current marketing setup, feel free to reach out to us at hello@hotdrop.gg
