Hello guys, welcome all of you. We do have a lovely panel right now with gamers and brands and agencies What gaming means to brands and gamers, right? So I would like to open this question for all of us. I mean we'll start with the Ankit Pan. What gaming means to you? We'll just briefly explain To me gaming means everything. I've whatever I've built. I've built from gaming only I started when I was 15 years old and since then I've been playing games. It was FPS CS 1.6 to CS go Then Valorant now and hopefully in the future CS 2 are the so gaming basically it means a Package of entertainment so that I could provide entertainment to my audience That could be a great choice to be a gamer and to you know, just to entertain your audience and make some connection with them That's it Prashan, what guys so probably I'm the only millennial in this entire group. Oh, I've got one over there Hi, so a very different answer While most of the people over here are creating content and earning a livelihood out of gaming gaming for me I would say is from two perspectives one is very personal because I was a very Lonely person. I was the only child right and gaming kind of helped me develop a lot of skill sets and Past time so I would say gaming for me is a very personal thing wherein it allows me to be very Therapeutic it allows me to explain creativity. It allows me to become curious because a lot of games that I play are A lot into history a lot into cultures story driven narratives as we call them So gaming that perspective allows me to develop myself a little more than who I am Sorry for my voice. I've been very ill The other thing with respect to as a brand manager or a brand market here gaming really allows me to connect with audiences in a Very unique way because at the end of the day marketing is all about aggregation of consumers and gaming Community is such that it really allows you to establish communities and connections which go far beyond just a normal campaign Or just advertising. So that's that's my perspective on gaming very lovely answer coming from Prashan Now I would like to ask Saloni Gaming for me is just lifestyle right? It's a escapism. I'm an introvert person So for me gaming makes me explore myself more and my personality So yeah, it just helped me with my lifestyle That's great Ronnie Hi You're late to the party For us a graphic or sorry, I'm so sorry for being late guys What does gaming mean to you? Gaming I mean to me gaming means an escape To me, it's an escape from all the realities Again, that's a very unique answer escapism What does gaming mean to you? Hello everyone So merely gaming Vajman say I'm playing games Me like hobby to game gala just in my school said I thought I'd say I thought Don't think I'm going to come to the end of the day with bees in the middle Okay, so it started with a hobby and more hobby profession. I'm gonna convert. It's my passion now My own karta gaming say I'm not going to be a perfect support with financial helps and all I turned my hobby into passion. It's everything for me The product in gaming gaming gaming So now we can say that hello get good. Okay, so one of them up What does gaming mean to you George? I mean, I think you do have any personal connect with gaming or just a professional connect No, no, I did have a personal deep personal attachment to games row my parents absolutely nuts because I was Stuck on to gaming and consoles all my life. I mean, I wish they were here to see where it landed me finally But yeah, that's what but it started off as casual Gaming to escape stuff and you know express myself now it's ended up as a revenue stream So I'm thankful for it So I think that's a lovely answer to this question by all of us Specifically everybody has a personal connect to the gaming and specifically for me. I mean these gamers are giving me a livelihood I mean paid by them So now I would like to have this open question for all the gamers right and I would like to start with Adi What are the key attributes that you think help become a successful gaming influencer? So I mean and also just talk about a gamer and a gaming influencer How does it how do how do you manage both of the lives? So I started back in 2010 as I did my channel in 2010. I've been uploading since was on 10 2016 So that time I was only a gamer not an influencer I was only playing uploading stops and uploading videos and all 2016 to 2000 till now I've been streaming and I guess influencer influencer part was activated in 2017 or something right so to be honest being a gamer or influencer is kind of a two different thing But if you learn both of them that would be really helpful for you to You know be a influencer gamer kind of thing So I guess it's just a fifty-fifty person and you just have to make a balance That's it you play games you entertain your audience and you do some ads in that so we call it an influencer activity And I think that's it. That's not a big deal. It's very easy So nowadays gamers are becoming key key opinion leaders also. That's a very big thing nowadays, right? Again, Saloni, would you like to take this question? Yeah, I mean if you talk about the attribute if you are an influencer either be a gamer influencer or a regular Lifestyle influencer you've got to be very candid if you can't be candid you can't fake for long So the more you're candid the more we will people relate to you and The audience you will get if your personality is that charming to get that kind of audience That's a attribute for me So I think on this panel we have seen we have seen Ankit Pan. I mean competing in eSports tournaments From being a Red Bull athlete also right and we see that he has played a lot of Tournaments and he's very active on YouTube. So Ankit, what do you think? What are the key attributes you think to be a successful gamer? So When I when you say gamer I take it as I'm an eSports athlete. So I'll give you that perspective Competing is everything for an athlete and when I started I Think I Saw that you can represent India in this field So, you know that kind of motivated me and the key attributes would be you have to be patient You have to you know work hard and be consistent in this field only then you will get results because the competition is very tough And the scene in India especially is booming now. There are a lot of tournaments coming a lot of investments are being made in gaming so I think You should be patient and keep working hard and eventually you will know be there So that's great We have seen I mean through our gamers we have heard that gaming brings passion Consistencies and serity. They're also making a life out of it Now I will move to Prashant Prashant, what does gaming mean to you? How do you anticipate the gaming industry and eSports evolving in the next five to ten years? What is your brand planning to adopt and grow? Okay, so that's a very loaded question Yeah, because It's it's gaming in the next five to ten years if we retrospectively look at gaming what it has reached today I mean we never thought that photo realism is a word that we would be talking about on stages like these And that's all because of ray tracing ray tracing is nothing but ensuring that the shadows when the light falls is correct in our gaming Okay in a frame. So when you look at CGI of Hollywood, you consider it to be very realistic That's what gaming has reached today wherein I mean a session Sometime ago was all about made our humans wherein an unreal engine which is a gaming Technology allows people to be very realistic in their form and format and it will be very difficult for audiences like you and me To really identify whether it's reality or whether it's virtual So that is what it has reached today So if you're talking about five to ten years a couple of trends, which I definitely see happening is one There would be no limitation of hardware. What I mean by that is today There are exclusive gaming content and games either for the Xbox or for the PlayStation 5 or for the PC That limitation is no longer gonna be there because hardware is gonna be agnostic and with recently Apple launching the vision pro We can clearly see that the way we look at AR MR VR XR, right? It's it's all blurred now So one of the trends is there will not be hardware limitations It will be very accessible and other anthropological thing that I'm seeing is when we look at our parents, right? Including mine. They did not understand gaming too much But now we have parents who are gamers themselves And we have people who are gonna come into the industry who are digital natives and gamers themselves So now gaming is no longer something which we used to call very proudly that we are nerds and Hence we are gamers, but it's mainstream and mass So suddenly you will see gaming not only being that elusive 15 to 25 But you will talk about gaming gaming content audiences who are in their mid 30s mid 40s Maybe even 50s as well. So 10 years from today Wow, I will be in my 40s, right? And I will be one of the gamers who people would want brands like me would want to engage with and gaming companies would want to create content for So hardware agnostic a larger pool of audiences which connects with gaming and our gamers themselves And lastly what I see is this entire Mechanic which is free to play which is on mobile which is all about gacha and psychology Where in they extract money out of people so that you get a dopamine rush and that becomes frequency So that you keep doing it again and again that will probably go away because suddenly you have a bigger audience pool Available who is ready to give you revenue and hence you do not need to resort to these kind of mechanisms So all these loot boxes or all these cosmetic Things that you need to buy with real money that would reduce a lot because frankly as a gamer and I do not know Whether you will agree with it I cannot stand those games if I have paid you a retail price for any game Give me the full experience don't ask money again and again, and that's why the triple a industry will have to change focus towards gamers So that's a great insight guys. I mean gaming has no age barrier and now we know his age also So moving on to George What is your take on gaming as a more immersive and engaging platform for marketing? Compared to traditional digital and social media platforms Yes, it's a super question. I'll split that into two parts. I'll start with my take on gamers And then going to my take on gaming platforms. I see gamers as three categories of gamers One is the serious pro Category gamers like we have on stage second is the casual gamers and the third is the Absolute novices and the spectators part of it. Okay, all three are sorry the third part I would take as creators basically. Yeah, so The first part the first type of gamers can become influencers and opinion leaders and brands can use them To be spokesperson or influencers or whatever the second category of gamers Who are the casual gamers are the target audience basically and you're talking about almost 500 million people in India at the moment We'll play casual games over 500 million So each one of them becomes a target audience and they are the followers of all the influencers Creators of course can become partners with brands to create content create games or and anything in the environment As far as the platform goes, I think it's one of the fastest growing I think you've heard this all morning and afternoon. It's the fastest growing Platform at the moment. I think what you get with that is Fantastic opinion leaders and a very dedicated community and followers I think you will not find a more dedicated community as you will find the gaming community They're addictive. They come every day. They follow their leaders They follow that, you know, the celebs gamers everywhere that they go and they hang on to every word that they say, you know So if you have Celebrity gamers say something that will be followed. I can guarantee you that so that and if you are targeting Anything to a to the Gen Z. I think you can't afford to Lose out on the gaming platform or on gamers also, I think I think Prashant touched upon it and I just want to add to it Today, I think you consider gaming as a subculture But I think to someone who's in that age group and in the Gen Z. It is mainstream so I think we got to start expect accepting that and move on to it like that and I think from purely from an agency standpoint and Creative standpoint, I would say that you're moving on from the traditional forms of advertising To creating experiences and the more brands embrace that and then they are moving towards Creating experiences. I think gaming and gaming platforms and gamers will play a very important role So George, you just mentioned about the immersive and experiential marketing, right Prashant We were just having a chat about your Strategies evolving here right to promote Burger King as a brand. So can you just Like talk more about it Sure, so before I go into what Burger King has been doing with respect to gaming campaigns I think what George said about immersive experiences I think one example that comes to my head is fortnight live events and Fortnight live events really revolution revolutionized the entire way a game can become a social platform So right from Scott Travis concert, which was viewed by 12 million people plus live at the same time Do it revamping itself with The entire galactus live event or something what what is happening is? Games are becoming more social in nature. Why is there's a competitive angle to it? I'm talking about casual gaming. Please do not hate me professional gamers, right? But but what's happening there is whilst there is a gameplay mechanic and whilst there is a lot of competitiveness a game Like fortnight differentiates itself by becoming the experiential game and it all there was an ariana grand concert as well There was marshmallow, right and what fortnight became was this Live experience in a metaverse and I can see neither standing there, right? And it's a very primitive metaverse of sort which started four five years ago But there were people together watching something and and that is what I'm decoding what George is saying that there needs to be More and more experiential events which brands can partner with and now coming to the burglar thing story Two examples, I'll give very quickly one was something we did right at the end of the pandemic wherein there was an augmented reality filter created On Instagram which flame grilled anything that you guys could not achieve during the pandemic and we gave whoppers in return Now the insight was very clear that we all had plans, but the plans did not materialize and here was one brand Which said that you know what I know your plans are fail But guess what I have a whopper for you and and my engagement and again the the KPI is engagement, right? I mean that's the only KPI we take because everything else is controlled by the input of money that you put behind a campaign And the engagements were almost two to three acts of the industry and That really helped us to go for the next big campaign which we did which was the IPI What we did was something called the greatest hack wherein we created a Filter on a third-party page which you could point at the camera and whilst the game was live on depending on the Situation of the game in every ball you could collect certain coupons now again These coupons are also gamified wherein they would pop up in your screen and you have to click on it And then it would be bank to you and right from a no-ball to a wicket to a four to a six To a 50 or a hundred or say even a ball which is not hit right everything allowed you to Customize and collect different kind of coupons and one number that stands out for me was we had 50,000 Gameplays in the period of that IPL and this was the shorter IPL the IPL which happened Pre-pandemic and then there were certain days allocated during I think November December somewhere on that time and that really gave us confidence that Content which is a gamified and content which brings the brand out and allows people to really engage with it works So again 50,000 gameplays in a matter of 20 days a great story for the brand It really worked for our app as well, but these are the kind of things that the brand has taken in terms of gaming Very nice steps right now very early stages But as George said the more immersive experiences we have more brands would want to Get into games and partner with the professionals to create good stories and engagements with consumers I mean lovely steps you are taking for your brand otherwise. I mean we love your burgers So I would like to talk to Ankit as you are a Red Bull athlete what As you are a Red Bull athlete want to understand what is your experience in being one? My experience has been great Then I got to know that you know I was being signed by Red Bull my only idea Was to you know grow the gaming Culture in our country because when I started when the talks were happening gaming was not that big back then So I wanted to you know change it from the grassroot and that's where Red Bull helped me We started with the Red Bull Flick which was a CS event then we came up with the Red Bull campus clutch Which is a valorant event and then we started with Red Bull MEO, which is for all mobile gamers So we tried to you know cater all the Gamers in the country and gave them a platform to you know showcase their skills so that you know They can also live their dream of being an eSports athlete or maybe a content creator Give them that experience give them a stage. My experience has been great and I'm really happy to be a Red Bull athlete That's wonderful So Aditya this one I want to take with you Yeah As you are in as you are engaging with brands more often What is your take on the importance of creative freedom given to you as a creator to create your own? Campaigns with the brands and your fan base And what fan base fan base, okay? So in the last session we were talk about this thing only creative freedom I'm sure a lot of them heard about it as well So I think creator freedom should be given to like throughout all the brands and to all the creators because then you know What kind of content and how it's gonna be merged with your Influential activities as well because as a creator I know what my audience are capable of absorbing that content and and when I'm gonna put that ad or influencer activity over the content period So I think creator freedom should be Should be the first topic before engaging into any activities and so that you know the creator should know like what thoughts could be Possible to get the ads To please in the video as well That's great Snacks as you were an e-sports athlete and now you have made a transition to becoming a gaming content creator Can you share your insights from both the worlds and why you made this transition? So in 2018 I started as an e-sports player So I used to play 12 hours the game daily 12 hours fixed time play tournaments practice for the tournaments We present India at my international level. So that was my focus for constant two years Then I started streaming those almas if you already is upload here you do pay so people got to know only snacks My in game name my YouTube channel name is snacks people used to only know me as snacks So whenever I used to upload videos, the public would know that this is the gameplay of the game Tournament gameplay how to play that all the people then I started To give time to streaming I played 12 hours a day in 12 hours and I took it out in 2 hours to stream on YouTube But the way I was streaming I was just being myself and public was very much liked My accent My just three cases stream it could go as a display got the public was not engaging like a and both entertaining like So yeah, your response after when I started streaming that was in the same. So that got me into content Jump game ban will be recently my four years continuous e-sports killer last 10 months I'm off e-sports a good game ban over that this game can make it to the bgmi So 10 months I had a lot of time to do the 10 to 12 hours in the middle of the middle of the time to stream the other time I'm a poor utilize care to explore my challenges videos Vlogs a lifestyle Joe a day in my life. Yes, I'm a long ago.  I'm a good person I'm actually a to the sudden switch starting me both as a confident a data to blog in front of so many people but when I started getting the response to public name a response there that made me confident and I was just being myself camera or naho. I just have camera my son camera the public a boat person now So this is my journey from an e-sports player to a content creator, but I'll be managing both Since the game is back. So don't know manage karunga public on the day in karunga kill the ring a mosaic array Thank you. We have seen some famous dialogue that you always Say on stream. Can you just Get them But what was the money a guy who BGM a pubg kill them to some of my anger So my tincture slangs and I thought about it when I bought Karthak stream a public post to point out Okay, but was it a good thing starting with a total of action to look at but but my public Oh, I'm a person that I'm a cheese and to the viral. Yeah, so they are three for slangs Joe game may my use Kartha gameplay may so a kid They jiggle day jiggle day jiggle So they get diamonds on the row. Zeher bus, Sanna nanana spray, Coma spray. So these are all my Hyderabadi words. So I used to use them in my gameplay. From there, the public liked my accent. People started liking it. They were like, stream it. See how you talk in a regular business. How you entertain. So the public likes it. We deliver it. We keep laughing. We keep laughing. With slangs, I think. With slangs, even Dynamo has some slangs, right? I think we should... But it's that short. Now I'll be taking... Now I'll be moving to Rani. Rani, what drew you to gaming in the first place? How has it impacted your life? Can you share a very memorable gaming experience with us? I've been a gamer my whole life. Like, I've been playing games since I was a kid. Gaming has done a part for my life, of course. A lot of things have happened in my life with gaming. So, an impactful moment. I don't have exactly one moment, but there are a lot. Like, I remember one moment. So, this was back in 2018 when just PUBG Mobile came out. So I used to stream. I would be streaming 3 hours, 4 hours back then. And at that time, PUBG PC was there. And CSGO came out. So, a very impactful day in my life, I'll say, is one day I decided to try out this new game that just came out 2-3 days ago called PUBG Mobile. That game was new. People had no idea how this mobile would work. I had no idea because if you played PUBG PC back in 2017, it was horrible. Even on a good PC, it's horrible. So, imagine on a mobile phone. So, that day I played PUBG Mobile for the first time and I used to get around 20-30K views on my average live stream. And that day, it went to around 200K views. And I remember I ended the stream thinking to myself, what is this game? And I think it just caught on. People liked the game. People enjoyed the game. And here we are, 6 years later. I mean, yeah, that's a long time. So, I would like to go to Saloni now. Saloni, you have said in some of your videos that let's remove female from the female gamers, right? Can you briefly help us with your thought behind the scene? I mean, I've said let's remove girl from the girl gamer because I never specify or pronounce myself as a girl gamer unless it's a trending hashtag on Instagram. I'm just kidding.  I'm born as a girl that doesn't mean people will specify me as a girl gamer. So, I don't like the fact that if it's a boy, people don't like specify them as a boy. He's a boy gamer. Why girls? We are just a gamer. And I believe for becoming a gamer, you require skills, not gender. So, I work on my skills and I work on my personality because I am an influencer. I'm a content creator as well. So, that's what I believe and that's what I tell people not to call me or pronounce me as a girl gamer. That's great. I think Prashant, you were too... So, Saroni, what a well-answered question. I mean, the part that there is a girl gamer it's sad because there's no classification but what I want to bring into perspective is characters. For example, I have played as Aloy, Horizon, take care for a bit in West or Horizon Zero Dawn. I have played as Ellie. Ellie is last of us, right? What is happening is even in the gaming mainstream, some of the best characters in gaming today are women. Right? And when you play them, you completely immerse yourself. If you look at most of the games coming in today, they have a character creation. For example, Cyberpunk. I don't know whether you have heard of Cyberpunk 2077. Keanu Reeves Towersmith. That's the claim to fame for that game. But CD Projekt R was the first game which allowed you to be a trans character in the game itself. So, I'm 100% in sync with you that this conversation of a gender, whether as a player or as a character in the game itself is now blurring. And at the end of the day, whether it's a character or you, you're just a gamer doing the game. So, more power to you for that. Thank you. So, through this panel, we have seen that gaming is more than age and gaming is above the gender, right? So, inclusivity and diversity, gaming is one genre that caters to. So, these were the questions that I wanted to ask my panelists. Now we want to have some questions from the audiences, right? If you guys have any questions, do feel free to ask them. Any questions? Thank you. And that's the panel for you guys. Thank you.


It takes strength, it takes courage, it takes discipline because when you fail you're not only letting down yourself, you're letting down the people around you that supported you through the process. My name is Sergeant Matt Mortensen. I'm a member of the world-class athlete program based out of Fort Carson, Colorado and I'm also a member of the United States Luge team. It's really tight between Matt and Robin right now, so those two teams are really fighting it out. It's really important for the Army because it showcases the Army's ability to support soldiers in what they do and challenges me to be a better soldier. I'm originally from Long Island, so the amount of Long Islanders that know about the sport of Luge is probably about nine the size of my family, right? I had no idea what it was at all. It was just something that my dad thought would be fun for the guys to do over the weekend, which it was, and now here I am. This will be my second time going to the Olympics, so it's a little bit of a different perspective. The first time around I was really excited about the experience and going to the Olympics, walking into opening ceremonies was the biggest dream in my life. The sport of Luge is a relatively small sport and obviously it's very unique. Luge is a winter sport where an individual can compete in the singles or the doubles discipline. Lying on their back, going about 80 miles an hour down an ice chute, kind of like what a roller coaster would be on ice. So in 2010 I had just barely missed out on the Winter Olympic Games and I came to kind of a crossroads in my life and my career. I signed up for the military. I was able to get into the world-class athlete program. Honestly, without the world-class athlete program or WCAP as we call it, I wouldn't have been able to continue my life as an athlete. I think my favorite part of actually going down the track is the adrenaline I get before each run. It's a little bit of nerves and a little bit of adrenaline and I feed off of it. I love that feeling. I love doing this. I love being a part of the military. I love being an athlete and I like the emotional support that being a soldier gives me. I know that when I'm competing I'm not only representing myself or my family, I'm representing the military as well. And if only a couple of thousand soldiers watched us compete, that would make my day. And right now if they were to follow me, then they would follow my journey to the Olympics in Pyeongchang. It gives me the chills even thinking about it. To be going to do that again is unbelievable, but I am coming in hoping for medals.