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WARC Talks: Sorrell and Bikker's advice for AI-impacted agency models and China's outbounders

WARC’s China editor, Jenny Chan, speaks to Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman at S4 Capital and Rogier Bikker, managing director at Media.Monks, Greater China.

• This podcast episode discusses the China macroeconomic outlook for both inbound and outbound brands, applications of the ‘AI Industrial Revolution’, and the impact on the agency remuneration model.

Listen to the episode in full here 

Timestamps

02:48 – Introducing Sir Martin and Rogier.

05:29 – Insights from China.

08:42 – The shape of China’s economic recovery.

11:29 – China’s outbound strategy.

21:10 – Budget allocation.

25:07 – The role of AI in the agency business model.

Further reading

How can ad agencies and brands transition to an AI-powered future?

Generative AI foundations require care with marketing data – and that requires human attention

Toolkit: Marketers gear up for a brighter 2024

Despite very real concerns about the economy, the majority of marketers around the world are optimistic and expect business to be better next year than this, according to a new WARC report.

The Voice of the Marketer 2024 is a deep dive into The Marketer’s Toolkit survey data of 1,400+ marketers worldwide.

Key findings

• Marketers are optimistic despite economic worries

Two-thirds (64%) of marketers indicated that economic recession will have the biggest impact on marketing strategies in 2024, while 41% highlighted inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

Yet almost two-thirds of marketers (61%) expect that business will improve next year and 41% believe that marketing budgets will increase. In Europe and North America, just over a third expect budgets to be higher in 2024 (37% and 35% respectively). In contrast, half of marketers (50%) in APAC expect budgets to grow next year.

It would also appear that more marketers understand that maintaining or even increasing investment in brand marketing can be effective in navigating economic downturns.

• TikTok and YouTube up, X down

Marketers are planning to increase investments in online video (+66% net sentiment), social media +59%), and mobile (+51%), with spend expected to decrease in traditional channels like print (-41%), TV (-16%) and cinema (-13%).

TikTok and YouTube are the platforms expected to receive the biggest increases in marketing spend in 2024. A third of marketers (31%) expect to decrease investments in X, while far fewer anticipate increasing investment in the metaverse (just 11%, compared to 47% last year).

The advice to marketers is to diversify media investments and monitor new opportunities whilst safeguarding a brand’s reputation.

• Brands struggle to keep pace with evolving measurement

Four in ten (39%) marketers globally identified measurement as a top concern for 2024, increasing to 48% among those based in North America. Yet very few (4%) use all available marketing measurement methods in combination (brand lift studies, econometrics/MMM, experiments and attribution) and one-fifth (22%) admitted to not utilising any form of modelling. 

Over half (54%) of marketers view brand metrics (e.g. awareness, consideration, purchase intent) as having the greatest impact on their marketing strategy, above ROI (44%), sales (36%) and market penetration (34%).

The advice to marketers is to evaluate the different measurement tools available and incorporate different measurement techniques for a holistic view of marketing activities. 

A complimentary sample of The Voice of the Marketer 2024 is available to read here. The full report is available to WARC members. It follows the recent release of The Marketer’s Toolkit 2024, a report analysing the five key trends that will disrupt the marketing industry in the coming year: political polarization, the potential of generative AI, masculinity in crisis, “sportswashing”, and community-based sustainability.

Both reports are part of WARC Strategy’s The Evolution of Marketing program, designed to help marketers address major industry shifts to drive effective marketing. A third report, The Future of Media, will be released in January. Complementing the reports, a series of podcasts are also available.

Philip Morris ‘powers on two engines’

As it continues to move towards a smoke-free business, Philip Morris International (PMI) expects that by 2030 two-thirds of revenue will come from heat-not-burn and oral nicotine products.

The primary brands driving this in each segment are, respectively, IQOS and ZYN, said CFO Emmanuel Babeau during a Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference Call.

Why the tobacco industry matters

The world of tobacco has changed enormously in recent years, as combustible products are banished to the margins in many markets, to be replaced by non-combustible offerings which are often a very different proposition to what smokers are used to.

That means that consumers will need to be educated about these offerings – which will be challenging in a heavily regulated industry – and that PMI will need to understand and address obstacles to adoption.

What PMI is doing 

• If PMI’s brands are to carry on growing, the business will have to offer support: IQOS is a great product, Babeau said, but “we still need to make sure that the consumer knows about it.”
• He reported a clear correlation between “the awareness, the knowledge, the understanding of what IQOS is about and the performance in terms of volume”.
• ZYN is growing fast in the US – “simply the most successful nicotine product in the US today”, according to Babeau – where oral nicotine now accounts for more than 10% of PMI’s smoke-free portfolio. 
• Innovation is critical. “We want to reach all smokers through the planet, and therefore, we need to develop a portfolio that is able to do that,” siad Babeau. 
• New products such as LEVIA do not contain tobacco but a “non-tobacco substrate” infused with nicotine, which PMI hopes could avoid the taxes on some of its other products.

Key quote

“It’s really important that we continue to reach smokers, that we continue to make IQOS exciting … It also has to be a fun product, it has to be enjoyable, it has to be lifestyle – and we need to continue to invest in all these dimensions” – Emmanuel Babeau, CFO, Philip Morris International. 

Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Reuters

[Image: PMI]

Behind McDonald’s Raise Your Arches

McDonald’s Raise Your Arches made headlines for its radical approach to QSR advertising – at an event in London, the brand’s marketing chief and agency strategist revealed the method that led to a revolutionary insight. 

Why McDonald’s Raise Your Arches matters

Restaurants are about food, right? Not so, found McDonald’s. For the QSR giant, the real moment of drama lay in the moment of suggestion rather than the moment of consumption. It feeds into a wider idea of what a product or service is: not the functional benefit the brand thinks the customer wants to feel, but what the customer actually feels. A reminder that insight is vital. 

Key points

• McDonald’s Raise Your Arches, now used in 35 markets and the basis of a year-long series of suggestion-based spots, was considered revolutionary for breaking the rules of not showing the product nor the store. 
• Vitally, it was an idea born out of how people feel about the brand and life in general. But the brand needed to put trust in their research and commit to the insight to make it successful. 
• The ad follows a 15-year campaign in which McDonald’s had worked hard to restore trust through emotional spots that aimed to grow the love for the brand.

Sourced from Most Contagious 

Spotlight India: How can India step into 2024 and level up with confidence 

A new edition of WARC’s Spotlight India series looks at how the country stands on the brink of opportunities to yield significant influence at a global level in 2024.

Why it matters

India has displayed resilience in a year that has been trying for most countries, says WARC’s India editor. The marketing industry will need to show more of that in the coming year when general elections take place and the impact of AI starts to be felt.

Takeaways 

• Surveys of Indian consumers reflect the concerns and the inherent optimism in Indians.
• As election season approaches, almost a quarter (24%) of Indian respondents believe inflation and unemployment are the biggest issues facing the country today.
• In spite of inflationary pressures, Indians are feeling more positive about their finances and are less likely to expect price increases.
• Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents believe the development of artificial intelligence (AI) will benefit society.

Read more in Spotlight India: A Marketing Blueprint on India's Path to Global Influence.

Campbell’s sees off private label

Brands owned by The Campbell Soup Company are gaining share “with modest incremental investment”, according to its CEO. 

What’s happening

“We are seeing more retailers actively returning to Campbell’s brands from private label a year ago,” CEO Mark Clouse explained on an earnings call – and that is “providing an outsized benefit” as the business balances its spending priorities.

“A year ago at Thanksgiving a lot of customers had chosen to go with private label as their lead item,” he said. “We saw that reverse in a material way this year … which was very important for us relative to ensuring that we get off to a good start in the season.”

Why it matters

Consumers’ daily routines have largely returned to their pre-pandemic normal, but the cost of living has not, Bloomberg noted recently: consumers are now spending around a third more on groceries than they were three years ago. 

With price a more crucial element in consumer choice, private label has gained share. But inflation halved between October 2022 and October 2023, meaning more people may return to brands as their first preference. Strong brands that have maintained their marketing investment, like those of Campbell’s, will reap the benefits.

“We are committed to sustaining our marketing and innovation plans,” said Clouse. “This is critical not only to reinforce the value and differentiation of our products, but also to continue to build the long-term equity of our brands.”

Takeaways 

• The CEO reported that over the past four weeks, including Thanksgiving, “we’ve seen improvement in all segments driving overall dollar and unit share gains, including a 0.2 improvement in dollar share as well as a 0.9 improvement in unit share for our very important total soup business”.
• Campbell’s power brands grew net sales by 5%; that was less than a huge 21% increase in the same period last year, but resulted in a 13% growth on a two-year compound annual rate basis.
• “The strength of our power brands was tempered in the quarter by lower-margin partner brands and fresh bakery, as those businesses are somewhat more vulnerable to private label and consumer trade down,” said Clouse.
• He expects a “tailwind” from retailers including Campbell’s brands rather than private labels in their seasonal advertising. 

Sourced from Seeking Alpha, Bloomberg, Statista

[Image: The Campbell Soup Company]

RGM helps Coca-Cola do fewer brands better

The Coca-Cola Company has halved the number of brands it operates – from 400 before the pandemic to 200 now – and is leveraging marketing investment to scale these brands regionally and globally. 

Why brand pruning matters

Fewer brands allows the business to have a more focused approach on its priorities in terms of the countries and categories it operates in. 

Further, it can also be “more effective in the way that we invest every dollar to build those brands across the system through our marketing transformation process globally”, according to Henrique Braun, president of international development, speaking on the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference Call. 

Takeaways 

• Crucial to the success of this approach is the business’s revenue growth management (RGM) capabilities, which “make the revenue flywheel spin faster – having the right brands, having the packaging, price, channel, composition per country, in a way that we can continue to adapt and to win in the different markets”, said Braun.
• In this way, The Coca-Cola Company is seeing the fastest-growing opportunities in developing markets – the capability to generate data and amplify its portfolio “is invariably shorter than the developed markets”, he explained.
• India is an example of this approach, helping sequence the expansion of brands and different packages in the country – and, with a brand like Thums Up, exploring opportunities for regional expansion across Southeast Asia.
• With Coca-Cola expanding into new categories such as coffee and alcohol, there are also opportunities to expand in categories adjacent to core soft drinks – ready-to-drink coffee in China, for example.

Sourced from Seeking Alpha 

[Image: The Coca-Cola Company]

China’s livestreaming moves into real estate

Livestreaming has become a channel for selling huge numbers of everyday products, from clothing to consumer electronics; now the hope is that it can perform a similar feat for China’s depressed housing market.

What’s happening?

• Short-video platform Kuaishou has launched a month-long “national home-buying season” – an online festival which will feature star agents, bargain prices and vouchers to encourage people to buy property, the South China Morning Post reports. 
• A growing interest in buying homes online prompted Kuaishou to set up a real estate brand: its Ideal Home channel was created in June 2022.
• Kuaishou sold US$1.4bn in property last year as Chinese consumers viewed and bought homes through livestreams.

Why livestreaming in China matters

Singles Day sales were up just 2% on the previous year – and much of that was driven by discounts and promotions. But McKinsey notes that while traditional e-commerce was flat, livestreaming grew by around 20% and contributed 20% of the festival’s total sales.

If livestreaming can boost a residential property market – one in which transactions are 45% lower than pre-pandemic, reflecting low levels of consumer confidence – that could have a knock-on effect on the rest of the economy.

But … 

Livestreaming isn’t going to help the 1.5 million people who have paid hugely indebted property developer Evergrande for homes that have yet to be finished.

Evergrande, which has more than $300bn in liabilities, is currently engaged in a debt restructuring plan. If that fails, there are going to be a lot of angry buyers and, potentially, social unrest.

Sourced from South China Morning Post, McKinsey & Company, Financial Times

Royal Mail’s ‘Lighter Delivery’ campaign wins DMA Awards Grand Prix

A personalised campaign from The Creative Consultancy showcasing a more sustainable delivery option from Royal Mail took home the Grand Prix at the DMA Awards 2023 this week.

The campaign

• ‘Lighter Delivery’ targeted senior executives at key retailers, delivering a box within a box via a dancing postman.
• The different sized boxes demonstrated the 50% less carbon emissions produced by Royal Mail postal staff versus rival courier firms.
• Sixty percent of those reached scanned a QR code to visit a landing page, while the sales pipeline opportunity was estimated at 346 times the cost of the campaign activity.

Why Royal Mail’s campaign matters

The campaign showed the powerful impact direct mail can have while also delivering its sustainability message.

You can read the full list of winners on the DMA website.

Sourced from DMA

[Image: DMA]

Advertising boosts business prospects at Colgate-Palmolive

For Colgate-Palmolive, advertising is playing a crucial role in improving brand health metrics and helping deliver 19 consecutive quarters of growth.

Why brand health matters

• “We sell brands, so brand health metrics are probably the most important indicator about the long-term prospects of the business,” Panos Tsourapas, group president, Europe and Developing Markets, told the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference Call. 
• These are improving in most parts of the world, he reported, “and this is the result of our increased advertising spending and, through our investment in data and analytics, through the improvement of the efficiency of this investment” – investment which helps support innovation and pricing.

Driving growth 

• In Africa/Eurasia, “we are growing market share in every single market in the region”, Tsourapas said. “This is not a growth driven by temporary pricing, it’s a growth driven by focus behind the brands, advertising investment, innovation and consistent and superior executional ability.”
• Another example: Colgate’s share of the toothpaste market in Brazil is growing, “despite the fact that some of our competitors are very aggressive in pricing – it’s a key indicator on the health of our model.”
• In Latin America, the focus is on premiumisation and moving away from competing at low price points. “ Our commercialization plans, our advertising, is working very well and our execution is best-in-class – and this is reflected in the results.”

Sourced from Seeking Alpha

[Image: Colgate-Palmolive]

Why brand assets matter for B2B brands

B2B marketers need to think more broadly about where they can build their brand, and part of that involves developing distinctive brand assets, in the same way that many B2C brands do. 

That’s the view of professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.

Context 

B2B brands tend to regard a logo as sufficient branding and to neglect things like distinctive brand assets, she told the LinkedIn for B2B Growth Podcast. 

• That’s partly because such assets are more difficult to create in a B2B context (although Salesforce’s Astro mascot has shown how it can be done), and partly because they tend to be built through the sort of broad-reach marketing that much of the B2B sector doesn't do. 
• Further, there may be an assumption that buyers will do a lot of research themselves, making such assets largely unnecessary. 
• B2B marketers have “a narrow perspective of what their distinctive assets could be and how they’re used,” said Romaniuk. They’re loathe to do anything that might risk not being taken seriously as a business. 

Why B2B might need distinctive assets 

• The B2B buying audience may be smaller than the B2C one, but you still have to build memories among a set of buyers who will change over time. And it’s rarely just one person making the decision – there will be various influencers within an organisation as well.
• Additionally, the range of media available to B2B marketers requires branding that is adaptable to the various options; you can’t assume a logo will be suitable for all environments.
• The shift to digital has broken the personal relationships that used to exist between buyer and salesperson. “You might only talk to a person if you’ve got a problem or a specific requirement – then, what you’ve built up in people’s brains becomes even more important.” 
• Having a distinctive asset (and don’t confuse asset building with asset using, Romaniuk cautioned) can help free up people’s brains to focus on specific messages as they’re not having to process the brand. “The memory building that you’re doing in your communications is separate from the brand building that you’re doing in your communications,” she added.

How to take action 

• Do an audit of competitors to see what assets they are using and then think about how to “counter-program against that”.
• Develop a distinctive asset palette – a ‘menu’ of assets that you can select from as required for any particular environment. 
• Review your own communications and get rid of inconsistencies.
• Audit employees to see what branding opportunities you may be missing on platforms like LinkedIn. “Anytime you have an opportunity to communicate the brand – attention is so precious, exposures are so few – you should leap at it with every resource you have available.”

Sourced from LinkedIn for B2B Growth Podcast

Clarity needed for eco-labels on food to be more effective

Eco-labels on food products with environmental messages do encourage consumers to buy and pay more for items, but their effectiveness is diluted when the label isn’t trusted or it’s confusing, a study in China finds. 

Moreover, the environmental messages were found to have equal signalling power as those about health and safety, indicating that talking up environmental benefits could give brands a competitive advantage if they’re trusted. 

Why eco-labels matter 

Despite their use worldwide and increasingly as part of marketing campaigns, it is estimated that only about 20% of consumers, who are reported to be environmentally conscious, actually purchase eco-labelled products. Furthermore, it’s estimated that about 147 food eco-label schemes exist globally, but consumer awareness of these remains low.

Additionally, the information conveyed by eco-labels can be confusing and complex, causing ambiguity and misunderstanding among consumers about their benefits. As such, it’s important to know how this might directly or indirectly affect marketing efforts.

Takeaways

• The study found that consumers with higher environmental concerns are willing to pay more for eco-labelled food products, while the same is true of those who are more aware of eco-labels.
• Being environmentally concerned and aware of eco-labels and their claims is not enough to convince consumers to act – you need trust (a belief in the labels’ integrity or validity) to reduce the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’. 
• The environmental benefits of eco-labels hold equal signalling power to messages about ‘health’ and ‘safety’, suggesting these should be communicated clearly. 
• The presence of children in households has a ‘significant effect’ on consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products. This makes a strong case for consumer segmentation for eco or green companies. 
• The study authors suggest that clear information will help with authenticity and enhance consumer trust in eco-labels.

Key quote 

“...[G]lobally, consumers are increasingly considering environmental issues in their purchasing decisions. Along with the continuous rise in eco-consciousness and green consumption in recent years, consumers are found to pay more attention to the social and environmental values, thus putting functional values of products at the back burner” – study authors, Modelling the antecedents of consumers’ willingness to pay for eco-labelled food products.

About the study 

The study focused on four popular eco-labels in the Chinese food industry: the Chinese Environmental Protection Label, the Chinese National Organic Product Certification, the No Harm Agriculture Food Label, and the Safety Quality label.

Respondents (a total of 333) were asked to what extent they believe purchasing products with these eco-labels were good for the environment. The average age range of the sample was 30 years, with 55% of respondents indicating that they had children under the age of 18 living with them.

Sourced from the International Journal of Consumer Studies 

P&G undertakes ‘superiority’ reset

FMCG giant Procter & Gamble is resetting its ‘superiority’ criteria in order to avoid inertia, according to its CFO. 

Context

• P&G has for several years now been focused on a superiority strategy, whereby innovative products are backed by investment in marketing to deliver value for both consumers and retailers. 
• “We were very concerned about inertia that could set in … when we’ve gone from 30% of our product portfolio being superior to now 80% being superior,” CFO Andre Schulten told the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

The reset 

• Accordingly, the company has decided to “sharpen the criteria for what we consider superior” in the categories in which it operates. 
• “We [have] basically reset that 80% superiority down to between 20% and 30%, depending on the category and the region,” said Schulten. “And we’ve introduced incremental criteria into the innovation and the consumer design process to sharpen the thinking in each of the categories.”

What it means 

• Products should be “so superior that when you use them for the first time, you are clear that it’s the best possible solution you could purchase,” Schulten explained. 
• “That will trigger the desire to share that experience, it will trigger repeat loyalty, but it will also trigger what we believe is social media buzz and, therefore, word of mouth.”
• Environmental sustainability is being “integrated into the superiority vectors” that consumers consider; given a choice of a product that works for them or one that is more environmentally sustainable, “they will prefer the solution that has both elements without a trade-off”.

Putting it all together 

“Our belief is that the combination of superiority when combined with pricing yields a better outcome from a volume standpoint – and that’s what we’re seeing,” Schulten said.

Sourced from Seeking Alpha

A quarter of open-web programmatic spending is wasteful or unproductive

Client-side marketers can pick up $22bn in efficiency gains by rethinking their approach to programmatic spending, confirms a study from the ANA.

The ANA’s Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study* is a comprehensive follow-up to its First Look report published in June, which flagged a potential $20bn in savings. 

Key findings 

• Transaction costs (primarily DSP and SSP fees) account for 29% of the ad dollar.
• Loss of media productivity costs (non-viewable and IVT impressions as well as non-measurable for viewability and Made for Advertising ad spend) account for 35% of the ad dollar.
• Depending on the levels of agency fees (a transaction cost) and brand safety (a loss of media productivity cost) – both beyond the scope of the ANA project – the study suggests that less than 36 cents of every dollar effectively reaches the consumer.

Recommendations 

• A re-evaluation of Made for Advertising websites could save marketers $10bn. 
• A further $12bn comes from a raft of other recommendations, including: 
• website optimization/reduction – use inclusion lists;
• buying through direct inventory supply paths;
• having direct contracts with primary supply chain partners (DSPs, SSPs, and ad verification vendors);
• having an SSP optimization strategy;
• understanding information asymmetry in programmatic advertising and taking more active stewardship of media investments; 
• understanding when an agency is purchasing as an agent versus selling;
• inventory on a non-transparent basis or that has been acquired as a principal;
• keeping media agency contracts updated;
• understanding the types of Private Marketplaces (PMPs) bought from and considering allocating more budget towards Open Marketplaces (OMPs).
• improving transparency by optimizing measurability and viewability;
• having a proactive plan to fight invalid traffic (IVT);
• leveraging log-level data;
• aligning incentives with goals, measuring and optimizing effectiveness.

Analysis 

Each of the recommendations varies in complexity and applicability, meaning each needs to be understood and considered, says Pranay Damji, programmatic and ad-tech consultant for ID Comms. Implementing an inclusion list is fairly quick and easy, for example, while accessing log-level data from every ad tech vendor across an advertiser’s supply chain is much more complex, costly, and time consuming.

“The real challenge for advertisers is not what to do [the report provides plenty of guidance in that regard], the challenge is to know where to start,” he told WARC.

* Twenty-one marketers and 12 supply chain companies participated in the study. Total ad spend was $123m with 35.5 billion impressions. Qualitative interviews supplemented the quantitative work.

Sourced from ANA

CMOs on 2024: Asahi's Grant McKenzie on the evolution of beer marketing

In an exclusive podcast interview for WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit, Grant McKenzie, Chief Marketing Officer, Europe and International at Asahi, talks to WARC’s Anna Hamill about sports sponsorship, media fragmentation, moving on from gender stereotypes, and the impact of climate change on the beer industry.

• In the current climate, marketers should avoid changing their premium when it's not necessary and be wary of falling into the trap of striving to make products cheaper as this is not always in line with consumer priorities.

Listen to the episode in full here 

Timestamps

01:47 – Grant’s role at Asahi.

02:49 – How is inflation impacting your consumers?

06:28 – How do these pressures affect your decision making process?

09:10 – How is Asahi telling the story of elevated experiences in their marketing?

10:51 – The growth of non-alcohol beer.

14:09 – Evolving approach to targeting.

19:43 – How important is sports sponsorship in your strategy?

27:59 – Should brands comment on political issues?

30:27 – Key challenges brought about by climate change.

32:57 – Do you think marketing plays an important role in telling your sustainability story?

36:51 – Media and tech investment at Asahi.

Further reading

How Heineken is mainstreaming the alcohol-free category

World market for alcoholic drinks

Brands can tap India’s e-sport sector

E-sport is gaining ground in India, and while it’s not about to challenge cricket as the nation’s sporting passion, it could soon overtake some other traditional sports in popularity.

Context 

In India, as elsewhere, gaming has become a mainstream activity. In parallel, e-sports consumption has grown, as games publishers invest to maximise interest. But one of the biggest games, BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India), was temporarily banned by the government amid security concerns because players were interacting with servers in China.

That was a problem for the sector, as the founder of e-sports streaming platform Loco told afaqs!: “What cricket is for Indian sports culture, BGMI is for Indian e-sports culture.” 

Why e-sport in India matters

With the lifting of the ban earlier this year, and the development of newer game categories in the interim, e-sports have picked up and viewership of tournaments is reported to be third in sport overall. Brands have a unique opportunity to reach and engage with this audience. 

Takeaways 

• There are some 440 million online gamers in India, with around a quarter of that number playing frequently. 
• A 2023 survey by Loco found almost half of respondents spent over an hour per game-playing session and that there is a growing willingness to pay for better quality gaming experiences. 
• Loco reports success with pay-per-view e-sports tournaments, but adds that frequency needs to be managed carefully and that leagues and franchises are the way forward.
• Mumbai is a hub for gaming houses: gaming companies find it easier to cut brand deals in the city, plus the presence of servers of popular games reduces latency time.

Key quote

“I believe, in some years, e-sports could surpass the viewership numbers of Kabaddi as it continues to solidify its status … e-sports can become the second largest sport in India in 3-5 years” – Ashwin Suresh, founder, Loco.

Sourced from afaqs!, Economic Times