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Metaverse buzz has marketers scrambling to hire gaming experts.
Advertisers may be wary of Facebook’s undefined metaverse pitch, but gaming is a mature space, with more than three billion people playing digital games and 29.6 million Americans regularly watching esports in 2022. A Dentsu report cited increased gaming activity — especially among Gen Z — as a key reason for ad spend’s rapid recovery from the pandemic. And brands, platforms, and agencies are trying to hire accordingly.
PepsiCo is seeking an analyst to help market Mountain Dew to gamers at a salary of up to $92,000. Major League Soccer is hiring a VP of emerging ventures to help develop NFTs and other metaverse marketing products. SoundCloud needs a senior manager of gaming and metaverse business development, and Crocs wants a new ad agency and director of global paid media to plan its metaverse strategy.
A SoundCloud spokesperson said gaming is an important channel for the music sharing platform because more than 70% of its target audience is gamers. Crocs’ «digitally-led, social-first» strategy has it exploring all new platforms, a representative said.
Not all metaverse trends will last, said Adam Harter, PepsiCo’s SVP of Media, Sports and Entertainment. But Mountain Dew, which has been targeting gamers starting with a 2005 XBox partnership, still needs to invest and experiment to stay authentic and relevant to fans.
«We know the war on talent is fierce and the need for individuals who not only understand the changing consumer dynamic but also live it are more necessary than ever,» said Harter.
The big ad agencies have established dedicated gaming divisions in recent years and are also competing for talent — often with their clients.
Dentsu is looking for a US director at the recently-launched Dentsu Gaming to bring together employees at its agencies to plan in-game ad buys, negotiate deals with esports teams, and help clients join platforms like Roblox, said Dan Holland, Dentsu Americas’ EVP and gaming lead.
Omnicom is seeking a project manager and associate director of esports at its gaming unit, Zero Code. Specialty agencies Pivot and hi5 also have open gamer marketing roles, as do big names like consulting firm KPMG and entertainment firm United Talent Agency.
Esports agency OS Studios is looking for two creative directors plus associates who specialize in esports and cryptocurrency, CEO John Higgins said.
The pool of qualified candidates is small, and it can take four to six months to fill a role, said Dario Raciti, managing director of Zero Code. Successful hires are more likely to be from gaming companies, esports leagues, or talent firms that represent gamers than traditional marketers who lack the requisite sector knowledge, he said.
«I get a lot of resumes from people who did a Twitch ad buy once, but that’s just not enough for me,» Raciti said.
Hiring execs value a passion for gaming and Web3 more than education or ad industry experience.
«We need people who are comfortable being in a constant state of disruption, and we need world class collaborators, because to succeed in the metaverse we know we need to bring together highly specialized experts across a plethora of disciplines to make big things happen,» said PepsiCo’s Harter.
Applicants can expect to get specific questions about things like the membership of Team Liquid or the winners of last year’s Overwatch tournament.
«You’re looking for unicorns; they’re that rare,» Higgins said.
For the right candidate, the pay can be lucrative. Big companies are dangling sales-style performance bonuses, said Higgins, who’s heard of some paying gaming executives as much as $300,000. Entry-level pay for esports agency jobs starts at around $45,000, though people with prior marketing experience could get up to $65,000, he said.
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