Machinima To Help Brands Navigate E-Sports Landscape With In-House Agency

Machinima, like many other brands within the digital gaming community, is bullish on e-sports, and it wants to make sure its brand partners share its excitement. During its presentation at the NewFronts, it announced Mach-1, an “in-house gaming agency” that will guide brand partners through the burgeoning e-sports landscape.

Mach-1 is Machinima’s response to the fact that many of the people in charge of ad media accounts may not be familiar with the e-sports community, the creators who cater to it, and the viewers who consume its videos. By leveraging its own expertise in that space (the company has stood as one of the Internet’s preeminent gaming networks since its 2000 inception), Machinima can tell its brand partners “the exact kind of content” they should advertise on, according to CEO Chad Gutstein.

The self-proclaimed “many2many” network began dishing out that advice at its NewFronts event, where it held an educational panel about the growth of e-sports. Among the panelists were Activision Blizzard EVP Mike Sepso

, ESL CEO Craig Levine, and e-sports commentator Alex Rodriguez (no, not that one), who will host an upcoming Machinima series called Inside eSports. The key takeaway: The global e-sports market is growing, and it currently totals more than $910 million.

Beyond Mach-1, Machinima also announced Machinima Preferred Media Solutions, a service that will help users find the right segment of gaming and fan culture YouTube channels to match their personal advertising needs. As Gutstein puts it, “e-sports is everywhere,” and his team is best equipped to serve as adept navigators.