U.S Navy picks Esports and YouTube for Advertising Money

The US Navya is set to spend it advertising funds on Esports and Youtube. Switching from television to more modern ventures, the ninety-seven percent of Navy’s advertising budget will be aimed at online ad strategy and the remaining three will go towards radio and billboard ads. This reason for this massive course changes is to meet the demands of the new demography that is between the ages of 17 and 28. 

Since 2018, the Navy has been reducing its advertising budget for television.

For 2020, the Navy’s goal is to add 5,100 new recruits for an active duty force of 340,500. “One thing we did learn, is paying for a lot of TV ads in the middle of Super Bowl games,” Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Robert Burke said during a recent appearance at the Military Reporters and Editors annual conference. “The target audience is not watching that.”

By February of 2020, the Navy’s prime focus will shift to not only recruitment but also to competitive Esports. They also look to become a major sponsor of Esports events. They wanna build an Esports team which will consist of people recruited from the service’s active-duty.   

According to a research conducted by Syracuse University, Esports viewership is expected to reach 84 million by 202. This projection is also set to surpass all other sports leagues with an exception of NFL. 

“We had a lot more money running on TV three years ago. And now we’re focused on digital. And it’s just because a much younger cohort of people are consuming media online,” Sandra Muoio, a senior partner and group director for media at WM Global told USNI News. “When we look at the sports, we see esports is very young,”

The navy isn’t the first military force to build an Esports teams. The US army has its own Esports team that actively participates in titles like Call of Duty.