Katapult agency redoubles its commitment to video game marketing, “an area that has yet to be exploited”.
Innovation is one of the cornerstones of the entertainment marketing agency Katapult. A principle that has been maintained since its foundation in 2010.
Its CEO and co-founder, American Marc Díaz Williams, told DIRCOMFIDENCIAL that that year “I realised that in Spain entertainment marketing was very focused on sport and it seemed to me that there was a lot of ground in other areas”, such as culture, music, cinema, theatre and festivals.
That was where Katapult wanted to put the focus in its first phase and later, in 2015, also in sports, through Katapult Sports, which would be a turning point for the agency. Today its founder describes it as “a company dedicated to helping brands to be in anything that generates a good memory, in places where the user is happy, such as a concert, a musical, a cinema or a video game. Our obsession is to help brands enter these entertainment spaces. This company had a turnover of 4.5 million euros in 2021.
Katapult employs between thirty and forty employees in divisions such as Culture, Sports & Esports, Events, Dig & Tech and Namings. Regarding the latter, Díaz states that “I am almost convinced that we are the agency that has done the most naimings. We have provided consultancy for several naimings for sports teams, Moto GP, Paris Hilton’s team, Antonio Banderas and, above all, theatres such as Cofidís, EDP, Compac and Philips”.
Electronic Arts, EDP, Elecnor, Grupo Smedia, Adidas, Amazon and La Liga are some of the clients they work for. EDP is one of the company’s main success stories, winning a Gold Award for event of the year. “During the pandemic,” explains Díaz, “we took a hundred grandparents from old people’s homes, who were already vaccinated, to the EDP Theatre in Gran Vía to see a show just for them, performed by the actor Santi Rodríguez. It was a brutal experience because it was the first time they had left the residence in a year and a bit.
“Brands should tell people how they make their lives better,” says Díaz. “Spain,” he explains, “was very used to the concept of buying sponsorships and putting stickers on a poster to put the logo on it. That was the 19th or 20th century. Now the logo doesn’t matter, what matters is how you activate it, being able to tell people why you are the Gran Vía”.
Videogames, profitable showcases for advertising
Katapult is the exclusive agency of the most important developer and distributor of video games, Electronic Arts. They started working with them in 2015, when they launched FIFA 15, first by organising events. Seven years later, EA Sports is one of the jewels in the agency’s crown.
One of the conclusions that Katapult’s CEO draws from working for them is that “the video game world is yet to explode. We haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s going to be a lot of advertising that can be done within the game itself”.
“the video game world is yet to explode. We haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s going to be a lot of advertising that can be done within the game itself
New advertising models are transforming as generational habits change. Diaz explains that “we are sitting in the generation where the father and son are both gamers. Soon we will see winners of virtual championships receiving an NFT, instead of a physical cup, which will be a virtual one and cannot be replicated. This will become normalised.
In video games, Díaz argues that Katapult’s added value compared to the competition is that “we can bring our experience in musicals, cinema, theatre and sports here, which allows us to be constantly innovating”.
In May, for example, Katapult organised for the first time an event that was 100% virtual with Electronic Arts and LaLiga, in which Iker Casillas, Karim Benzema and other well-known players participated, wrapped in 360 degrees of chroma. The guests were inside the event without attending a real gala, in the same studios where ‘La Casa de Papel’ was filmed. “We learned that not from video games but from our experience in film and television,” he says.
“We’re at a volume of business that I wouldn’t want to grow any more.”
While the entertainment marketing agency’s aspirations to explore new fields are relevant, Katapult’s CEO acknowledges that he is not particularly keen to continue to grow exponentially. “We’re at a level of business,” he says, “that I personally wouldn’t want to grow any further. We are at a point where we have a perfect balance between account management and being able to give the client what they ask for without it being a generic service.
The agency, made up of professionals from traditional advertising and entertainment backgrounds, expects to be able to provide an increasingly strong service in crypto or Web3. These fields are particularly in demand by the agency’s clients.
