Report 03: FaZe Clan Invests in Gaming Supplements, and Apple's Latest Product News
FaZe Clan Invests in Gaming Supplement Company, and Apple's Drops Biggest Visual Update to MacOS since 2001.
FaZe Clan & Gaming Supplements:
FaZe Clan is out to change your perceptions about the gaming industry. Last week, they invested into a health supplement company, CTRL. Here’s why the move is worth looking into.
In a market so often linked with energy drinks like Redbull, Rockstar, and Monster, CTRL offers gamers a healthier alternative: meal-replacement beverages. Below, we’ll unpack the value FaZe brings, and how the partnership can be a win for both parties.
CTRL stands out for three reasons: pricing, marketing and positioning.
Pricing: The product line costs $50 per unit: premium by any other description. The importance? Aggressive pricing will help CTRL get their unit-economic straight for now, and drive a healthy profit-margin moving forwards.
Partnership: Second, a partnership with FaZe is the holy grail in gaming. By reach, size, and investment, FaZe is the most popular consumer brand in gaming. The franchise alone is worth $240 million, and continues to grow. What’s more staggering: FaZe’s audience is 9x larger than their closest competitor. On Instagram, the FaZe clan handle alone boasts 9.3 million followers. For comparison, 100Thieves, the lifestyle gaming brand backed by Scooter Braun, and Drake, has yet to cross the million follower threshold.
Influencer Marketing: Partnering with FaZe only strengthens how CTRL is already marketing their product. CTRL has invested heavily in influencer marketing, with gaming influencers, streamers and content creators. If you follow Scump, or Doug Censor on Twitch, Youtube or Instagram, the strategy is clear: integrate the product into the gamer’s lifestyle, leverage their status as a competitive gamers as social-proof of the product’s quality, and offer direct-sale discounts to drive users straight to purchase. Scump and Censor have a combined Youtube audience of 5.1 million followers. FaZe adds millions more.
Brand Position: Finally, their brand, relative to their competitors, might be the company’s greatest advantage. CTRL isn’t trying to become a betterversion of G-Fuel, RedBull, or Monster. Instead, they are the first company in the space to focus on health and wellness. The story their brand allows consumers to tell themselves is uniquely aspirational: healthier players perform better, can play longer, and make more money. Buying CTRL allows buyers to frame the purchase as an investment into their health, and their career. Look outside gaming and a similar trend emerges.
More broadly, society-at-large has embraced a shift in priorities towards health and wellness in all major categories.
Look no further than the success of athleisure (e.g. Outdoor Voices, Tracksmith, Lululemon), the explosion of direct-to-consumer supplement brands (e.g. Hims, Roman, Ritual), or the rise of wearables (e.g. Apple Watch adoption is growing 40% YOY, and the Oura Ring just scored a major deal with the NBA for its health-tracking product).
Gamers spend hours, if not days at a time playing, streaming, and hanging out on their favourite games. For gamers, time in game can stretch into the early hours of the morning if the buzz is right. But a sedentary lifestyle comes at a cost. Health and wellness must understandably suffer. Using CTRL supplements allows gamers who care about their health to cheat their cognitive dissonance. Listen closely to the story going on inside their head:
Sure, playing video games for hours isn’t great. But, if I’m taking the right supplements, and taking care of my body then it’s ok.
This is what makes CTRL’s brand so important. It’s a wedge into a whole new category of wellness driven-products. Meal-replacement products merely represent an entry point to a wider market for health, and CTRL has made a commitment to helping gamers live healthier lives, starting with understanding and improving their nutrition.
In summary: their partnership with FaZe significantly widens their addressable market. Because FaZe are part owners, they have an interest in making the company a success. This means, lower advertising , and customer acquisition costs. Together, all of these advantages will help to reach better margins, which in turn will allow them to invest in developing new products. If they can execute, the flywheel is there for them to grow into a multi-million dollar business.
Bits&Bites:
Top of mind today: Apple WWDC, D1 Hooper Turned Artist, and new gear from Eric Manuel x New Era.
Ford is moving the reveal date for the 2021 Bronco because it fell on OJ’s birthday. Oura strikes major partnership with NBA for health analytics; says their ring can predict COVID-19 symptoms three days in advance with 99% accuracy. The WhiteSox drop a new streetwear line with Jon Contino. Eric Manuel drops new sports-themed gear in partnership with New Era. Apple hosts an incredibly well produced WWDC. Former D1 hooper, turned artist makes avant-garde basketball hoops. Dior x Jordan 1 won’t drop on SNKRS app; plans to launch with an online experience instead.
Analysis Today: Staying with Apple, the new MacOS looks closer to iOS than ever before, so what does that tell us about Apple’s future?
Apple rolled out their biggest MacOS visual update since 2001: Big Sur. Familiar but fresh, the release reveals Apple’s aspiration for the future.
The new macOS feels like it was designed for a finger tap, or swap, and not for a mouse. Many believe Apple has come full circle: iOS meets MacOS. So what device Apples care more about: The iPad or the MacBook series?
Major changes in the new MacOS all point to a more seamless experience across all Apple products. An experience where the MacOS feels closer to a powerful iPad than a true workstation. Also consider, Apple has much stronger control over the iPad App Store. In a week where Apple was in the news for a feud over their revenue-split with App Store developers, I’d argue a greater focus on the iPad could help Apple push App Store revenues.
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