MPL Philippines looks beyond the screen to deepen community experience
MANILA, Philippines — After spending much of its early years building an audience around a mobile game, the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) Philippines is facing a different question: what can it do with all that attention?
For MPL PH, the answer increasingly goes beyond the size of its digital audience. As the league marks the 10th anniversary of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, it is looking at how that community can be engaged beyond the broadcast, combining its digital reach with live experiences surrounding the competition itself.
“Attention is everywhere. But meaningful attention is harder to find. The reach doesn't end when the match ends. Across broadcast, social and live experiences, MPL gives brands multiple ways to meet the same community,” MPL Philippines said in a presentation during its Brand Socials Night, a gathering of brands, agencies, players and creators looking at how the league goes beyond esports in interacting with its community.
For MPL PH Business Development Head Lee Viloria, those platforms serve different purposes. Broadcasts and social media provide brands with scale, while live events allow companies to interact with fans beyond simply appearing alongside the matches they watch.
“The real experience kasi is on-ground. Even if you project that on your broadcast, on your television, hindi mo siya mararamdaman unless you yourself attend,” Viloria told Philstar.com during the event.
MPL PH events have increasingly built activities around the competition itself, with fans able to take part in community activities, workshops and brand activations before entering the arena, while meet-and-greets and other opportunities to interact with players extend the experience beyond the matches.
“They are not just going to MPL to watch the game. The thing with us is, in terms of our edge, when people go to the venue, in that on-ground touchpoint, opportunity for sponsorship. We have a lot of things happening,” said Viloria.
Beyond digital reach
But what brands want out of that community can vary depending on how established their relationship with MPL PH has become.
New partner China Airlines, for example, is still largely looking at awareness among MPL's younger audience. The airline joined MPL PH only this season, and Viloria said the partnership remains in an exploratory stage, with the initial focus on determining whether the MPL is the right platform to introduce the airline to a younger market before developing more customized activations in the future.
Visa, on the other hand, finds itself further along that journey.
The global payments company initially entered MLBB esports through the M7 World Championship earlier this year before expanding into the local market with MPL Philippines for the current season.
Seven months after its initial foray into MLBB esports, Visa Philippines Head of Marketing Nico Leviste said the company has learned that reaching the gaming community requires a different approach from simply applying strategies used in its other partnerships.
“What we've learned is there's truly a different way to connect with this community, whether it's through the KOLs, whether it's through the media channels, whether it's through how we speak to them. I think it's so different from what we're used to in terms of the platforms that we've partnered with, but I think at the same time it's also so exciting na parang, wow, there's really new ways to do things that we're innovating as a brand,” said Leviste.
That experience extends offline.
Leviste, who has since attended an MPL Philippines event, pointed to the attention fans gave the competition despite coming from an audience that brands often characterize as digital-first.
“My initial reaction was wow, sobrang engaged ng mga taong ‘to. They didn't have their phones out. They weren't distracted. They weren't bored. They were really looking at the screen, watching the plays, and just absorbing everything and embracing everything, which I found a little cool. Yung community na ‘to talaga, they're really, they love what they do, and they're really passionate about this game,” recalled Leviste.
Visa's current MPL PH partnership includes ticketing offers and access to experiences around the league, with select cardholders able to gain early ticket access and other benefits tied to attending the competition.
While its MPL partnership remains relatively new, Leviste said Visa is already seeing indications that its presence is registering with the gaming community.
“In the few campaigns that we've ran, we have seen very strong uplifts in terms of brand preference, brand relevance to the gaming community when talking about Visa and when they see our campaign. So I think that's very positive for us. And we're seeing slow incremental gains in terms of how the fans are slowly starting to see Visa as a part of this culture and a part of this community,” added Leviste.
If China Airlines represents the beginning of that relationship and Visa its early development, Infinix offers MPL Philippines a longer-running example of what integration with the league can eventually look like.
The smartphone brand began partnering with MPL Philippines in Season 11 and has since expanded its involvement across several MLBB esports markets.
“We have been proactively activating on every season, creating UGC campaigns, creating booth activations, creating live and also online integrations within MPL. And I think that's what fans are loving, the synergy between how we continuously provide access, provide support, and provide culture to them,” said Infinix Regional Marketing Lead for IP Marketing and Business Development Harold Leonardo.
Viloria recalled that Infinix's arrival initially drew skepticism from some fans when it became the league's official tournament phone, with some questioning whether the devices were being used simply because the company was a paying partner.
Infinix's arrival initially drew skepticism from some fans when it became the league's official tournament phone. The partnership then incorporated product testing during MPL events, allowing fans to experience the devices being used in professional competition through activities such as the Infinix Fansiklaban, a community competition held alongside MPL Philippines.
‘You can't fabricate fandom’
But even as MPL looks to give brands different ways to tap into its audience, Viloria acknowledged there are limits to what the league can promise, particularly when it comes to turning engagement into actual sales.
“As I mentioned before, you can't fabricate fandom. Fans will watch online, or they head to the venues to watch live, but how deep can that engagement be? And I think for us in MPL that's where we are really strong at. We consider our community a big stakeholder. Hindi lang sila audience. We listen to them. And they are the ones who help us grow in terms of how we've scaled. Kasi nakinig kami sa kanila,” said Viloria.
The league resumes this weekend with the final week of the Season 18 group stages while MLBB is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the MLBB 10th Mall Fest at the Market! Market! Activity Center until October 11.
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