FaZe Clan is a powerhouse that is about to make the unthinkable for one esports organization: listed as a NASDAQ-listed company. Later this year, you may be able to diversify your investment portfolio by adding “FAZE” to the mix.
While FaZe Clan members compete in esports tournaments and play Call of Duty at Twitch, the company’s not-so-secret sauce is its high frequency of brand deals. The FaZe Clan has recently helped sell everything from Nissan cars to crispy chicken sandwich At mc donalds.
AdAge declared the group one of 2021’s best marketers for a reason. Looks like any marketing executive who is striving to create a better connection with Gen Z has already asked their assistant to try to make a deal. Here’s just a small selection of FaZe Clan’s partners: DraftKings, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, HyperX, Takashi Murakami, Disney, National Football League and DoorDash.
“Historically, music has been the driving force behind youth culture,” said FaZe Clan CEO Lee Trink told AdAge in 2021. “But now gaming is youth culture.” The feeling is bombastic and not surprising to hear from someone who runs an esports media company, however he is not mistaken.
Trink cut his teeth like president of Capitol Records, and others who built careers in the music industry, join his efforts. Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope records, invested not only in the FaZe Clan, but also helped lead a round of funding for it in 2020. Artists like Offset also puts skin in the game. The group’s new president and chief operating officer, Zach Katz, was poached from the music industry. Even Snoop Dogg got into the action and turned into FaZe Snoop.
That over 90 members of FaZe Clan is divided into two main categories: content creators and professional players. Many of the content creators like it FaZe destroys and FaZe rug, have a cultural cache that their competitors lack. Yet the group is no stranger to controversy. A former member sued the FaZe Clan for contract agreements and a current member rejected the LGBTQ community in June over social media, but none of them have deterred the company’s ability to turn charismatic players into influencers and attract lucrative brand deals as a result.
A few months after getting hold of cover up Sports Illustrated in 2021, the group announced a planned SPAC merger with one valuation to $ 1 billion. However, the unicorn horn may disappear before the company is listed on the stock exchange. Sports Business Journal reports that a modified SEC file from FaZe Clan expressed it under $ 1 billion.
Even a well-funded marketing machine that does everything to take advantage of youth culture (and parental wallets) will have trouble maneuvering through the turbulent 2022 economy. The brilliance has begun to disappear from a once thriving industry as creator-focused startups dismiss employees and sponsorships feel flimsy to influencers.
While the threat of recession threatens, entrepreneurs on LinkedIn are gasping each other up by spreading lists across companies formed during recessions. Microsoft, Venmo and Airbnb did it – why can not you? By going public during a potential downturn, the FaZe Clan’s situation becomes even harder to navigate. The company can become an inspiring investment story or an over-hyped warning story.