Acquisitions, Rebrands & Accessing Youth Culture with Justin Kenna

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like marketing made simple today we'll be breaking down acquisitions rebrands and accessing youth culture to drop these value bombs i brought to justin kenna into eofire studios justin is ceo of game square holdings inc a publicly traded international esports and gaming company that connects top global brands with game square's portfolio of media agencies esports organizations and content studios and today for nation we'll talk about reaching the unreachable generation Z, and others as well.

0:39We're going to talk about what happens after an acquisition, very interesting things, how to navigate the unknown, how to navigate and believe in the future, leadership through innovation, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Justin and our sponsors. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship.

1:11A recent episode discussing the billion-dollar health secret with the founder and CEO of Whoop is a must-listen. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts. Over 41 ,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite by Oracle, The number one cloud ERP bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at netsuite.com slash fire. Justin, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Fire Nation, good to be here.

1:54Thanks for having me. something that I certainly live by is I think a lot of people set these sort of a five-year plan or a ten-year plan I certainly think that it's great to have an idea of where you want to be but my biggest piece of advice is to have a ruthless pursuit of short-term goals, to set short-term goals that are measurable and achievable and hit them consistently and over and over and that opens up all sorts of paths to be successful. I think to me, that's a, that's a key piece. And one other thing that I think, you know, a lot of people, you know, look to some sort of, you know, perfect formula.

2:39And I think becoming successful, I don't think that there is, right. I think that people are unique and they have their own paths. But to me, if you look at sort of common themes of people that are successful and sure, most people are successful or smart and some people got lucky. I think if you see and look at people that are successful over time, there's just absolutely no substitute for hard work, for technical skills and for sacrifice. And I think that's probably the part of becoming successful that I think people don't talk about enough is the true sacrifice that you have to make to get there.

3:16But, yeah, my biggest piece of advice, I think, instead of worrying about these five-year plans and longer-term goals, have a ruthless pursuit of short-term opportunities and goals. Fire Nation, today we're talking about acquisitions, rebrands, and accessing youth culture. And I want to specifically talk about Generation Z, Justin, because reaching them, just even reaching them, is a monumental task for many reasons. So let's talk about how we can access this generation, Gen Z, and other hard-to-reach audiences as well yeah 100 i think again like that's absolutely spot on i think it's really interesting right like most people um you know if you've ever met with anyone in the gaming industry they'll tell you how big this audience is right and it is this is a huge audience you know three billion people play games online in some description that's one third of the world's population.

4:14But the reality is they're really fragmented, right? They're consuming media in such different ways. It's not through, you know, the old broadcast sort of television. People are consuming media in different ways through different platforms, and they're really, really hard to reach. And it's interesting because that's really what I see is the opportunity. It's certainly why we've positioned GameSquare the way we have. And it's really around how do we help publishers and brands directly connect with this audience. And, you know, we do so through a variety of sort of ways. I think what's been really cool is seeing sort of brands evolve with the ways that they want to talk to and reach these audiences.

4:58Even, you know, traditional sports and entertainment is doing the same. So, you know, we do so through sort of three main segments. We have a data and technology business, which I think is really key here to understanding who is consuming what, how and when. And then obviously building out strategies to specifically reach those audiences. And we have our own creative and strategy team and then a media network on top. So we're going to brands and saying, hey, this is the audience you're trying to reach. This is how you reach them. And we're going to guarantee that you reach them and we're going to execute for you.

5:36And that's sort of been working, I think, with brands. And we've got a really cool team that's coming up with really innovative ways to do that really authentically and organically because these audiences are fickle and you need to understand them and really hit the mark. I don't think a lot of people get to hear in detail about what happens post-acquisition of a business. I mean, we talk a lot about the story of the aha moment, the journey to traction and momentum, getting your first sale, having your first big month, having your first successful profitable year, and then maybe even getting acquired.

6:13And we talked through that process as well. But then a lot of times the stories stop. So talk about what happens in your experience post-acquisition of a business. We've been in acquisition mode for three years now. And it's been an interesting period of time, right? because we're a publicly traded company. And I think certainly in the micro cap space, it's been challenging. It's been a really challenging market. But again, with that sort of represents opportunity. And from our perspective, it was certainly looking at other companies that were also undervalued, right? Relative value deals in the space.

6:50And we've been very specific with really bringing in accretive assets that add to what we're building, right? that model of connectivity of brands and publishers with youth audience. I think most recently we acquired FaZe Clan for the audience that's listening. If you have any sort of familiarity with the gaming space, I'm sure you know who FaZe Clan is. FaZe Clan are really the largest gaming lifestyle brand in the world by audience. And for me, it was certainly a full circle moment. I was formerly the CFO and Chief Investment Officer at FaZe. I left before they went public, and we saw an opportunity to bring in this incredible brand.

7:39And with that, to your point around sort of post-acquisition, we knew it was going to be a hell of a lot of work, right? This was a brand that was trading north of a billion dollars at one point in the last 24 months on public markets. They went public through a SPAC, probably prematurely. I don't think the business was necessarily ready to be in the public markets. And hindsight's a beautiful thing, right? But I think that you sort of live and you learn and they wanted to know in terms of timing and what was to come. But we certainly know the asset. We saw an opportunity and we're able to actually acquire FaZe Clan for$14 million of stock, one-four.

8:22and with that came a lot of cleanup. What was really important to me was to bring the founders back into FaZe Clan to really lead the way, right? These were the guys that made FaZe Clan what it was in the first place, that really engaged an enormous fan base and really changed the game in gaming forever. Their back, FaZe Banks is really driving all things brand, talent, content. And we had a bit of a blackout period, you know, on our socials and had to exit some talent that was really difficult, right? And we certainly got a lot of pushback at the time. But it was the right thing to do. And we brought in a number of new talent.

9:08And since then, it's been incredible to watch. I mean, we did a subathon in September and, you know, we were the most viewed brand in the world on Twitch for that month. The fan engagement is back. The brand is back. And from a business perspective, that's really important, right, because it's kind of the brand and there's the business. I think from a business perspective, my aim and goal was not around, hey, let's close this acquisition and let's just go monetize this thing. It was really the opposite. It was how do I pull out costs? How do I renegotiate these contracts? How do I clean up the business to give us runway to allow banks and the creative brains at FaZe to give them time to do what they need to do to get the brand back healthy and then being able to monetize it.

9:56That's starting to come, right? We've just announced some deals with G Fuel and DraftKings. We've got some licensing deal and co-branded product opportunities in the works. Those conversations and being able to monetize is a hell of a lot easier when you really take care of the brand first. Fire Nation, this is really important to understand, number one, what a rebranding can look like when you do it the right way. But number two, what's life like after an acquisition? Because I know a lot of us have the goal to create a business, to launch a business, to monetize a business, to serve people, to make an impact.

10:31And then maybe some of us have a goal to be acquired, to sell the business, whatever that might look like. And guess what? There is life post-acquisition. And in fact, with the right partner, it can be a pretty fun life. We have a lot more to talk about around this topic and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. If you're a marketer, then you know what it's like to feel like you're moving in a hundred different directions at any given time, like you're spread too thin. Between creating content, launching campaigns, generating and nurturing leads, and more, you barely have a moment to breathe, let alone do your best marketing.

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14:10eofire.com slash optimize. Justin, we're back. And you believe in leadership through innovation. What does this mean specifically? And give us an example of how you're doing this right now. Yeah, absolutely. It's a really exciting time, I think, for the gaming space, right? I think that certainly sort of COVID really highlighted esports and then with really the evolution of Fortnite and streaming, gaming was really forefront in a lot of sort of traditional brands' minds that maybe historically were just spending budget on traditional sports. So it was a really interesting, great time. I think out of the back of COVID was probably a little more difficult on sort of the eSports side, right, because there were these crazy kind of valuations.

15:04And this is a newer and growing industry, and you go through sort of growing pains with that. I think we've seen a really great correction in the market. We're seeing a lot of consolidation, and with that's a lot of opportunity. For me, what we've really done is we've set up a business that is agnostic to games. So we're not tied to, you know, any one game being relevant and cool over a period of time. And I think really, like, to your point around innovation, we sit at the edge of that, right? We're able to bring in Ninja as our chief innovation officer, which has been really cool to work with somebody and have, you know, really the voice of the creator, right?

15:49He was the original guy. To get his insights and to have somebody who's actually lived it and done it, I think is incredibly important. For me, it's really, you know, bringing in the right people and setting them up for success, right? Like I, you don't need to be the smartest person in the room. My agency business is doing some incredibly cool stuff. And that's because, you know, Carlos Tovar, who's ex-Wide and Kennedy guy, runs our agency business zone. it's giving him the freedom and ability to succeed setting up the right infrastructure from a business standpoint, but putting trust in the right people and like bringing, bringing Ninja in Carlos, Paul A.

16:31O 'Connor runs our events business. And these guys are doing some really cool, innovative stuff. So give you an example, something that we've been able to do and take advantage of, which I think is really cool. For those that aren't familiar, I mean, And what Epic Games has done with Fortnite to stay relevant for this long is so impressive. And they took Fortnite from being the game to a platform. And so, you know, currently what you can do if you're a creator, you can get in there and create your own maps. And you actually get monetized to drive audience to your game, right? And what we've been doing and has been really successful is actually building out custom worlds and maps for tier one brands.

17:19And then because we have a marketing engine, you know, off the back of that is, you know, not only are we sort of getting paid by these brands to build out these cool and immersive experiences, right, to get out, you know, new product or whatever it might be. We're also getting paid to market it, to bring audience to these maps and play these maps. And it's been really successful. I mean, we're working with Samsung, Prime Energy Drink, McDonald's, Paramount, and got some really exciting things happening where our events business is working really hand in hand with our agency business around building out real life experiences.

18:04that meet the digital world, right? And so that's certainly one example of kind of innovation. But to me, sort of leadership through innovation, I, you know, my skill set and my background was really, you know, more in the sort of finance, banking side of things. And, you know, I think it's about really understanding your role, bringing in the right people that add skill sets that you might not have and then giving them the freedom to go and succeed. And I think we've done that really well. We've built an absolute world-class team across our business. We work with some of the best creators in the space.

18:44You know, we really are sitting at this sort of cutting edge of what the next generation of media looks like. Now, let's not dive too deep into this next topic because it's just something I'm personally curious about. But what are your thoughts of crypto gaming? How does this play into the future? Yeah, it's really interesting, right? I think that what we've seen over kind of the last two years is a lot more developers come into the space, which I think is great, right? You don't just play games from Activision, Riot, and Epic, and the big monsters. We're seeing a lot of indie game development.

19:20And look, mass adoption to the blockchain, the smartest move is through gaming, right? It's blockchain gaming. And, you know, we're starting to see a lot higher quality games come out of that space. I think we're seeing more evolution of, you know, obviously, you know, in-game digital items. And it has always been a really big driver for what happens in-game for publishers. But certainly seeing, you know, marketplaces in-game and certainly a lot of growth in the blockchain gaming space. And I expect that to continue. I think the games are becoming higher quality, and I certainly think that it's the right strategy for kind of mass adoption to the blockchain.

20:05But again, I think that what is key there is, you know, it's really about how do you reach this audience at mass and creating the right games and experiences to drive audience. I think there are a lot of blockchain sort of games that came out early doors that didn't do that. And we're starting to see a lot of higher quality and a lot more sort of participation in that space. So talk to us about your plans to navigate the future. I mean, there's a lot of things that are coming up. You touched upon a couple of things that have a lot of promise. What's maybe one thing that you're really looking towards as we march forward over time?

20:50Yeah, I think the beauty of Gamescure and our model and our business is that it's not any one thing. We are, again, agnostic to game and our services put us in a position where we can move with trends. And I think what is really cool is through our agency business, we have a lot of younger staff that are in their sort of first or second job, but these kids understand the culture and they live on the internet and they're really helping drive our strategy within our agency business because, I mean, the reality is, John, I'd love to sit here and tell you that, you know, three, four years ago, you know, we knew that Epic Games were going to create this opportunity for us to, you know, build out worlds and maps and immersive experiences in Fortnite for brands, but that's not the case.

21:42I think that we've built our business in a way that we live on the internet. We understand sort of where the puck's moving, not where it is. And certainly some areas for us within that are, you know, really becoming kind of the media and marketing sort of technology partner to, you know, these blockchain gaming developers, right? I had a really interesting conference over in Tokyo and met with a number of these developers. And they're really interested in, you know, how they break through the mainstream in partnering with Tim the Tap Man and Ninja and some of these huge creators and certainly looking at how they could leverage FaZe Clan and other brands within our business.

22:22Look, AI is clearly the hot topic and there's lots of interesting ways through our data business that we're using AI around, you know, logo and brand recognition, around identifying the right influences for brands and so forth. And really that's around efficiencies and so forth. But for us, I think, you know, the next couple of years are just, we've done a lot of acquisitions, as we talked about before. It's been a lot of cleanup. And now for us, it's just go time. It's executing. It's organic growth. And for us, it's really about landing and expanding with these big clients. You know, we've got some really exciting pieces we're working on with, you know, through our live events business with NFL for the fans' lives.

23:11You know, working with the NFL around a creative series at the Super Bowl. It's certainly an area we're very excited about. We're hopeful that that'll expand the year after and we'll be doing it in every major city in the US for every week of the NFL. Just to give you a bit of insight there, again, you know, we talk about new media, next generation media. What does that mean? Well, we're partnering with the NFL around creating. Think of like, you know, a college game day, Pat McAfee style show, but it's run by the creators through their channels. So, you know, you're tuning in pre-Super Bowl. There's a lot of people that aren't watching the normal TV coverage, right?

23:48And, you know, we'll be using these big creators, streaming through their Twitch channels. I mean, you know, look at Ninja, right? He has 70 million followers on his Twitch channel. So creating really custom gaming content that crosses over into traditional sport and entertainment, certainly an area that we're really excited about, you know, one of many. But, yeah, certainly continuing to sit at this sort of defining what the next generation of media looks like, creating experiences and opportunities for brands to really organically meet this audience where it is. That's really what I'm excited about.

24:27Justin, you shared a lot of value today about where we are, about where we're going in this space. And it's really exciting for obvious reasons. What is the one thing you would want our listeners to really get from our conversation today? It's really that this space is going nowhere, right? It's growing. So if you are a brand and you're not thinking about how you connect with gaming audiences, with creators and influencers, with new forms of media, you're a long way behind. I think that's the key piece. I mentioned Tim and Ninja. These guys are media assets in their own right. You've seen the evolution of products being created by these new celebrities, whether it's Prime that I mentioned before with Logan Paul and KSI, whether it's Mr.

25:20Beast, With Feastables, you know, seeing what Kysonat's doing currently and bringing out his own Big Mac through McDonald's, you know, the creator economy really is the consumer economy of the future. And so that's the big takeaway. I think all of the numbers suggest that gaming, esports, the creator economy, it's all going north. and if you're not thinking about it, you're already behind. So get to it. Justin, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, with your company, what is your call to action for our listeners today? I'm on Twitter. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm pretty easy to find and certainly can send me an email.

26:05We're a really open door company. We're a publicly traded company. Stock Ticker's Game, G-A-M-E, which is a pretty cool stock ticker. Same with any of my investors. I'm really open door policy. Always make time. I'm always happy to have a chat. So my email is justinatgamesquare.com. It would love to hear from any of your listeners. Certainly always available and, you know, really, really excited and very, very happy to join you today and hopefully bring some new people along for the ride with us. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JK and JLD today.

26:45So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Justin in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Justin, I want to say thank you, brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Awesome. Thanks, John. Appreciate it. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Justin for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? how about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment.

27:19My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I will catch you there, or I will catch you on the flippity-flip side. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business startups, and entrepreneurship.