What do esports sponsors look for when choosing a team or event to sponsor?

Gone, for most, are the days of just putting a logo on a jersey and calling it a sponsorship. Brands are looking to engage with passionate fans to increase engagement. Sponsoring an esports event or team allows brands to connect with extremely passionate fans, where they already are active in an authentic way, through people who already know how to speak to that audience.

Hablemos de la realidad, y no de la teoria. La audiencia es importante, pero aun más su segmentación. Hay que tener claro los objetivos de cada marca y conocer a que mercado quiere se dirigirse. De nada te sirve cerrar un acuerdo de patrocinio con un equipo de alemania, cuyo audiencia potencial del territorio es inferior al 10%. Máxime si sus intereses son territoriales. Por tanto, este debe ser el primer elemento de análisis y de caución para cualquier marca: conocer el impacto demográfico, de engagement y de segmentación de audiencia con el público target de la organización. Esto es esencial, dado que en caso contrario corremos el riesgo de una frustración de expectativas con la marca, y por ende, su abandono del sector.

In the Asian context, most brands are looking at 1 year timelines on conversions to sales over basic brand recognition. So IP Rights Holders need to within a short-mid time frame demonstrate a correlation to the brand spend and increased sales numbers of their product. Typically speaking Marketing will have less political power within the company compared to Sales and that will have a certain level of pressure and oversight on the campaign. Having a large fandom is great but if they don't see conversions over time, they will look at investing their money else where

In brand collaboration, understanding goals and target audiences is key. Lately, endemic brands focus more on sales conversions, favoring short-term campaigns with creators or influencers who resonate with their brand identity. This shift towards immediate impact reflects a strategy for quick returns. Conversely, non-endemic brands, prioritize performance marketing to reach broader audiences with long-term strategies. They define their target demographics and choose teams or tournaments that align with their desired audience. This approach ensures their marketing efforts are not just widespread but also targeted to the right poeple.

I think more and more brands are also looking at engagement. Whether that in the form of clicks, likes, views, shares etc. Even a step further conversion. Sometime tricky to optimize to without giving access to confirmation pages, but still brands are looking more and more what moves the needle.

La credibilidad y la reputación es el ABC de cualquier relación contractual con el ecosistema. Compartir visión y valores es CRUCIAL. Como se suele decir: "dime con quién te juntas, y te diré quién eres". Además, esto se lleva a su máximo exponente en el sector esports, donde "el espectáculo" es el protagonista. Como casos de éxito en este sentido me gustaría mencionar algunos que considero clave para entender el sector: Vodafone por su acuerdo con Giants; Team Heretics con Mahou San Miguel; Mercedes-Benz con Riot Games; y HD Gaming con Hiperdino. Estos acuerdos (que hay cientos) han entendido la importancia de la simbiosis empresarial al entender; respetar; y hacer propio los interés de los anunciantes y saber canalizarlos correctamente.

With esports being the "wild west" for many years, many teams have gotten themselves into trouble with countless controversies and community backlash. Brands want to associate themselves with teams, creators, and players they can trust. Many brands have chosen to forego sponsoring events or teams that participate in violent titles such as Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, PUBG, etc. Leaning towards safer titles like Fortnite and Rocket League instead.

I think making sure your core pillars or values align with the talent, or team, or game etc. If both have the same moral oversight respective of their own companies, there's a greater chance there will be less controversy, which can still happen when dealing with talent, but what are the next steps how is it resolved is equally important, if not more so.

Brand safety is the single most cited concern for brands. Brand safety comes in 2 forms. The one that is most often cited is "what is the content that my brand is sitting alongside of?" But the second is often overlooked and it is how is this organization a good steward of my brand dollars.

Esports isn't about winning games on a screen. Do you think anyone watches FaZe Clan because they are "good" at video games? Or 100 thieves? Floyd Mayweather doesn't really box anymore yet people still call him an athlete. "Esports 1.0 doesn't scale, because it’s exclusive. The current ecosystem limits diversity of people/brands/games involved. Some of that exclusivity is due to unreasonable pricing & gatekeeping. Compare the number of gamers, to the number of esports pro players. The inherently exclusive nature of esports stifles sustainable growth and scale. Esports needs to be less like the sports industry, & more like the gaming industry." - Marcus Howard Rituals, mimetics, internal communications vs external communications.

The best team doesn't always mean the best brand fit. If the worst team is producing better more engaging content and their fans are still engaged, that is the team that I am putting a sponsor behind. Winning is great but the team winning doesn't generally convert in to brand KPIs

In-game performance does not always translate to the most value for a brand sponsorship or partnership, esports is a marketing vehicle at the end of the day. The teams that have strong performances within esports events and layer content on top of it will always be the most successful and drive the best results for their partners.

Simply being the "best" team or "best" event isn't enough unless there's a way to integrate it into the brand messaging of the sponsor. The challenge in esports/sports in general for a team especially is that you're not guaranteed to be the "best" all the time, so although the results of the team is a good starting point in the short term, IP holders need to think about what is the narrative and vision of the team in the long term, then weave performance & the brand holders into that story.

Winning is always great but teams can win brands with great storytelling and creativity Content can live in perpetuity while winning lasts as long as the next event

I have seen a few performance lined agreements for sponsorship. The tricky part is performance doesn't always mean more value. In a lot of cases performance leads to more on air time, more interviews, more recognition, which in turn helps partners of that esports team, however, a brand should be looking at how the teams and players align with their brand holistically, even when losing they are generating value for the brand.

Teams need to offer transparency in reporting, measuring, etc. Reporting on a regular cadence to show / highlight performance. Provide feedback / learnings to the brand on what can be done better next time / ways to improve. Teams also have to be able to tweak, alter, and pivot as components of their partnership and the market landscape change.

Be honest & transparent when you tell sponsors about your actions today. Tomorrow there will be unknown unknowns, breakdowns in communication (too many communication lines) & or systems & processes failing to be maintained to uphold integrity. This array of problems will cause you to be more diligent when giving feedback on campaigns, anything related to your priority & energy management. In short, the sponsor will choose the best opportunity for them because it makes sense for their stretch-goals when you have discovered what they communicate best with: Maybe you are not the right fit In that case, don’t waste another word. Use your remaining words for the next sponsor who will be the right one for your own communication style. Adapt.

Communication and collaboration is key to making any partnership successful, regardless of industry. When it comes to esports (and gaming) many of the professional players and content creators aren't the most punctual or the best communicators. It is a team's responsibility to ensure they step it up on behalf of their team members to meet the expectations that non-endemic brands would typically have in other professional communities (i.e: traditional sports, etc).

The most successful esports orgs in the next iteration of the industry are those that are the most diversified in terms of the content they produce and the variety of options they have available for brands to enter into the Gaming Culture. The desire for brands to exclusively be in "esports" is waning but the desire to be aligned with Gaming Culture is growing. I would say that every esport org should start talking with their current partners about what this means to them right now, and not adopt this new mentality only for new partners.

?y si llevamos esta colaboración al siguiente nivel? Es importante que que se desarrolle en conjunto una sinfonía de interacción que no solo facilitan la comunicación efectiva sino que también fomentan la colaboración en tiempo real. Co-crear actualmente es escelcial. Crear campa?as que no solo cuentan una historia envolvente y auténtica; se trata de tejer la marca en la narrativa del equipo de manera orgánica. Crear campa?as dinámicas que se ajustan y evolucionan según las demandas del momento son de vital importancia.

This goes back to moral alignment. Teams and players / talent have a platform with the community they've formed. It is imperative that the platform is used to provide an opportunity to bring attention to or support a cause that aligns with their values.

Throughout 2023, there has been a strong push within the gaming and esports community to support DEI initiatives. A few examples of this include Riot's Valorant Game Changers events, Women's Apex Legends teams, and Women's Carball. At Luminosity, we have recently expanded into Women's Carball (Rocket League) and currently feature two Women's Apex Legends teams (LG Red + LG Green).

Teams should partner with charities and grassroots BEFORE they speak to brands. Partnerships come across much more authentic when its something already in place and brands can grow with budget. If you are an esports team and do not have a CSR project, you should get one.

"The hardest thing to argue against is results. Morality is the best bet, but only if you and your counterpart (or your audience) have the same moral values." - DentesLeo Atlas As mentor I’ve been told by many peers how difficult it is to work with major gaming companies due to their strict behavior when in regard to impact. Their social responsibility is different when governments invest billions to make a change vs a startup company investing a few hundred thousand dollars or millions. The money isn’t the difficult part. Anyone can learn sales, marketing & how to make quality public speaking events. The real magic is when you have the right harmony. Aura. The energy of the board room is just as important as the energy in-game.

In nearly every RFP we are attending to there is something related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This comes in the form of knowing the composition of our audience base and having a diverse set of creators in your roster. Then when you are reporting it back to your brand partner you must be able to articulate how their brand reached their intended DEI goals through the campaign. It is not enough to say it on the front end you have to prove it at the end of the campaign.

My challenge to brand leaders is to think about gaming competition outside of the tradition of esports tournaments. There are galaxies of game titles out there and people playing all types of games that want to be seen and rewarded for their skills. Let's not only think about people watching others playing games, but finding ways to integrate gamification into brand experiences. The spark of inspiration is when you can reward people for achievement regardless of the game(s) they enjoy!