Esports Branding & Partnerships – Coming Together In A Billion Dollar Industry - OPINION - DISCUSSION
Christopher McIntosh
Father / Founder at Hybrid Management Group REI LLC / Executive Chef - Esports Enthusiast - Online Entrepreneur
“Esports’ greatest strength is also its biggest weakness, which is having a global reach.” said Nathan Lindberg, senior director of sponsorship at Twitch.
Unless you have been living under a rock, it is no secret that esports is exploding. Going to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year. Despite that if you are not an avid gamer or even paying attention to your youngins, you probably still a bit ignorant to the whole situation. Just to ease you in lets start with Twitch. – You might have heard of Twitch — an interactive live streaming platform that lets gamers be seen by the world playing video games in whatever environment the gamer chooses. — or maybe while flipping thru the channels last weekend you saw 12 thousand screaming fans at the Wells Fargo Arena in the #CityOfBrotherlyLove to host the international Overwatch League Grand Finals on ABC. This is only the beginning.
What Exactly Is Going On?
A lot of people are making friends. Many powerful brands, the greatest influencers in our retail and entertainment industries are now looking on one another trying to figure out how to tap into this not so new but very influential market. Many of the brands have been speaking the lingo of the gamer for years. Like snack food right? Michael Clark, Director, Shopper Marketing at Kellogg’s says, Gaming and Snacking go hand and hand, By partnering Cheez-It Grooves with the NCS, we are determined to promote the perfect snack to compliment gamers everywhere.”
Just in the last year:
- Kellogg announced Lucio-Oh’s, a new cereal based on the game Overwatch
- Wendy’s designed an interactive ad campaign for gamers on Twitch, a leading video streaming platform (acquired by Amazon in 2014)
- Hershey’s launched a new candy bar at Twitch’s convention TwitchCon in partnership with two leading streamers
- Burger King sold meals with a tie-in to game Call of Duty
- McDonald’s Germany ended its partnership with the German Football Association while expanding its partnership with e-sports conglomerate ESL; meanwhile, McDonald’s Denmark unveiled an esports-based custom menu
- Cheez-It and Pringles will remain MLS & eMLS league’s official snacks, while Eggo will now be the league’s official waffle.
That is just the obvious food market.
More & more advertising spending is directed to esports because it offers something that most traditional sports cannot, almost unprecedented access to people between the ages of 21 and 34 who have high incomes. Really, any income. With parents permission of course the 12-18 demographic is our next generation. Their opinions will one day further the influence and reach of esports.
LEAGUE, TECH & TEAM SPONSORSHIPS
This is most certainly not a complete list, however these are just my notable favorites. In just a few categories, and just these few and I understood there was something to pay attention to in this space.
AUTOMOTIVE
- RFRSH Entertainment – three-year deal – with Audi
- Team Liquid – HONDA Honda said four athletes from Team Liquid will stream their Honda Circuit games live on twitch once per week for the next four weeks during peak viewership times.
- Nissan made good with 2 powerhouse gaming and content, organizations and announcing sponsorship deals with both FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming. Both orgs will have use of the cars for content creation.
- You will soon see Cloud9 sporting a new BMW. Super classy brand, for arguably a super classy org.
- The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) for the 2019 season, featured KIA motors in its “Player of the Game” segment in broadcasts. “We are privileged to have KIA Motors choose the LEC for its first partnership in esports, and humbled by KIA’s support in activating our partnership,” said Alban Dechelotte, the Head of Business Development at Riot Games Europe. “By offering various kinds of financial, programming and marketing support, KIA Motors has enabled the creation of some of the most engaging contents this year. The overwhelmingly positive reception from players speaks volumes about the quality of our partnership, and we look forward to the next chapter of our shared story.”
Tech and Hardware
- G2 Esports has many great sponsors such as Logitec, AOC – AGON Gaming Displays, Aorus, Paysafecard, Needforseat, Twitch, and Esports Management.
- Alienware – Team Liquid and Riot Games. I love reading headlines with all big time brands involved. As the developer and operator behind the world’s most-played and most-viewed esports title, League of Legends, this monumental partnership enables both Alienware and Dell to demonstrate their expertise in hardware and technology services perfectly suited to support the rigorous operational logistics for the industry’s largest globally-integrated esport, League of Legends.
- FNATIC partners with Seagate I know this made all the gamer employees happy at seagate. Quoted Text From Seagate: “As a gamer, there are two things you always need: a place to install your growing library of games and the fastest possible access to them,” the team said in their announcement. “That way you can keep loading times to a minimum and dive right into the action. This is especially true for our professional players, who depend on reliable hardware in a cut-throat competitive environment, meaning that we at Fnatic can, and will never settle for anything but the best equipment. In Seagate, we believe to have found a partner who can provide us with just that and help our players realize their fullest potential.”
Clothing – Jerseys – Shoes
- Let start this segment right off with League of Legends and Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton is designing clothing skins for characters in the video game League of Legends, this is one of the coolest partnerships I have seen yet, this between the LVMH unit and publisher Riot Games. They will also be adding to their prestigious list of trophies, the LOL Championship Trophy.
- LOUIS VUITTON – LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
- German and Australian worlds collide with a partnership between Puma and Melbourne-based organisation ORDER in a two-year deal. Esports Insider says: Puma is a legacy brand, one that has historically taken aim at driving subcultures of sports, music, entertainment, and now gaming. The deal is a win-win for both Puma and ORDER as well as the overarching Australian and Oceanic competitive gaming sphere.
- In February 2019, Nike announced its partnership with the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), becoming the official shoe and clothing provider of the top online gaming league in China. The season culminates in the 2019 Season World Championship in Europe, which marks the debut of new Nike x LPL team uniforms
- Enter the MIBR One-Tap, a new sneaker from K-Swiss that’s being marketed towards pro-gamers. The esports athletes at the Immortal Gaming Club (IGC) helped K-Swiss design the shoe.
DELIVERY TO THE PEOPLE
One of the largest sponsorships #’s are going to come from media and advertising.
Esports, in case you missed the rise of a global entertainment industry worth over $1 billion in marketing revenue, is a big deal, too — especially among younger audiences. Adoring fans in South Korea, China, Europe and the U.S. flock to Olympic-sized sports stadiums to watch professional gamers compete against each other for millions of dollars in cash prizes. As of this year, esports has a global fanbase estimated at around 454 million people. We’re talking about a sports audience that will have roughly the same viewership levels by 2022 as the NFL, according to Goldman Sachs.
In a world where revenue from digital advertising continues to eclipse television ad revenue, and where influencer marketing on social media has grown into a $6.5 billion industry in just a few years, esports is a fast-growing opportunity for marketers to engage Gen Z and younger millennial audiences that are notoriously hard to reach via more traditional advertising channels. They’re a 21st century ad exec’s dream come true: a sweet spot where digital meets sports meets influencer marketing.
If you can bring value from your brand to another, the possibilities are endless.
https://esports-hmg.com/esports-branding-partnerships-coming-together-in-a-billion-dollar-industry/