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Stream views, whether through ads, custom graphics in the stream UI, or little blurbs during the broadcast are all reasonable methods, but also limited, because there is not much that is tangible after the fact. Sure, you get a viewer count, unique count, average time viewed, but there is nothing that said, this event was directly big for us because it did "x."
An easy way around that, for any future online events (and even LAN broadcasts too), is to attempt something that Complexity, and a few other organizations have done in the past, and that is obtain coupon codes for products. Seeing all the stream numbers for reach, on top of, let's say 100 people, using the EVENT10 coupon code to purchase X number of dollars is a strong way to build rapport with a company.
There are negatives of that, to be sure, because personal preference and brand loyalty is big in peripherals, it stands to reason that throwing up a code for a headset or mouse pad might not knock the door down with orders. There are smarter ways to implement it; either through an e-tailer/retailer. But don't let coupon codes be the end of it.
You could even expand it, much like Razer has done as a company; they are huge on social media. They have their cult of Razer, they are constantly updating Facebook with statuses, photos, users showing off their gear. Contests and user interaction is another big way to see their ROI and brand get out there more.
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If I'm honest the only sporting event of any kind I watch is SC2 so I don't know, but why should there concerns about competing brands on behalf of the tournaments themselves? Does that happen in other sports? Are there no competing brands on cars or team shirts or things that thus don't get shown? Why not just show those who have actually invested in the team when it's relevant and leave it to the teams themselves to not get sponsered by competitors?
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the thing is, showing the players sponsors benefits the players, but not the tournament. Your SCIs are well-funded from what i have heard, but other tournaments maybe are not all that well funded. The way how "more money" would come in, in order to get that money to the tournament, would be to make a tournament, where there's less prize money for the players, but the players get additional incentive to play from their sponsors paying them more because their logos get additional screen time.
For this to work, i'd guess the sponsorship contracts would have to include some clause that the player gets additional sponsoring, the more he participates in events where his own sponsor gets screen time. I guess that would be reasonable for sponsors to agree to such things in contracts? But i have a feeling that contracts like that would have to be made first, before tournaments will notice the players increased willingness to participate even if there's less money on the line, just because he actually earns more reliable money through his personal sponsors. because every player that does not get more money from his sponsor for participating in a tournament will obviously prefer a tournament where he can earn more because of a bigger prize pool.
However, for that to happen, this idea would need publicity, which means you with SCI and other tournament organizer with no problems in funds or sponsor conflicts could start just putting player sponsors up on the screen to make generate that publicity. But i don't think, smaller tournaments that run on a tight budget or do get sponsorship conflicts from showing player sponsor logos will be able to adopt that before it becomes more common. So if you have the ability to do this in SCI, i'd say go for it! Maybe something grows from it.
I actually think a tournament stream mainly funded by the players sponsors would be hilarious. you're not watching a battle of Person X vs Person Y, but your suddenly watching a battle of Person X competing for NVIDIA and BenQ vs Person Y competing for ATI and Samsung. it feels a bit like a battle of sponsors then, which i think would be funny 
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Honestly...I don't see why this isn't more common yet...but I always thought having advertising spots on the maps themselves would be a great idea. It's been implemented in a few smaller tourneys before, but never in a larger one.
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Esports thrives on the passion of its player base, not on the sponsorship of corporations. I personally dont buy into this notion of "support the players by disabling adblock" and other such things either.
I remember a time when players would willingly stream for no personal benefit whatsoever, beyond i guess gaining attention and engaging with people.
Also a game should be good enough in and of itself to motivate people to want to play it, otherwise move on to one which actually is, it shouldn't take large ammounts of money, sponsorship or tournaments, they should be icing on the cake of the games brilliance.
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Consider a football team, it's sponsors emblazened upen the chests of their players as they walk out in front of a 50,000 person live crowd and millions of TV viewers.
This quote had me confused at first, then I realized that I was thinking about American football.
Anyway, I think the advertising rotation for online tournaments is a pretty good idea. Love it or hate it, advertising is what keeps Esports going.
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Don't we all know the major sponsors of the teams though. I mean aren't they the usual, Razer, Steelseries, TT esports, mostly the gaming peripherals companies that are the major sponsors of the gaming teams?
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On March 01 2012 03:57 lisward wrote:
Don't we all know the major sponsors of the teams though. I mean aren't they the usual, Razer, Steelseries, TT esports, mostly the gaming peripherals companies that are the major sponsors of the gaming teams?
for the biggest few, that's true, but think about how they got in to your head: through screen time. And if any other sponsor wants to be up there, they need screen time, and the smaller teams that have the smaller sponsors are not doing the best job at providing that (as was mentioned in this thread). So this would help the smaller sponsors tons i believe.
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On March 01 2012 02:23 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2012 01:14 deathly rat wrote:
As a viewer, my most active reponse to sponsorship has been from homestory cup, and I'll tell you why. The tournament is primarily sponsored by XMG notebooks. You can see clearly everywhere that they are using the notebooks at the tournament and there are posters everywhere. I can see they are the main sponsor. Next, they have some short interviews with the XMG guy, which is actually really interesting to me, because naturally since I am watch a SC2 tourney, i am interested in computers and such things. If they were talking about for example the properties of some energy drink i wouldn't be so interested. Next, they have some special deal which is linked to the tournamnet. So I think to myself, these guys sponsor the tournament therefore I like them, they tell me about their cool stuff therefore I am interested, they have a special deal on therefore there might be something in it for me (if I am in the market for a new notebook or something they have).
The exact same thing for Roccat gear at Homestory. The posters, the interview, the special offers. Very convincing argument for me to buy their stuff.
Now, next to this you have what I would consider very soft poor advertising. NOS energy drinks sponsor MLG, Red Bull sponsor their own LAN, Monster sponsor EG. OK I know this, but what is really getting me out their to buy a particular brand? Is it supposed to be team/tournament loyalty? I don't think advertising really really works in that way. I would like to see these brands work with the organisations to provide a real deal or incentive for me to try out their stuff. It could be either an incentive to do with SC2 if you buy the drinks, or maybe to do with the drinks if you play SC2 (like a league specific tournament). Just slapping on a badge with the sponsor name isn't going to do anything really.
I know that in fighting games many teams are sponsored by mad catz. So when the name is on display it is shown as for example WW.MDCZ.Ryan Hart, right. The madcatz is part of his name on screen and this makes the announcer say it and therefore it is higher profile. Nobody bats an eyelid. its fine. I agree with everything in this post. I don't want to buy a notebook but I clearly remember XMG and also watched it several times just because I found it interesting. I also agree with you about Nos being terrible. I remember it clearly because it was a bunch of bros driving a car to hit a can of Nos, which really didn't work for me.
Nooooo Chill I'm a good person I swear!
I really like this topic, never thought of the lack of sponsor exposure from teams. Your points about EG and TL being the only teams where I can remember their sponsors is absolutely right on. Perhaps with more brand/sponsor exposure from teams, the companies will see a grow in their sales which will hopefully entice others to sponsor teams as well to help the growth of Esports as a whole.
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Hi guys. I was sitting around looking for a new SSD for my old MacBook. I would like to buy one from a company that sponsors progaming, either teams or tournaments. However, when I start looking for this information it's easier said than done.
We can go to various web pages (EG's, TL's etc) and browse but that's just a pain in the ass. What would be great is a thread or Wiki page with:
Name of company
Event/team sponsored
E-mail/Facebook/Twitter for the company market department to say "Hello, I bought this product from you because you sponsor(ed) such and such team or event. Thanks for providing great products and helping bring e-Sports forward!
Concrete example: I'm looking at OCZ products because I distinctly remember them being involved in something e-Sports-related, but can't recall which. If I could check out OCZ here and find something, I'd definitively buy one and e-mail the company saying that I bought such and such SSD from you, not from your competitor, because you sponsored this and this tournament.
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I agree that online tourny should pop a special overlay for each player just as the game starts pluggin their team and sponsors and the casters should mention them as well. I wouldnt mind something like : " Spawing as red on the top right position is HuK from team EG sponsored by x,y and z." Some already do it but it's far from the majority
The rotation thing could be annoying a bit, I don't like thing that are moving on screen for no reason. I'd prefer a static sponsor corner with logos that could switch through to games. Maybe show your biggest sponser in the finals for more exposure or something like that.
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Well, if you watch WC3 matches, you can see sponsor logos emblazoned on the ground where there is a high probability of action going on, like choke points / right at a gold mine.
Other than that, how about getting customized sponsor logos on buildings? If you can get logos printed on the terrain, you definitely can get them printed on buildings. Example, DRG vs MMA. Maybe we'll see a hatchery with the MVP team sponsor's logo, or a PF with Slayers team sponsor's logo. How's that for visibility?
Of course, Blizzard might disallow this. Just throwing in some ideas.
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Honestly I don't see why online tournaments just don't use layovers like individual players use for their streams.
For example, when switching between players, show a layover of the player with his sponsors to the right of the picture.
I think this satisfies the sponsors getting their brand seen and the viewers getting a shot of their favorite player before a match.
I've seen some awesome artists who make transition screens for free, If online tournaments were to hire them for this kind of thing it would be one more job that esports is creating.
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I see alot of people are suggesting that tournaments should give more attention to player/team sponsors - announcing a players sponsors, putting their sponsors on loading screens when the game starts, etc.
However, they are kind of ignoring that tournaments have their own sponsor to please.
If I was to run a tournament and had Razor as main sponsor, then I imagine they wouldn't be very happy if i was constantly bringing up Steel Series or any other rivaling companies sponsoring Player X. In my tournaments, I would make sure to only promote my sponsors. The players may put sponsors on their team clothing and give shoutouts in interviews, but everything else they shall do on their own streams, twitter, team website, etc.
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On April 15 2012 19:13 lefix wrote:
I see alot of people are suggesting that tournaments should give more attention to player/team sponsors - announcing a players sponsors, putting their sponsors on loading screens when the game starts, etc.
However, they are kind of ignoring that tournaments have their own sponsor to please.
If I was to run a tournament and had Razor as main sponsor, then I imagine they wouldn't be very happy if i was constantly bringing up Steel Series or any other rivaling companies sponsoring Player X. In my tournaments, I would make sure to only promote my sponsors. The players may put sponsors on their team clothing and give shoutouts in interviews, but everything else they shall do on their own streams, twitter, team website, etc.
You bring a good point, except that's just your opinion. If the company is sponsoring the tournament, that's great and that sponsor should be bought up whenever talking about the tournament. I.e "Welcome to ShoutCraft Invitational 23, sponsored by you, the community!" and have the teams sponsors pointed out pre and post match. If sponsors aren't advertised what benefit will sponsors see in sponsoring teams?
Does Rexona deodorant get shoved to the side and not mentioned because Lynx is sponsoring the football event? If the sponsor of the tournament really were worried about conflicting sponsors, they'd make a deal with the tournament organizer for their brand to be plastered throughout the event and on overlays.
For example: IPL4's AMD stat screen. I mean AMD got their tag plastered over IPL and I think that's what more tournaments need to do. Displaying someones sponsors as "Monster Energy & Steel series" and not "Monster Energy, Kingston Hyper-X, Intel, & Steel series" isn't as appealing to other sponsors since it looks like only one or two companies are backing them. So removing teams sponsors from being shown when conflicting sponsors occur won't actually help anyone.
tl;dr if your sponsor is concerned about conflicting sponsors, it's your duty as a tournament organizer to be plastering your sponsor all over your product.
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EPT
