EPTMusings on the sponsorship situation in Korea - Page 6
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DNA61289
United States665 Posts
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imMUTAble787
United States680 Posts
I've wondered for a while why the Korean Weekly is pretty much the only tournament of its kind. I really enjoy watching it, and the calibur of games that appear are top notch. I think that one of the main reasons that TSL3 had such a great deal of mystique and hype was that Koreans were invited while foreigners had to fight it out through qualifiers for a spot. I would really, really like to see another online tournament where invited Korean players went up against nonKoreans that got in via some sort of qualification process. Maybe even just give each Korean team a spot and have them send a player of their choice or something. And about ROI for sponsors of Korean teams -- when I see a member of a team like EG or Complexity get interviewed they make a point of announcing their sponsors, and I really just do not see that much from Korean players in comparison. | ||
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Bippzy
United States1466 Posts
On August 29 2012 02:12 jpak wrote: Samsung Khan is a Kespa team. Its most famous member is Stork. Also, esport =/= SC2. For the purposes of TL, esports is sc2 Nice job tb. But sponsors of tourneys dont want other sponsors to be shown. Amd tournament showing intel? It doesnt make sense. Maybe we should go through the blizzard end. Its noble what you're doing, but i dont think it actually helps too much. I've never watched one of your tournamnets. I dont lrefer online cups. I know koreans better than foreigners, but the korean weekly is not fun for me to watch. So, i'm left doubtful teams will get to say "hey your brand is seen in tbs tourney(though it does show sponsors more)" I thought you were going to say since gom has such a foreign audience lets get foreign sponsors when i was reading for a while | ||
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emsy1984
Slovakia28 Posts
It would probably require Blizzard to implement this, but basically in game options, player would select a sponsor image from his computer (in a similar way like the decals are chosen), and this image would be displayed somewhere on the textures of the map (similarly like the decals are displayed on buildings and units) | ||
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zyzq
United States3123 Posts
On August 29 2012 05:09 imMUTAble787 wrote: When I read your posts I hear your voice narrating the words o_0 I've wondered for a while why the Korean Weekly is pretty much the only tournament of its kind. I really enjoy watching it, and the calibur of games that appear are top notch. I think that one of the main reasons that TSL3 had such a great deal of mystique and hype was that Koreans were invited while foreigners had to fight it out through qualifiers for a spot. I would really, really like to see another online tournament where invited Korean players went up against nonKoreans that got in via some sort of qualification process. Maybe even just give each Korean team a spot and have them send a player of their choice or something. And about ROI for sponsors of Korean teams -- when I see a member of a team like EG or Complexity get interviewed they make a point of announcing their sponsors, and I really just do not see that much from Korean players in comparison. You should start reading the post-match interviews. The non-KeSPA teams always give a shout-out to their sponsors | ||
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PH
United States6173 Posts
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Felvo
United States124 Posts
I wish you immense amounts of succes and I hope that Korea can reach a point that many American and European teams have. Once again, thank you for your never-ending passion of e-sports and the e-sports scene. | ||
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Anomarad
Canada565 Posts
On August 29 2012 01:33 LuckyFool wrote: Sc2 still just isn't that popular in Korea compared to bw. Just look at GSL live events/finals. They don't even nearly compare to bw finals which in their peak were exceeding over 100k live audiences. If I were a sponsor getting involved in something that just isn't popular in my country seems so risky. Not sure how or if it will change, bw fans are being force fed Sc2 now with the removal/switch of OSL and Proleague to SC2 but it remains to be seen if they will actually make the switch or just jump ship. Fixed for you. | ||
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Sphen5117
United States413 Posts
On August 29 2012 02:31 TotalBiscuit wrote: Forgive me if I don't rely on or trust KESPA to do things right. Oh. SNAP. | ||
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Kastlo
Italy13 Posts
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Sabu113
United States11112 Posts
Seems like a smart venture as ESports TV is the only one taking advantage of such high level play on a regular basis. Still I wonder how many dollars there are in the eco system and whether foreign teams need to die for some of the better sc2 players to thrive. | ||
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Noobity
United States871 Posts
I work for a decently sized American business who works specifically with international consumers. I've been trying to convince this business to jump into some sort of sponsorship to test out the waters. I went to art school, I don't know anything about business, what should I be looking for in creating a sponsorship proposal? Are there any resources out there to bring up say hits on a website? Views on a video? Unique visits? Is there any way to make the potential RoI look appealing to a business? Is there anything in particular we fans can do aside from supporting the companies who support these teams? You said there's no way for us to say why we're supporting the business, but is continuing to purchase their goods really worthwhile for these teams? What would be actually useful to help, I guess is my main question. Good luck on this, TB, and I look forward to what comes of it! | ||
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Ero-Sennin
United States756 Posts
Hope it works well | ||
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MarinePrince
United States101 Posts
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MstrJinbo
United States1251 Posts
On August 29 2012 04:49 architecture wrote: What is the ROI of a Korean company like KT getting exposure in the USA. Very little. But exposure in the US opens up possibilities for additional sponsorships. There are tons of multinational corporations such as LG or Samsung that operate in both Korea and the US. KT Rolster is likely able to get additional sponsors as long as they aren't other south Korean telecom companies. | ||
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Diamond
United States10796 Posts
1: I knew what dire straights ZeNEX was in at the end of it's life and came up with some cool promotional ideas (mind you I re-wrote the "ZeNEX wants THE THING" post for them, so I had done good work for them in the past.) I offered a small partnership with ESV TV where we would cast replays of cool games from ZeNEX players and promote THE SHIT out of the players/team to get some exposure at a needed time. It would not really have benefited ESV TV is any way, but I did not want to see the team die. However I was turned down flat because the coach felt that they should be paid well for it, and even then he didn't want the players to reveal strats. I explained this could be simply ladder replays of super standard play. Didn't matter, a team on the verge of death turned me down flat for free promotion at it's direst hour. By comparison, if I go to Liquid the most well known foreign team that I can likely offer little exposure to (since a lot of my traffic comes from here), they JUMP ALL OVER IT. "You want TaeJa reps right? How about TLO, Haypro, Ret, or anyone else? Want replays from the entire team? Whatever you want man!" 2: About 13 months ago right around the start of the KW I realized you could not buy Korean team gear anywhere (pre Primezangg) outside of Korea, and shipping from Korea is insanely high. I came up with a really cool business plan for a gear shop to stock Korean teams gear. It was unique in that because we could keep it small, and with my basing in the US, we could offer the stuff for a VERY reasonable cost, and put A LOT of money into the Korean teams pockets who needed it (and still do apparently). I don't remember the number specifics but it was a REALLY good deal, something like 60% of all profits, and they could still do their own stuff in Asia so as not to effect that. Every Korean team turned me down. Several told me they just were not interested (don't want free money?), but several told me that they had already signed deals (why would you talk to me then?) and would have their lines out within a week. They all wanted $5K+ a month plus the insane good deal I was offering citing they already were getting that (which destroyed any way to make a profit or break even). I knew this was obviously bullshit and went on my way. Here we stand 13+ months later, and ONE team sells their gear (Prime), and you still cannot buy an NsHS or MvP jersey..... These are but a couple things. In my time in Korea I have found that team managers/coaches are very good managers/coaches, but AWFUL businessman, they have a self inflated sense of value, and refuse to do things to help themselves out because they don't understand how it will help. Also running online tournaments in Korea is one of the most frustrating things I have EVER done. I send out on average about 30+ emails PER WEEK reminding seven teams to sign up. I spend a 12 hour period on battle.net beforehand bugging players to sign up because most coaches just ignore the emails. This is all to get like 30 players, which is not really much. When GSTL hits, it becomes borderline impossible to run the tournaments as teams are OBSESSED with it and refuse to let most players play if they have a match in the next 3-4 weeks. For example Crank was always asking to play in the Korean Weekly when on SlayerS, but since he was their PvZ sniper they did not allow him to enter at all (or maybe one time, can't remember offhand) in S3 because they were afraid of people scouting him. Fair sentiment but this is a guy that made 0 salary, and needed promotion bad. Did this matter? Lol no, notice the lack Crank in all S3. Can't make stream money either, since anyone in the SlayerS house cannot stream. So 0 income for Crank. Now add in the third problem of GOM TV. GOM TV is composed of some amazing people (<3 Mr Chae) but one of the most frustrating companies to work with, everything takes months on end to set up with them (I spent 3'ish months getting approval on the Korean Weekly), and they do not ever work with online tournaments. For example the Korean Weekly was set up for Saturday nights in Korea, and GOM was aware of this. It was set up this way because there was never GSL on those nights. GOM however after a season or two moves GSTL to Saturday night with no prior warning to tournament organizers. This put me in a spot where for S3 I was already committed on dates/times and lost MANY participants because of this move. I understand GOM is big, but to not shoot off an email or Skype message when I was seeking approval for S3 saying "Hey might want to move the dates to Sunday" would have saved me much trouble. Anyways the small player turnout and difficulty of running these tournaments has made securing sponsors very very very hard and we were forced to put S4 on an indefinite hold (hopefully just until HotS retail), so the one "regular" event isn't even a regular event anymore. Add in the fact there's a -42,800% chance of KeSPA players in an online tournament (people want the new shiny Koreans), and all of a sudden you have an environment that it does not make sense to run tournaments. So in short, the Korean teams are the Korean teams own worst enemy. They make silly decisions on a regular basis, lack basic communication, and do things that only hurt their exposure in the long term. The fact that every team does not have an NA/EU member to do marketing to NA/EU companies and help them do all the things is beyond me and shows they do not understand the need to connect in the right way with foreign companies and fans. Edit: Also important is when do you actually broadcast to get an ROI anymore? MLG, IPL, NASL, or another major league is ALWAYS on. ESV was always the exception of a company that can compete without millions of $, but now even these days we cannot, because we NEED such a larger viewership than them to be sustainable where they don't need top notch viewership every day to stay afloat. | ||
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Burns
United States2300 Posts
This was even talked about at the Princeton eSports symposium, Alex Garfield said that when he approached a sponsor he had to tell them when, where, and how much exposure his sponsorship would get. After all these are basic business practices, you see it in traditional sports all time, in soccer matches you see the banners down the side of the pitch and sponsors on their jerseys. | ||
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Snorkle
United States1648 Posts
http://www.googims.co.kr/front/php/newpage.php?code=122 International orders require you to jump through several hoops though so my friend just bought one off ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hyundai-Hmall-Googims-IM-Team-Limited-Edition-Fly-T-Shirts-White-979-WH-/180890943531?pt=US_Mens_Tshirts&var=&hash=item2a1df0c02b That being said, Korean teams would really benefit from even someone in the west doing promotions for them on a part time basis. I am sure there are die hard fans of teams that also happen to be business students who would even do it for free or as an internship etc. | ||
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BigJoe
United States210 Posts
However, let's say future tournaments and teams are sponsorded by companys who are in competition with another. Would you still show both? (ie. FedEx - UPS, Coke - Pepsi) | ||
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Diamond
United States10796 Posts
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