OnGameNet Sparkyz, fresh new start as 'Hite Sparkyz'!
Progaming team OnGameNet Sparkyz and 'Hite' Beer company have signed a 'Naming Rights' contract on 6th April 2009, at 1100 hours, and revealed that the progaming team will be renamed to 'Hite Sparkyz' from 11th April 2009 onwards.
Sparkyz started as the progaming team 'KOR', and was taken over by OnGameNet to be renamed 'OnGameNet Sparkyz'. They have won Sky Proleague Round 3, made it into the playoffs for Shinhank Bank Proleague 2007 and got second in the 2008 Shinhan Bank Proleague.
Hite revealed that the reason for acquiring Sparkyz was that it was in the top 20 of the most watched pro-sports, which includes the Starleague, as well as Proleagues in soccer, baseball, basketball, etc.
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
Hite marketing director Park Jong Sun said that 'E-sports is a major source of sports entertainment that represents Korea which is spreading across the world', and that 'more youths are expecting e-Sports to grow, and hence their brand Hite's 'cool*'ness will be representing that expectation well'. (* Look at the new logo)
Hite is one of the major representatives in the market who have helped to advance the sports culture in Korea, and has played an active role including being part of selecting national players, intra-national professional golfers, and holding the 'Hite Golf Championship'. It is also active in areas related to professional baseball and basketball, as well as other sports.
In order to attract youths, it has recently signed a contract with 'Big Bang', Korea's greatest icon to be their model, and show Hite's coolness via the 'Cool' Campaign through TV commercials.
It is also planning to further promote its image in Europe, and has said that 'it will do its best to make its marketing a success in Korea'.
Hite not only is involved in the development of Sports culture, but also plays an active role through the Flash365Campaign, helping with the development of Korean underground drainage system, ABC Fire extinguisher system among many others, promoting its good image, and plans to play an active role in the area of e-Sports.
Does the article say if OGN actually sold the team or if they purely sold the naming rights and nothing else? There's an important distinction to be made there.
On April 06 2009 14:52 p4NDemik wrote: Does the article say if OGN actually sold the team or if they purely sold the naming rights and nothing else? There's an important distinction to be made there.
They mentioned that it was a 'naming rights' contract, I'm thinking that they only sold the naming rights.
On April 06 2009 14:23 NeverGG wrote: Susie : LOLOL sparkyz are gonna be sponsored by HITE?!?! NeverGG : ROFL NeverGG : awesome Susie : http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=94219&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd Susie : hahahahhahaha NeverGG : lmao NeverGG : sparkyz will now sink to the bottom of the pl due to too many freebies Susie : yup Susie : lololol NeverGG : lol sangmoon and coach are like 'hell yeah!' NeverGG : lmao
lol... when I saw that logo, for a split second I thought 'wait this gotta be april fools joke... oh not its 6th april already' Did they really have to add that "cool"?
On April 06 2009 14:23 NeverGG wrote: Susie : LOLOL sparkyz are gonna be sponsored by HITE?!?! NeverGG : ROFL NeverGG : awesome Susie : http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=94219&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd Susie : hahahahhahaha NeverGG : lmao NeverGG : sparkyz will now sink to the bottom of the pl due to too many freebies Susie : yup Susie : lololol NeverGG : lol sangmoon and coach are like 'hell yeah!' NeverGG : lmao
On April 06 2009 14:55 7mk wrote: lol... when I saw that logo, for a split second I thought 'wait this gotta be april fools joke... oh not its 6th april already' Did they really have to add that "cool"?
On April 06 2009 14:23 NeverGG wrote: Susie : LOLOL sparkyz are gonna be sponsored by HITE?!?! NeverGG : ROFL NeverGG : awesome Susie : http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=94219&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd Susie : hahahahhahaha NeverGG : lmao NeverGG : sparkyz will now sink to the bottom of the pl due to too many freebies Susie : yup Susie : lololol NeverGG : lol sangmoon and coach are like 'hell yeah!' NeverGG : lmao
How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
Now OGN is stuck with saying MBCGame Heroes during their games on OGN, while MBCGame won't even have to say 'On'.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
Yeah but MBC will probably take this opportunity to not mention OGN anymore on their channel lol, simply calling them 'Hite Sparkyz'.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
Yes OGN still owns the team but i think they pointed the "free" advertising of having your team and his name (OGN) showing up in the other channel. However, in this case i cant see this matters too much since both channels have pretty much the same audience.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
On the Logo it doesnt say OGH HIte Sparkyz, it just says Hite Sparkyz. I think it just says OGN sold the entire team to Hite beer. Or am I wrong? Thanks
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
On the Logo it doesnt say OGH HIte Sparkyz, it just says Hite Sparkyz. I think it just says OGN sold the entire team to Hite beer. Or am I wrong? Thanks
no, it says that they just sold the name. OnGameNet Sparkyz is called Hite Sparkyz now, that's the only difference.
to the Hwaseung - Lecaf thing: i think Hwaseung was the sponsor of Lecaf the whole time, but they just later decided to change the name to Hwaseung Oz because they wanted their name to be advertised better.
On April 06 2009 15:12 oneill wrote: How about in MBC channel or Avertec Starleague. Would be good if they still had their name there. Anyway I hope a new team emerges. Not only these sponsor changes.
If it's changed, it applies to all leagues. Refer to Hwaseung.
yes that is it. thats why OGN shouldnt have released sparkyz. To get their name out even on the other channels
what are you on about
ogn still own the team, it's just that the team will be known as something like OGN Hite Sparkyz and not just OGN Sparkyz
it's common for korean sports teams to sell their rights to the team name, like lotte giants etc.
On the Logo it doesnt say OGH HIte Sparkyz, it just says Hite Sparkyz. I think it just says OGN sold the entire team to Hite beer. Or am I wrong? Thanks
no, it says that they just sold the name. OnGameNet Sparkyz is called Hite Sparkyz now, that's the only difference.
to the Hwaseung - Lecaf thing: i think Hwaseung was the sponsor of Lecaf the whole time, but they just later decided to change the name to Hwaseung Oz because they wanted their name to be advertised better.
Hwaseung was the parent company (or something like that) of Lecaf, that's why that decided to upgrade their tier.
Ok. So basically OGN still owns Sparkyz but just uses Hite as the team name for the moment. As for advertisement purposes. So in the future Hite Sparkyz might become OGN Sparkyz, that is if Hite withdraws support.
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
This.
Usually dads give soju to their son, because it's 'manly'. I remember my dad giving my soju when I was 13...
Uh, also, their target audience is the 20s, I'm sure they didn't think of the minority, since the majority of the audience are in their 20s.
On April 06 2009 16:12 The Storyteller wrote: Isn't it a bit disturbing that the team is promoting beer to a rather young audience?
They hired Big Bang to promote Hite Beer. The youngest member (Seung Ri) is only 18 years old. He's not even old enough to drink beer.
He's 19 in Korean age if I'm not mistaken. And it's not like its difficult to buy alcohol, you just walk into a store and pay 3 dollars for each bottle of soju. You can get a bunch and they don't ask for ID or anything.
On April 06 2009 16:12 The Storyteller wrote: Isn't it a bit disturbing that the team is promoting beer to a rather young audience?
Young people drink all the time. Having the legal age for drinking at 21 is pretty stupid. Many people drink in college and even in high school. By making it illegal, you only increase the allure; the same thing goes for marijuana.
Hite Sparkyz? What kind of name is that? That's worse than Hwaseung, man. Besides, what's up with having a beer company sponsor your pro-team made of kids who won't be old enough to drink for years?
On April 07 2009 01:40 Naib wrote: I don't ever drink beer, but now if I ever would, I would choose Hite. 100% serious.
Marketing has already begun to take effect.
Well that's the power of sponsors. You've got to play along or there won't be any sponsoring anymore . If playing along means drinking beer... i'm game! Seriously though, i've never heard of that beer but i'll be sure to try it out if I every see any.
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
Since when is advertising beer looked down upon in America?
Now we're going to be hearing a bunch of beer jokes for whenever they lose games. Which if they're given beer as much as Woojin is given juice by their sponsors would be true.
Though the name change is just for advertising? Or will Hite be a second sponsor beyond the name change buy?
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
Since when is advertising beer looked down upon in America?
Well if you've followed the thread, you'll see that it's not about advertising beer per se, but advertising beer when most of the watchers are young/teenage boys.
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
Since when is advertising beer looked down upon in America?
Yeah, they spend millions advertising beer in the Super Bowl. Don't you remember the Budweiser commercial with the frogs?
On April 06 2009 16:52 latent wrote: According to Wikipedia, in Korea "Anyone who will be over 19 by the end of the year can drink and purchase alcohol."
I'm willing to bet by age 19 a good 99.9% Koreans have probably drunk beer and even worse soju. Korea is such a huge drinking society that advertising beer wouldn't be looked down upon compared to America.
Since when is advertising beer looked down upon in America?
Yeah, they spend millions advertising beer in the Super Bowl. Don't you remember the Budweiser commercial with the frogs?
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
That's actually really interesting.
Ugh Lecaf and now Ogn. More team names I can't spell.
On April 06 2009 23:50 drowned wrote: so does that mean they won't boycott GOMTV any longer?
Yeah, I wonder too. I would love to see Leta plays in the Gom TV Avertec Intel Classic.
On April 07 2009 07:40 NahLGaE wrote: wow. o.o
so how long till mbc drops their team too? >>
SPARKYZ is still owned by OnGameNet. They only sold the naming rights. There is no reason to expect that they'll be able to play in future editions of the GOM Classic, unless their actual ownership changes.
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
That's actually really interesting.
Ugh Lecaf and now Ogn. More team names I can't spell.
Yeah we loled so hard when we heard this. OGN/HITE have a reputation here for being an eccentric team due to their crazy Rival Battle Break events (containing toy guns, cross-dressers and dance parties on stage - they're a tonne of fun to photograph!) so it really came as no surprise. I like the new logo.
They usually handed out plush chickens to fans after wins before (I've got one and gave my spare to lilsusie.) - it'd be hilarious now if they started handing out plush beer cans or something.
I just had Hite in a Korean restaurant recently! ^^
Btw, a question - I thought naming right is the only benefit that makes a big company sponsor a progaming team. I wonder what OGN gets out of Sparkyz now? They don't have their name on the team, and not even their logo on the team logo/uniform any more. The only benefit I can think of is banning team players playing in GOM. >"<
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
That's actually really interesting.
Ugh Lecaf and now Ogn. More team names I can't spell.
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
That's actually really interesting.
Ugh Lecaf and now Ogn. More team names I can't spell.
You can't spell Hite?
i lol'd
I think it might spelled "Hee-teh" or "Hai-teh", not "Hait" like most might think.. I don't know, could some Korean speaker confirm? xD
According to last year's OSL statistics, an average of 0.496% of all men in their 20s watched it as compared to Professional Baseball (0.213%), K-League (Soccer, 0.153%) and Basketball (0.089%). Comparing the OSL to others, OSL had more audience than baseball by 230%; K-league by 320% and Basketball by 560%.
That's actually really interesting.
Ugh Lecaf and now Ogn. More team names I can't spell.
You can't spell Hite?
i lol'd
I think it might spelled "Hee-teh" or "Hai-teh", not "Hait" like most might think.. I don't know, could some Korean speaker confirm? xD
EPT
![[image loading]](http://fomos.kr/board/issue/1238985231_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://fomos.kr/board/issue/1238985231_2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/players/4.jpg)
. If playing along means drinking beer... i'm game!
![[image loading]](http://i44.tinypic.com/k7vxi.jpg)
