Thank the sponsors campaign - Page 6

As a company that just got into sponsoring players in the Starcraft community (and currently expanding), we encountered the same issues that Razer encounters when deciding on how to spend the budget.

It's a mix of exposure, brand representation and likeability that determines how much the company can spend on sponsorship.

For example, if we knew that sponsoring X player would result in Y profits, then it would be VERY easy to provide much higher salaries for players. In fact, at that point, it would be a no-brainer to sponsor as many X players that provides a positive ROI. I'll trade $1 for $2 any day. Companies like Razer can drop 100k on a sponsorship without batting an eye if they know it's going to make them 200k in the near future.

That said, it is very difficult to determine the Y (profit as a result of a sponsorship) and therefore companies have to assume the worse case scenario.

So for example, if you're selling computer mice and you give $2000 to inControl, then you must assume that the worse case scenario is that this sponsorship will generate $2000 in profit for you. (Meaning that you'll sell 100 mice because of the sponsorship).

Unless you're using some sort of tracking code (ie: you're buying via a gamer's special link or something), then it becomes very difficult to track and you ask yourself questions such as: "Did people really buy the mouse because they saw InControl use it? Or... would they have purchased it anyways?"

So how do you analyze your potential ROI as a company?

- You look at the player's exposure in raw numbers. Stream viewers, total stream views, twitter followers, facebook fans, tournament appearances, 'televised' matches played in large tournaments.
- You look at the player's personality and desirability. How well can he express himself, does he 'sell' products, will he promote your product... does he BELIEVE in your product?

I'm going to go off in a tangent on this one... but if you're Coca Cola and you want to sponsor a SC2 gamer, you find one that's ALREADY drinking Coca Cola. Sponsoring someone that hates Coca Cola and only drinks water would be a bad match because the gamer's heart and soul wouldn't be into it. (It would be like that episode of the Simpsons where Krusty eats a burger on camera for a commercial and then spits it out 5 seconds later)

As a company looking to sponsor gamers, I was surprised to have gamers ask for sponsorship... and then 5 seconds later tell us that we are a shit brand when we tell them we aren't going to sponsor them. (Seriously, if you want to help e-sports grow and you shit all over companies providing money, it's not a good way to go about it)

In the end, we sponsor gamers who love our products. That goes a long way because the enthusiasm about our product shows in interviews, stream, etc.

- Your reputation is HUGE. Gamers support other gamers that they like. If they think that you're an asshole, then they won't be supporting the companies that are sponsoring you. If you're the guy that everyone loves then it's going to be extremely easy to get sponsors. (ie: Day9 could easily get sponsors because he's so lovable)

- After you know you have good exposure, a good personality that loves your products, you just have to work out the details of how long the sponsorship will last and how much. I believe in starting off small and increasing it from there based on the results.

And of course, the results will be determined by how much the players mention your product. If you're a website owner and you see that you received 10000 unique visitors from Twitch.tv when Demuslim was streaming (or even 5000k views from his twitter profile), then you can measure the impact the sponsorship is having.

Taking it even a few steps further, you can see how long the traffic stayed on your site, what they looked at... if they were engaged or not. It's one thing to have 5000 visitors come to your site for 3 seconds... and it's another to have 5000 visitors come to your site and browse around for 3-4 minutes.

To give you a REAL example: the traffic we are receiving from one of our sponsored players results in an average of 1.85 page views per visitor. (Meaning the average person visits 1.85 pages on the site)

They also stay for an average of 53 seconds which is actually pretty decent. It means that about half of the people come, look around and leave... and the other half stays around looks at EVERYTHING (which is really good).

tl;dr If you want to have more money from sponsors: Make sure you gain as much exposure as possible (stream viewers, twitter followers, facebook fans, etc). Make sure that you have a great reputation that gamers will want to support. Finally, make it obvious that you are a good match with the company you want sponsorship from (If you love energy drinks, get an energy drink company to sponsor you. It is very important that you love their product)

Hope this helps any gamers that want to get sponsorship!

On October 14 2012 20:55 Fandango wrote:
I hate this thread with the same vitriol I hate threads telling me why I should pay for MLG and people who email sponsors about shit players said this one time. Stop treating competitive SC2 as if it's 5 people in a basement trying to get something going, it's a multi-million dollar profitable industry that doesn't need propping up with god awful 'community' efforts. If you want SC2 to be bigger, watch or pay for events or streams you think are worth it based on the content they provide, don't watch or pay for events or streams that don't. If there's significant viewership then there's significant sponsorship, don't create false economies by propping up commercial ventures for dumb reasons.

On October 15 2012 04:41 MetalSlug wrote:
I want to add that this probably hurts the credibility of the Community and future actions where emailing sponsors and thanking them for the stuff they do might actually be due.

On October 15 2012 01:22 Traceback wrote:

You should tell them that so they know why.

On October 15 2012 04:41 MetalSlug wrote:
I want to add that this probably hurts the credibility of the Community and future actions where emailing sponsors and thanking them for the stuff they do might actually be due.

On October 15 2012 00:19 iNcontroL wrote:
I've said this before but I will say it again: This actually matters.

Is that silly? Yes. Does it make sense? Kinda.

They absolutely LOVE when they get ANY kind of contact about them/theirs as long as it is positive. Unfortunately this works both ways. When they receive negative emails this too works to get their attention.

I appreciate this directive and I can promise you it actually matters.

On October 15 2012 04:41 MetalSlug wrote:
I want to add that this probably hurts the credibility of the Community and future actions where emailing sponsors and thanking them for the stuff they do might actually be due.

On October 15 2012 05:20 IdrA wrote:

you think a bunch of people appreciating and liking a company is worthless? they know not every esports fan is going to buy their product when they sponsor a team, but the more people like you and hear about you the more people are going to buy stuff from you. and those people who do appreciate them now but cant or wont buy a product are still more likely to do so in the future when they have a need or more money or whatever.

On October 15 2012 05:24 Zenbrez wrote:

My razer banshee has proved to be really bad, and purchased a Siberia last week. My razer keyboard is also iffy.. when it goes belly-up, I have a G6V2 on my to-buy list.

On October 15 2012 05:30 IdrA wrote:

well theres also the fact that companies that sponsor EG just inherently have superior products. but thats neither here nor there.

On October 15 2012 05:30 IdrA wrote:

well theres also the fact that companies that sponsor EG just inherently have superior products. but thats neither here nor there.