What approach to choose a brand for integration into e-sports? Survey Our Audience

These large brands managed to carry out really successful activations, which attracted the attention of the public and provided companies with recognition. The e-sports audience loves the show – and therefore, getting away with simply placing the logo on the press wall in this industry will not work: such integration will almost certainly go unnoticed by the audience and run the risk of costlessly for the sponsor.

And if for Coca-Cola or Red Bull it is not difficult to carry out vivid integration for the e-sports audience due to the predisposition of gamers to such products, then for other brands the search for appropriate tools can turn into a serious headache. A good example in this case is insurance companies that began to invest in the industry in the second half of the 2010s.

Gamers and e-sports fans are not the kind of people who think about insurance in everyday life. Because of this, entering the industry for such brands is more difficult than for manufacturers of energy drinks or computer devices. And despite the fact that history has already counted more than a dozen transactions of insurance companies with e-sports agents, there is no need to talk about truly vivid activations in this area.

The most famous example of such cooperation is the long-term partnership between the American GEICO and the tournament operator ELEAGUE. The companies announced the deal in 2016, but at that time the matter was limited to directly placing the GEICO logo on tournament broadcasts. The first activation took place in 2017: then GEICO launched a branded championship for novice fighting players, which favorably affected the company’s recognition in the industry, since even the news itself received wide coverage.

Other insurers who decided to come to eSports used similar tools. For example, ARAG became the sponsor of the Brazilian organization MIBR, which posted brand logos on the website and jersey of its compositions; Techniker Krankenkasse held an amateur tournament for students with the support of ESL, and even in Russia RESO-Garantia launched a PUBG league with a prize pool of $ 300 thousand.

There were other interesting moves. So, State Farm branded individual segments on League of Legends broadcasts, and K&K Insurance Group launched special insurance programs for e-sportsmen and tournament operators. However, the traditional logo placement, which is also used in big sports, remains the most common tool of insurers.

This can be explained by both the difficulties described above with finding an entry point and the unwillingness of large brands to risk their image in finding such solutions. Esports is a young industry that requires creative approaches, but in all other media areas, more traditional methods still provide results.

Every year it becomes more obvious that investments in e-sports are promising. They allow brands to reach outside of traditional media. In addition, a certain part of e-sports fans has not yet reached the peak of purchasing power, and the opportunity to associate your product with e-sports now is also a great investment in the future.

However, the e-sports audience requires a special approach, and therefore such non-endic companies – for example, insurers – need to be trained. To simplify this process for brands, we are launching a special survey that will allow insurance companies to better understand e-sports fans and find the best entry points to the industry.

Link to the survey: https://forms.yandex.ru/u/5edf80dc6505fe14c0cedb66/

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