Over the last few months, I've noticed there are players within the local (re: Ontario) competitive gaming scene that are getting sponsored. For the sake of keeping things simple. we'll say the two main sponsors are A & C Games and Omega Collectables (under the banner York Region Street Fighters). Players are branded, wherein the sponsor name is placed before player names when it comes to pushing their brand online. You're not "random guy" you're "A&C|Random Guy." From the player perspective, this is all well and good. From what I understand, the overhead involved in entering tournaments (venue fee, tournament entry fee) is paid for by the sponsor. What I don't understand is where's the upside from the business perspective?
I look at a lot of things in terms of money. When I see a a tournament happening I wonder how much money went into making it happen. How much money did the players make? What was the cost of streaming? Were 3rd parties involved? Over the last few months, I've been baffled over what the point of sponsoring players is. Where's the financial upside? On the surface, one could make the case that a sponsor covers costs for players in return for advertising their store to other game players. However, for the current type of advertising to be effective, I would have to know what the brand was to begin with. If I was a new player and I saw a high level local player I would enjoy seeing them on the stream but I would have no clue what the letters mean. The players don't promote the brands. Where's the value in sponsorship?
In months of watching newly branded players go about their tournament business, I've only seen one sponsored player push the brand that's sponsored him. His name is Andrew Nguyen. Make a note, I linked to Andrew's Twitter account. I'd push a top YRSF or A&C player but they don't feel the need to push their brand. Oops. Anyway, Andrew was sponsored by TOSFHQ. It's a non profit organization of players looking to elevate the competitive level of players in Ontario through regular practice sessions and personal lessons. Andrew was sponsored prior to his winning a tournament for young up and coming players. He won the tournament and thanked his sponsor. He made sure to push the fact that through the brand that got behind him, he was able to "level up" and succeed. He also pushed his sponsor through other channels like a community chat room and through his Twitter account. Whether his methods were effective I don't know. His sponsor would have that answer. What I do know is that I was given further awareness of the sponsor through his win and subsequent actions. The sponsor gained value for its investment.
So I'm left wondering for the two bigger aforementioned sponsors, where's your value? Is it enough to simply attach your name to a person and hope for the best? While its understandable that the investment in player sponsorship is marginal compared to traditional marketing methods, it doesn't change the fact that all money spent should be looking to maximize its value. Why aren't there conditions placed on sponsorship?
Consistent Placing: Sponsors sign up "top players." There's simple reasoning behind it. People want to be associated with winners. Players and/or viewers want to watch winners. If you take on a player and their placings tank subsequently plummet, you can draw a correlation. Do you still want to invest that money?
Social Networking: The easiest way to expand your brand with the least amount of effort and/or overhead. Leaving things like Twitter accounts, Facebook Pages, and Web Site Player Profiles out to the wayside is leaving out opportunity for growth.
Time taken to speak with stream organizers: There are regular tournament organizers all over Ontario. Taking the time to speak with the people behind the stream to get a player and his/her brand exposed is good for both sides. There are always lull periods on streams. Filling a few minutes with sponsored players can give viewers a face behind the game. In most cases, viewers watch because of players, not because of the game being played.
Clothing. This one really threw me for a loop. I looked at recent photos from a tournament in Toronto. I noticed the people behind the brand were wearing their clothes and their players weren't. Those players are on stream in some cases up to an hour over the course of a day with a camera on them. Why isn't someone slapping a t-shirt, hoodie, cap, sticker, etc on them?
I don't fault players for coasting along over the last few months with money basically being handed to them to play the game they enjoy. I'm sincerely surprised to see young entrepreneurs who aren't making the most of their new found marketing opportunities though. The current sponsorship system, in its infancy as it is, is drastically flawed.
Giving someone money so they can have the same fun they'd have had anyway isn't sponsorship, it's philanthropy.
