What is your name and position within the organisation?
Holly Crook
Head of Partnerships
Oliver Clarke
Head of Brand Partnership Sales
Give us a brief overview of BLAST as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically
BLAST is the world’s leading esports content studio and rightsholder – working with the best broadcasters, brands and communities across the world. We provide the leading production, technology and platform in esports – whether it be intimate broadcast studio shows, packed out arena events, or top-class multi-platform content.
We integrate and build our product around the unique features each partner brings to our proposition, rather than retrofitting into an existing structure. We have created a uniquely commercially led product that engages fans without alienating them. BLAST is now seen as a commercial and fan-focused pioneer in production and broadcast innovation.
We have worked, and are working, across a number of popular titles including Counter-Strike, VALORANT, DOTA 2 and Fortnite. Our leading light is BLAST Premier, a worldwide, annual Counter-Strike tournament where the best teams and brightest stars fight it out for glory and a $2.475M prize pool.
What approach differentiates BLAST and makes your sponsorship strategy unique?
We capitalise on being a new and energetic company in a new industry – with a focus on creating modern, future-focused partnerships, solutions and activity that address the brand challenges and audience demands of today, and those ahead.
A newcomer in 2017, our partners have grown with us, but we have also created new industry standards to appeal to new best-in-class brands. For instance, we are now in our third year working with Betway, with their esports product building around our activations and also amplifying core messages in their target markets across our 150+ territories. Our rapid ascent to prestige and desirability has attracted over 50 brands from KitKat, Toyota and 20th Century Fox, to Coinbase, EPOS and Elgiganten on global, regional and national deal structures.
EPOS Partner Showreel 2021:
How has your approach to sponsorship changed during Covid-19? Have you created any new initiatives or altered your operations to reach sponsors and audiences in new ways?
Our position and the role we played in people’s lives increased – esports and gaming came to the forefront. We were able to create content and experiences that people could enjoy, from custom games, quizzes and video content to the live events themselves (broadcast with teams and players at home). Our partners were integrated and the driving forces behind it all.
During the pandemic, our broadcast partners have become increasingly important to our strategy, given the lack of in-person events. Our online proposition has become fundamental in providing exposure to our partners. Customised playable maps gave our audience the opportunity to download and play in their own time. Players have organically become involved in activations by competing on their socials to get to the top of the leaderboards. Being able to create natural ambassadors for a brand shows the strength of our relationship with teams and talent associated with BLAST.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver for partners?
Esports is a way to target a ‘hard to reach audience’, but that can become incredibly transparent to the audience and fan base if not activated correctly. The approach is different from traditional sports, with brands entering into the space benefiting from being open to innovative integrations that understand and give something back to the fan base. An example of this from BLAST is when we launched KitKat into esports. Their product was integrated as one of the tangos – a consumable item – in the DOTA 2 game. Players had to use the product in-game to get ahead, resulting in huge exposure in the live chat and online forums.
Whilst popular trending content is all well and good, if it is not made with the audience in mind and shared on a platform that is convenient for them, then we’re only doing half the job. We stay on top of social platform developments and how they tie in with partner KPIs to ensure we serve the right content to the right audience to instigate action.
How has the role of sponsorship changed for BLAST over the past few years? And what predictions can you make about how it’s going to change in the next five years?
We have built models that work for global, regional and national budgets – the next evolution will be to further gather and weaponise data and fan relationships to dive even deeper in our partner activity with our fans. Esports is a digital product and lends itself perfectly to building digital relationships and enhanced digital experiences – we believe this will maintain our position as an industry leader.
It is easy to say esports is the next big thing, but we have a proactive role in growing the entire industry. We are a commercial business but play an avocational role as a rights holder with game publishers, teams, talent and fans to build commercial sustainability for everyone.
The gaming community is always on. Unlike the Olympics, we have year-round eyeballs, so maximising that with a strong ROI will only mean our partners continue to benefit from our future growth.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
We are currently live with our BLAST Premier Spring Final! Eight of the best CS:GO teams are competing for a spot at our World Final with a prize pool of $1,000,000. Live over on twitch.tv/BLASTPremier or youtube.com/BLASTPremier now!
Our seven Spring Season partners will be front and centre of this week’s tournament – Betway, CS.Money, EPOS, Coinbase, Madmonq, L33t Gaming.
Later this month we will be teaming up with Epic Games to conceptualise, produce and deliver the inaugural Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) All-Star Showdown (23-26 June) with a $3,000,000 prize pool on the line.
Betway Fall Games – BLAST’s most watched YouTube video outside of our livestream, currently at 1.5m views:
