What is your name and position within the organisation?
Rodrigo Samwell
Chief Commercial Officer
Give us an overview of ESL Gaming as a company in general and your approach to partnerships specifically
ESL Gaming is the world’s largest esports company and has a rich history. As part of MTG, the leading international digital entertainment group, the company and its two main brands (ESL and DreamHack) have a long history of more than two decades. ESL focuses on creating a world where everybody can be somebody, running esports tournaments and leagues that go from amateur level up to the highest levels of professionalism. While DreamHack is the world-leading brand in gaming festivals where the gaming community comes to life.
Shaping the industry and leading esports and gaming innovation globally, ESL Gaming offers the most popular video games with numerous online and offline esports competitions. Premier gaming lifestyle festivals and high-profile, branded international leagues and tournaments — such as the ESL Pro Tour, including ESL One, Intel® Extreme Masters, ESL Mobile, and ESL Pro League are vital components in this work. All have excelled in attracting both endemic and non-endemic partners, spanning industries such as automotive, gaming hardware, freight and package delivery, beverage, payment systems, and many more.
What approach differentiates ESL Gaming and makes your partnership strategy unique?
At ESL Gaming, we see brand partners as true partners. We help brands connect authentically with gamers worldwide. With us, brands go beyond the simple logo placement; we create experiences for the fans that are part of the show enabled by brands in meaningful ways. As a result, the fans react well because they see the genuine interest of brands to push the esports scene forward.
How has your approach to sponsorship changed during Covid-19? Have you created any new initiatives or altered your operations to reach partners and audiences in new ways?
This last year was special for the whole world. We were fortunate enough to be able to move our competitions online, something that traditional sports, unfortunately, could not. It has allowed us to show our strengths as esports is truly global and can be produced — and enjoyed — through highly professional productions in an online environment. It was also a great opportunity for us, with all physical activities removed from the equation over this last year, to develop new and creative means for our partners to engage with and bring value to our collective audiences.
What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver for partners?
One ongoing trend is that some of the largest brands in the world from all industries continue to express curiosity and interest in esports and want to know how to get involved and tap into the impressive reach with an otherwise hard-to-reach target audience. This is, of course, very exciting to see. Still, these new partners do not know where to start and how to connect to gamers. We know what works, what does not, and the key is to help brands to connect in a meaningful, authentic and sustainable way with gamers. To accomplish this, one must clearly understand each of the game communities, what they appreciate, and how a brand can step in and help improve the esports scene while achieving its goals. Again, this is something our client solutions team helps partnering brands reach — especially non-endemic — so they can position themselves in a credible and meaningful way within our portfolio.
Another trend of which we are at the forefront is mobile gaming and esports. Historically, esports has demanded that you have a PC or a game console to be able to put in the hours to become a professional in your favorite esports title. With over 2.2 billion mobile gamers worldwide, it’s no wonder that mobile esports is skyrocketing, and it’s fair to say that this esports segment is much more than a passing trend. It’s the future. Both participation and esports viewership has seen an incredible increase over the past couple of years. And with the rollout of 5G networks, this trend will accelerate as 5G provides very low latency, which is very important for a great online gaming experience.
ESL launched a new mobile esports ecosystem in March to meet that growing demand and provide competitive mobile esports experiences to millions of people in more than 80 countries around the world. Once the apps are installed on mobile devices, gamers can go from “the-couch-to-the-big-stage”, opening up for a diverse audience, irrespective of skill level, where anyone can go from zero to hero.
How has the role of sponsorship changed for ESL Gaming over the past few years? And what predictions can you make about how it’s going to change in the next five years?
Historically, most of our partnerships were centered around computer hardware and gaming peripherals. That is far from the case today, even if our longest-standing partnership – which recently celebrated 20 years – is with Intel. In the early days, these partnerships weren’t as elaborate as they are today when we see customized and multi-faceted activations, combining the strengths of both the ESL and partner brands. Combining these activations with more traditional brand placement has helped us increase the number of non-endemic partners as we show that we understand their brand and needs.
It’s always interesting to look into the future, especially in fast-developing areas such as esports and gaming. We must stay the course and keep developing our offering while, at the same time, stay true to our purpose, fans, and community. We also need to keep being at the forefront of new trends. Being trendsetters ourselves will also help us in the future as the esports industry keeps attracting new marketing investments from large, international corporations. I believe that, in another five years, with so many large brands showing their success in esports, brands will always include esports and gaming as part of their core engagement strategy. What we have been showing brands is that the role of brand partnerships has evolved and the winners are the ones that understand that you need to have a specific strategy using esports to connect to consumers. It’s not about sticking a logo everywhere or greenwashing; it is about being authentic. It’s about trusting that by giving back to the esports fans, they will benefit from network effects when the love comes back.
