What is your name and position within the organisation?
Richard Petrich
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Give us a brief overview of Value of We as an agency in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically
Value of We is a boutique branded entertainment agency that specialises in closing the gap between global brands and rights holders and a hard-fought-for Millennial and GenZ audience. We offer support across the entire commercial value chain from sponsorship to media rights and co-productions to talent commercialisation and consumer products and licensing.
What approach differentiates Value of We and makes your sponsorship strategy unique?
What makes us stand out is that we specialise in closing the gap between the new generation and a network of global brands and rights holders, especially in an industry like gaming/esports where following the usual ways of traditional marketing neither leads to a desired ROI nor high engagement rates. It’s inspiring to see this industry grow and take an active part in esports & gaming, surpassing traditional sports viewerships and setting new standards as a new form of entertainment.
Why does your recent partnership with Ralph Lauren and G2 Esports stand out?
This is the first time an esports player has featured in a global ATL campaign like Wimbledon. Ralph Lauren has been our preferred partner for this due to the global appeal and the broad product spectrum and heritage this brand has to offer. This partnership spans across all activation channels ranging from bespoke content, physical activations, social media campaigns and ATL campaigns allowing Ralph Lauren to address and unlock a new audience globally. The tremendous positive feedback from the community has shown that this is not only beneficial for both brands, but for the industry as a whole.
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?
Value of We has been profitable from day one but COVID meant that a lot of global marketing spend had to be shifted to digital. This in return benefited our business massively given there was an exponential interest from brands to activate around esports and gaming across all areas of commercialisation, varying from sponsorships to media rights to consumer products and licensing.
What are the current trends within sports sponsorship, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
In our opinion, the most important factor in delivering strong sponsorship executions is authenticity. For most brands GenZ is a relevant target audience that is hard to reach and demanding at the same time. Consumers demand an inherent brand fit and a value-driven approach that clearly has to go far beyond logo slapping. Another area that is becoming increasingly important is the ability to seamlessly activate across offline and online touch points. Sport sponsorships need to be visible across platforms and transcend singular activations.
How has sponsorship changed for Value of We over the past few years, and what predictions can you make about how it’s going to change in the next five years?
Besides the value-driven strategic approach to every cooperation mentioned above, authentic storytelling and leveraging social media as the main driver for community engagement is one of the focus areas we see. The media landscape has considerably changed over the past decade and will continue to do so.
On average GenZ tend to consume content across 4-5 displays and none of them is a TV, so the goal has to be to adjust the messaging and create formats that can live and spark conversations across platforms like TikTok, Twitter and others. Another important factor is that brands no longer speak to but speak through their audience, so instead of ‘just’ running paid ads, sponsorship activations are much more a place for inspiration and community building. Besides the storytelling approach we will see more fan engagement platforms paving their way to success like NFTs and AR, which at some point will all merge and become a cross-functional entertainment proposition.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
We’re always open to exchanging ideas and jointly working on innovative concepts that are designed to entertain a Millenial and GenZ audience. We have a proven track record working across various industries and with major global brands like Ralph Lauren, Red Bull, Pringles, G2 Esports and Spotify on both an international strategic and local operational level.
