In maintaining an esports sponsorship relationship that you worked hard to land, the most important task will be to show your results back to the sponsor. You want them to know that you are a valuable and reliable marketing partner.
The best way to do this is to use the numbers. Always the numbers.
The good news is that because of the format of any esports tournament and even teams there will be an almost endless quantity of data. The bad news is that there is an almost endless quantity of data.
So how do you focus?
First talk with your sponsor, and particularly have a discussion with the marketing manager. You want them to become a hero in their company. What are they measured on? What are their expectations going in? What goals need to be met that will keep them on board?
Chances are they will want to see one or more of these three metrics:
- Viewers: How many people saw the tournament or team? This is the most common metric to report, and your platform should help you do this. If not, think about using a different platform. Most sponsors like to hear something like they spent $10,000 dollars and got 100,000 people to see the entire event. Remember to include and highlight live participation as well as the online audience.
Creating compelling activations are actually part of the fun. And can be extremely valuable to your sponsor. - Sales: This is a tougher number to wrangle, but it is much more valuable. Use your digital skills to track your traffic to the all-important sales page if they have a web site. Or even a coupon code can help out for tracking.
- Positive Sentiment: Are people saying good things about the sponsor? Or maybe they are critical of the company or the fact that they are interrupting the content of a “free” event. Expect that to happen. But make sure you can also report back the positive comments on social media to the sponsor.
Learn from the competition.
Here is one valuable piece of advice: find three teams or tournaments who you think are doing a good job at presenting their sponsors. They can be local but don’t need to be. Good ideas are universal.
First take note of who they have landed as sponsors for future reference. Then break down how you think they are measuring their success and follow their example. You will be amazed what tricks and tips you can learn just by paying attention.
Photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash
