While debate continues as to whether eSport is really sport, Gillette makes its stance clear in a February ‘Chasing Their Best’ campaign leveraging its recent Team SoloMid (TSM) sponsorship.
The P&G personal care brand’s message is clear, eSports athletes are just that – athletes.
The TSM activation, which aims to highlight the brand’s passion for eSports by exploring the daily challenges the team face in chasing their best, features top TSM star Søren Bjerg (better known by his in-game name Bjergsen.
The campaign is spearheaded by a 30-second TV commercial that urges the team and viewers to ‘keep chasing your best’.
The spot was amplified across Gillette’s digital and social platforms: including YouTube, Twitter
The work is worth it when you’re chasing your best. Check out our latest spot with @TeamSoloMid. pic.twitter.com/C3neOVRamr
— Gillette (@Gillette) February 3, 2018
and Facebook.
The creative aims to drive viewers to learn more about the TSM 2018 roster at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv2SC… and to subscribe to Gillette’s YouTube Channel for the latest TSM and LoL esports videos at http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c….
An additionally content strand of the campaign was Bjergsen own video reactions to the release of the ad – which were amplified socially and generated plenty of engagement (including 2.3k Likes on Bjergsen’s own Twitter feed).
My reaction to the Gillette video in TSM Legends 😀 https://t.co/8bwsWjmKbf pic.twitter.com/AjZw1p5zO9
— Søren Bjerg (@Bjergsen) February 3, 2018
Love the reaction to our spot, @bjergsen. Actually, your acting was quite legendary – no edits needed. https://t.co/NbhjUNvxAh
— Gillette (@Gillette) February 3, 2018
The campaign launch was timed to coincide with the season 4 premiere of TSM Legends ‘Episode 1’ featuring Bjergsen.
Finish off your Friday night with the season 4 premiere of #TSMLegends!
Watch episode 1 “Joining Forces” now! https://t.co/9tehtUn7Ai pic.twitter.com/htxhZUzsTv
— Team SoloMid (@TeamSoloMid) February 3, 2018
“I don’t treat our guys at TSM any different than I treat Thomas Muller, Antoine Griezmann or even Neymar Jr. They all have their particular talents, they all have their skills and they’re all athletes. We treat everybody the same,” said Greg Via (head of global sports and entertainment marketing for Gillette and P&G).
“We’ve been involved in mainstream sports for over 100 years, and no one ever asked me, ‘Why are you sponsoring FC Barcelona? Why do I see your signage at the NFL? Why are you part of Major League Baseball? Why are you part of the Olympics?’” Via explained. “No one ever asks me those questions because we’ve been a part of sports for such a long time. People are almost expecting to see us because we are such a mainstream sponsor. That’s something we’re going to have to figure out a little bit more within esports to truly belong and continue to interact with the community in a positive manner.”
Comment:
The eSports sponsorship space continues to expand rapidly as more non-endemic brands – from Mercedes-Benz
to Snickers
The #FLYFAM never goes hungry#EatASNICKERS
Welcome our new partner, @SNICKERS!
» https://t.co/F2Qn7xw9pC pic.twitter.com/TIh4Ze9TMR
— FlyQuest (@FlyQuestSports) January 11, 2018
invest in the rapidly growing market.
There are signs of growth everywhere across the landscape: from Disney building a new eSports complex, to US major league team owners like Robert Kraft and Jeff Wilpon buying Overwatch League spots and sports teams like
We're proud to welcome @TeamSoloMid to our global roster of all-star athletes. pic.twitter.com/kw9YK11Adl
— Gillette (@Gillette) September 1, 2017
Team SoloMid, a North American eSports team created around the community website SoloMid.Net by brothers Andy and Dan Dinh in September 2009, won a 3rd consecutive LCS title and wore new jerseys featuring the Gillette-logo at the finals.
TSM has signed up several new sponsors since the start of 2018: as well as Gillette, non-endemic brands Dr Pepper and Geico signed sponsorship deals to sit alongside existing game-relevant team partners like Logitech and HTC.
“It’s super exciting to have someone that was there at the start of esports come back to the scene through sponsoring TSM,” said team co-woner Andy Dinh – after referencing Dr Pepper’s 2017 partnership with Germany’s ‘mousesports’.
“It’s a big honour for us to be able to represent such a large company and I’m really looking forward towards growing both our brands together!”
Gillette has actually been exploring the eSports space for several years now.
“[In the past] we’ve had some good partnerships with EA Sports around the Madden franchise and some of the others, and we had to take notice of the community and the number of fans that were flocking to esports,” said Via.
“We wanted to understand the fandom, understand the community and understand why it was so popular. We did some research. We participated in some events to test and to get a feel if we needed to be in it. We’re obviously involved with TSM and with League of Legends, but the Overwatch League is something I’m watching closely as well because we are sponsors of the New England Patriots. They play in Gillette Stadium and they’re owned by the Kraft Group, who also has an Overwatch team. So, we are educating ourselves in Overwatch, trying to see if that’s something we need to be in.”
While Gillette admits to showing interest Overwatch, it is unlikely to explore other shooter game eSports as P&G’s philosophy is not to enter this genre.
“Even with Overwatch, which we’re not involved with, we have to look at that even though it’s a shooter. But it’s cartoony, and characters regenerate, so nobody’s really dying. But being part of a larger corporation, it’s hard to get the greenlight to explore some of those things sometimes,” admits Via.
Gillette initially entered the eSports space back in February 2017 when it sponsored the Intel Extreme Masters World Championships in Katowice.
For the event, Gillette ran a razor activation that allowed pro gamers, casters and fans to create custom 3D printed esports razors at a large booth inside the exhibit hall next to the arena.
“We weren’t sure how it was going to be accepted, but fans liked the customization,” said Via.
“We did learn a lot about the consumer there. What we saw is that a lot of booths had interactions with fans.”
As part of this partnership Gillette also teamed up with Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño (a high profile LCS player and founder of Origen) as its first eSport ambassador and activated the alliance via a promotional content series called ‘Pursuit of Precision’ (see case study).
Plus, in May 2017, Gillette sponsored EDward Gaming – one of China’s top ranked League of Legends teams.
It may be a relatively new space, but, interestingly TSM as a team is already developed a fairly sophisticated sponsorship ROI model for partners and potential new partners with a data-driven approach that aims to answer the questions:
> What’s the best way to influence esports team fans/supporters?
> How does brand marketing affect team-oriented fans vs. general fans?
> How can sponsors make the most of visibility and exposure?
TSM has developed an ‘audience model’ from the social data of 4,000 fans and supporters to create a set of results that form the kind of key insights brand sponsors need to know.
The TSM fan data findings include:
> TSM mid-laner Bjergsen is 77% more influential than US President Donald Trump
> 53% of fans consume or create non-esports content on Twitch
> 30% of fans more likely to use Instagram vs. Facebook regularly
> 54% of fans are very likely to be influenced by brand name when making product purchases
> 46% of fans are traditional sports fans
> 77% of fans are unlikely to be influenced by online ads
> Non-endemic brands (eg GEICO, Gillette, HTC & TMobile) have 56% more influence among TSM fans (compared to general League esports fans.)
Links:
Gillette
http://www.facebook.com/gillette
http://www.twitter.com/gillette
Team SoloMid
https://www.facebook.com/TSMPRO/
https://www.instagram.com/TSMgram/
