How To Secure An Esports Sponsorship | How 2

[00:00] hello everybody its Alex from organized

[00:02] gaming and today we are gonna be

[00:04] speaking with Evan Cubist's of Rumble

[00:06] gaming an esports talent agency he's

[00:09] gonna be walking us through how to

[00:10] secure an eSports sponsorship and build

[00:13] your brand let's get into it all right

[00:15] Chris you can joined here by Evan

[00:18] Cubist's you basically got the name

[00:20] right all right and today we will be

[00:23] talking about how to secure an eSports

[00:24] sponsorship all right Evan so let's

[00:27] start with could you tell me a little

[00:28] bit of background about yourself yeah so

[00:31] thanks so much for having me name's Evan

[00:34] cubits like you mentioned president of

[00:36] mkm group as well as Rumble gaming

[00:38] Canada's first law from an agency

[00:40] dedicated exclusively to eSports and

[00:41] content creators uh in one sentence

[00:44] quite simply putting two words Rumble

[00:46] game is a talent agency talent agency

[00:48] for eSports represent teams players

[00:51] creators influencers instagramers

[00:53] youtubers whole host of anyone really

[00:55] involved in the gaming space very cool

[00:57] okay so you're representing Rumble you

[01:00] guys are a talent agency why would I get

[01:02] a talent agency to represent me I could

[01:05] go out and sort of try to get these

[01:07] deals myself and you eat all of money

[01:09] well well there's a huge number of

[01:11] reasons why you would do it first and

[01:13] foremost is unlike a lot of people who

[01:15] are going to themselves do they actually

[01:16] know who the right person is to

[01:18] communicate with at the brand right we

[01:19] have a huge rolodex and we actually have

[01:21] the connections with all these brands so

[01:22] we've the ability to put you in front of

[01:24] them and that's a huge advantage that a

[01:25] lot of teams and individual players from

[01:28] content creators and influencers don't

[01:29] have number two is saving time right you

[01:32] want to be spending time on the phone

[01:34] all day every day cold calling emailing

[01:37] trying to get these things over the line

[01:39] dealing with brands and moving a

[01:40] sponsorship deal whether it's even just

[01:43] something very small to a six-figure

[01:45] deal could taking months and months and

[01:47] months this is this cost me money like

[01:49] do I have to pay you guys monthly or how

[01:51] does that work so first and foremost

[01:53] every agency is different and every

[01:55] single contract that we have with our

[01:57] clients is different so we work

[01:58] sometimes as consultants sometimes we'll

[02:00] work directly with a brand will in fact

[02:02] give us you know a monthly retainer to

[02:04] help formulate their eSports strategy

[02:06] but mostly I'm of the belief that we

[02:08] shouldn't be played paid unless we

[02:09] actually achieve results so to speak so

[02:12] in that sense we work almost exclusively

[02:14] on a commission basis okay you only get

[02:17] paid upon success in preparing a brand

[02:19] on your behalf how do I secure an

[02:21] eSports sponsorship oh wow super loaded

[02:23] question which I think every single

[02:25] brand in eSports Anthony is trying to

[02:27] figure out nowadays right you'll have a

[02:29] brand and are you what are you trying to

[02:30] be are you gritty are you a lifestyle

[02:33] brand are you trying to be health and

[02:34] wellness you really need to identify who

[02:36] you are first and once you do that and

[02:38] really kind of narrow down those aspects

[02:40] of it and build your brand you'll be

[02:42] able to build that kind of brand equity

[02:43] in the space and move forward from there

[02:45] because I wouldn't even approach a brand

[02:47] from knowing who you are because the

[02:48] message get lost in the shuffle for

[02:50] example okay sorry what could you

[02:53] elaborate on that message gets lost in

[02:54] the shuffle so what do I mean by that is

[02:56] for example let's say without naming

[02:58] names here alright let's make your

[03:00] lifestyle brand right you're focused on

[03:02] things like partying right going out

[03:04] there have a good time it doesn't make

[03:06] sense for you to go after a brand like

[03:07] Lululemon who's focused on a health and

[03:09] wellness or Booster Juice right because

[03:11] your brand's don't match up so how are

[03:13] you really going to want the authentic

[03:15] which we'll get into later and also

[03:16] offer a really good ROI for those brands

[03:19] networking yeah you mentioned being

[03:20] authentic so that that ties in could you

[03:23] tell us a little bit about that don't

[03:24] really touch on what it actually means

[03:26] to be authentic right and to me being

[03:27] authentic it's knowing who your

[03:29] audiences and know who your fans are

[03:31] okay so what does that mean it means

[03:33] who's the demographic is watching your

[03:35] team who are those fans are they male

[03:38] are they female what's that big

[03:39] breakdown young or the old what's their

[03:41] age demographic what are their spending

[03:43] habits where they even located a lot of

[03:45] the times you know it's great to say you

[03:47] know I'm a Vista tier 1 Oregon I have 60

[03:49] million followers but who are those

[03:51] followers right where are they located

[03:53] because I'm in the US does that mean

[03:55] they're all in the u.s. probably not you

[03:57] can find the vast majority once you

[03:59] actually use the analytical tools to

[04:01] actually find out the audience

[04:02] demographics they could all be in

[04:03] Southeast Asia all right so what it

[04:05] actually comes to selling smart to a

[04:06] brand and they ask you that question you

[04:08] don't want to get caught up

[04:10] I see yes and once you're authentic the

[04:13] next is really you got to be creative

[04:15] right and what does that really mean

[04:17] being creative right so nowadays

[04:18] everyone wants to go into eSports but

[04:20] they want to do something different

[04:20] right they want to make a splash this is

[04:22] something you often hear from brands

[04:24] across the board whether you're in the

[04:25] automotive industry or food industry you

[04:28] know they don't want to just come in and

[04:29] put a logo on a Jersey

[04:30] that's all news right that's traditional

[04:32] sports up no one wants these Sports is

[04:34] on the cutting edge exactly so it's

[04:36] really important that you surround

[04:37] yourself with a good marketing team or

[04:38] an agency like ours that can really help

[04:41] activate in the space properly that

[04:43] really reflects that brand identity that

[04:45] you're working with but also complements

[04:47] your own brand right right so you

[04:49] mentioned some great points about ROI

[04:51] but how can you really even know how

[04:54] much ROI you're giving you're giving

[04:56] your sponsors back well absolutely

[04:58] there's lots of ways to track that right

[04:59] that might mean for some brands

[05:01] something important be impressions right

[05:03] which knees a little bit antiquated

[05:04] while another brand might just want to

[05:06] know how much product I'm actually

[05:07] selling so how do you measure that with

[05:09] discount codes that they're that are

[05:11] being used or such things like that how

[05:13] many likes are being given on a certain

[05:15] post what's the engagement level are

[05:17] they actually hitting the target

[05:18] audience that they said they were doing

[05:19] and of course this varies by brand

[05:21] because if you're taking a luxury car

[05:23] for example and coming into the space

[05:24] odds are that the eSports demographic

[05:26] which is between 18 to 35 years old

[05:28] aren't necessarily in the market for a

[05:31] Mercedes Benz right but maybe the whole

[05:33] point is they want to build a brand

[05:34] equity implant the seats now so that

[05:36] when they are in the market that's the

[05:38] brand that they resonate with whereas if

[05:39] you're more of an endemic brand let's

[05:41] take a beverage like Coca Cola

[05:43] maybe all you want to see cans in hand

[05:45] right and you want to see these people

[05:47] actually purchasing their product and

[05:48] drinking it and celebrating it across

[05:50] the board right so it really depends the

[05:53] ROI depends on what the company deems

[05:55] you know a return on their investment it

[05:56] could be money or it's different for

[05:58] every Ranger you're dealing with the

[06:00] whole point is it's very important that

[06:02] when you're speaking to them that you

[06:03] prioritize that and really identify what

[06:05] their goal is all right now the last

[06:07] thing I have for you is a sponsorship

[06:09] deck that I'd like you to take a look at

[06:11] yeah if you could just give us your

[06:13] thoughts on what you think of the deck

[06:15] this is great right this is exactly yeah

[06:18] who are the Knights waters our brand so

[06:20] it's very important here like as you can

[06:21] see they're doing this

[06:22] what the first promise thing we discuss

[06:24] is identifying what your brand is who

[06:26] you are what you're trying to be where

[06:28] are you going so this is something that

[06:31] we didn't talk about earlier which I

[06:32] find very important and I'm glad that we

[06:34] have to review this deck because it

[06:36] really shows a clear example of it is

[06:38] your vision right because where your

[06:40] brand is today isn't there so you where

[06:42] your brand is going to be when one

[06:43] sponsorship is activated or where you

[06:45] might be one to two years from now right

[06:48] so it's a very important you're showing

[06:49] a clear path of where you're going and

[06:51] where you want to be in the future

[06:52] there's no matter how big you are you

[06:54] can always get bigger and get more

[06:56] popular so it's important to show the

[06:57] brand that you want to scale alongside

[06:59] them and then you share a common vision

[07:01] in that approach that makes a lot of

[07:03] sense okay

[07:03] one thing to note of this this is a very

[07:06] long deck and I'll tell you now most

[07:07] brands they don't have time to look

[07:09] through a 50 pages so try and really

[07:11] condense that into the key slides

[07:12] something I always like to do the

[07:14] education slides are very important keep

[07:16] it as an appendix in the back especially

[07:17] now you know the ins and outs the base

[07:20] of these sports I think most brands they

[07:22] are very familiar with many of these

[07:24] especially as every single brand has

[07:26] been pitched by virtually every single

[07:27] eSports entity on the planet right now

[07:29] so I think every deck is pretty much

[07:31] just a reiteration of the last deck but

[07:35] still very important to have that great

[07:37] slide here revenue streams how are you

[07:39] making money right the reason why this

[07:41] is important because it shows the brand

[07:43] avenues that they can connect at our own

[07:45] brand to to further amplify their own

[07:48] vision and their own ROI right right so

[07:51] you have a revenue stream here this is

[07:52] where we can tie in and make some money

[07:54] as well look we don't want to put a logo

[07:56] on a jersey but I know you guys have a

[07:57] lot of merchandise

[07:58] what activation that we can we do

[08:00] together that can help promote our own

[08:02] brand can we do a collab you often see

[08:04] that between champion for example they

[08:06] do that with a ton of brands and are

[08:08] super super successful limited drops

[08:10] yeah so this is one great example of

[08:12] that but this is actually so what

[08:14] they're getting into here which actually

[08:15] don't see in a lot of decks which

[08:17] actually is quite important they're

[08:18] actually showing tangible specific

[08:21] examples of how you can activate

[08:22] obviously when you deal with a brand

[08:24] everything is going to be

[08:27] customized right how you do what we're

[08:29] gonna do is going to be completely

[08:30] unique and different but what they're

[08:31] showing here is we've already thought

[08:33] through some ideas right we've already

[08:35] thought some ideas of how if you just

[08:36] want a turnkey solution we have a the

[08:38] accessibility and the assets under a

[08:41] brand that we can achieve that and

[08:42] pursue it in the eSports teams in

[08:45] particular this is a very good deck

[08:46] because what is noting to not only you

[08:49] know we're noting our eSports teams are

[08:51] influencers are capabilities of events

[08:54] so when you look at an eSports team from

[08:56] the top down a brand views that as

[08:58] different media assets that they can

[09:00] activate on right so you're showing

[09:02] every single aspect of it so I really

[09:04] like how they're including all of those

[09:06] assets within this deck look I'd be

[09:08] lying if I told you know there's an easy

[09:10] way to go about this right everyone is

[09:12] still even on citizen agency everyone

[09:14] still trying to figure out how do you

[09:15] actually sell sponsorship right how do

[09:17] you actually achieve these brand

[09:18] activations and work with them so

[09:20] everything has to tie back to again kind

[09:22] of four points that we discussed know

[09:24] your brand know your audience know what

[09:27] your ROI is and be creative as long as

[09:29] you focus on those four things you'll

[09:31] get on a lot of calls and you'll move

[09:33] those conversations along very well okay

[09:35] so if I want to if I want to prep for

[09:40] prep for receiving that prep for a call

[09:43] or say a meeting or something like that

[09:45] obviously demo reel or some sort of a

[09:47] sponsorship deck those are very

[09:48] important absolutely

[09:49] absolutely especially particularly the

[09:51] demo reel the sizzle reel if you have

[09:53] the capabilities to do that most brands

[09:56] are visual right they want to see it

[09:57] it's one thing to put everything you

[09:59] know on a deck but one actually having

[10:02] the sizzle I'll show some of your more

[10:03] capabilities about you're creating

[10:05] high-end productions right so that adds

[10:07] a lot of value when a brand is comparing

[10:09] you to the 50 other eSports options that

[10:13] they have right now okay so keep it

[10:14] visual keep it visual these guys are on

[10:17] a lot of calls they're busy they don't

[10:19] have time make it short make it sweet

[10:21] catch their attention very cool so that

[10:25] was how to secure sponsorship with an

[10:27] Cuba's thanks so much for coming thanks

[10:29] so much this video was shot before

[10:30] recommendations for social distancing do

[10:32] not shake hands during this time thank

[10:34] you for having me Alex was great to be

[10:35] here had a great time with you we'll see

[10:37] you again no

[10:38] absolutely