可口可乐、英特尔和日产等大品牌扎堆涌向电子竞技

    Relativity公司利用MLT.tv推广了今年的两部新片，一部是凯文•科斯特纳主演的《三日刺杀》，别一部是保罗•沃克的遗作《暴力街区》。HBO也找到Riot Games公司，利用《英雄联盟》这个平台向游戏玩家们推广第四季《权力的游戏》。

    今年年初，零度可口可乐（Coke Zero）与Riot Games公司合作发起了挑战者系列赛，为业余《英雄联盟》玩家进军职业联赛提供了一次机会。它实际上是一个比较小的联赛，让业余玩家也有机会一展自己的身手。优胜者有机会晋升到大联盟，挑战巨额奖金、赞助合同，以及在全世界飞来飞去，参加职业比赛。

    可口可乐全球游戏总监马特•沃尔夫表示：“我们与Riot Games公司进行了非常密切的合作，以建立一个能为粉丝和玩家带来真正价值的联赛。首先要做的是要为电竞搭建一个类似传统体育竞技的基础平台。为了促进两家的合作，我们最近还在Twitter上建立了@cokeesports官方账号，作为我们品牌与《英雄联盟》爱好者交流的阵地。到今年年底之前，我们在韩国的比赛和十月的全球总决赛中都将占据一席之地。”

    《英雄联盟》是当下全球最火的电竞游戏，玩家超过8500万人。因此，《英雄联盟》的专业玩家纷纷与各大品牌签约。日产（Nissan）北美公司互动与社交媒体营销总监埃里希•马尔克斯就选择与《英雄联盟》的Curse战队合作，因为马尔克斯和他的团队里的许多成员都是电竞玩家或爱好者，而且他们也非常看好电竞的发展前景。

    马尔克斯表示：“我们的工作就是找到那些倾向于和我们互动并且欣赏我们的内容、希望与朋友进行分享的观众。电竞是创新性很强的项目，因此它不仅非常适合日产的产品，也非常适合我们的营销战略。”目前日产就正在利用Curse战队知名玩家的社交网络影响来推广它的一些在线广告。

    红牛（Red Bull）过去三年一直在积极拥抱电子竞技，一开始它把重点放在暴雪公司（Blizzard Entertainment）的《星际争霸2》上，后来又加入了《Dota 2》。该公司还自行举办了几场电竞比赛，邀请美国国内的顶尖选手参加，并且邀请游戏爱好者观看在线视频直播。另外该公司赞助和奖励电竞选手的方式也和他们对待其他体育项目的运动员别无二致，并且还向选手提供了保健和营养方案，以确保他们在训练和竞技中能保持顶尖的表现。

    《Dota 2》战队的专业选手“恶魔”吉米•何表示：“像红牛这样的大企业参与电子竞技，使得其他大企业也开始关注这个领域。比如麦当劳（McDonald’s）最近也赞助了一场电竞比赛。”

    除此之外，还有一个例子能够说明传统体育竞技和电子竞技的界限正在渐渐模糊。今年六月在X-Games极限运动的奥斯汀站上，举办了一场由八支电竞队伍参加的《使命的召唤：幽灵》邀请赛。电竞选手们获得的奖牌，与红牛的极限运动选手在本站争夺的奖牌是一模一样的。

    罗技公司（Logitech）游戏业务总经理艾蒂沙姆•拉巴妮指出：“这是电子竞技走向成熟的另一个例子。我们相信电子竞技有助于保持X-Games极限运动的关注度。当前电子竞技通过视频直播，在网络上已经拥有了比许多体育项目更庞大的观众群，甚至超过了X-Games和不少NBA、NHL的比赛。电子竞技成为全球最受欢迎的运动只是时间早晚的问题。”

    Relativity used MLG.tv to promote this year’s theatrical releases of Kevin Costner’s 3 Days to Kill and Paul Walker’s Brick Mansions. HBO reached out to Riot Games and used the League of Legends online audience to promote the launch of the fourth season of Game of Thrones.

    Earlier this year, Coke Zero kicked off its partnership with Riot Games with the development of the Challenger Series, a series for amateur League of Legend gamers to compete for a spot in the professional league. In essence, it’s a minor league system for players to show their eSports prowess and potentially graduate to the Big Leagues and compete for big money, sponsorship deals and free travel around the globe to compete in tournaments.

    “We have worked very closely and collaboratively with Riot Games to create a league that delivers true value to the fans and players of the sport, and that begins to build an infrastructure for eSports that mirrors that of the more traditional sports,” said Matt Wolf, Coca-Cola’s global head of gaming. “To help promote the partnership, we recently launched @cokeesports on Twitter as a place for the brand to engage with fans through our activation with League of Legends. Moving through the end of the year, we will have a presence in South Korea for the World Finals in October.”

    League of Legends is currently the most popular eSports game in the world with over 85 million players across the globe. As a result, those playing the game professionally are working with some big brands. Erich Marx, director of Interactive & Social Media Marketing at Nissan North America, partnered with League of Legends Team Curse because he and many people on his team are gamers, technologists and fans of eSports and they believe in its potential.

    “Our job is to find audiences that are apt to engage with us and who will appreciate our content and hopefully share it with friends and beyond,” said Marx. “ESports are very innovative, and that fits perfectly not only with Nissan products, but our marketing strategy.” Nissan is using the huge social networking reach of Team Curse pro gamers to raise awareness of some of its online campaigns.

    Red Bull has embraced eSports over the past three years, focusing first on Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft 2 and adding Dota 2 to the mix. The energy drink hosts its own eSports events around the country with top players and invites fans to watch live and online. The company also sponsors pro gamers and treats them the same way they treat real athletes, complete with health and nutrition tips to enable peak performance when training and playing in virtual competitions.

    “A huge organization like Red Bull getting involved in eSports makes other big organizations pay attention and attract other big organizations,” said Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho, a Dota 2 pro gamer on Team Liquid. “McDonald’s recently sponsored an event.”

    Also blurring the line between sports and eSports is the fact that traditional Red Bull extreme athletes were competing at X-Games Austin in June for the exact same medals that Call of Duty Ghosts teams were playing for. ESPN covered the first-ever video game competition, which was hosted through MLG, along with the skateboarding and other extreme sports.

    “This is another example of the maturity of eSports,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, general manager of Logitech’s gaming business. “We believe that eSports helps keep the X-Games relevant. ESports already has greater viewership online via streaming than many sports today, including the X-Games and many NBA and NHL games. It is not if, but when will eSports become the most popular sport in the world.”