There is no doubt that eSports is all the buzz today. From broadcasters to traditional marketers to brands, all are trying to figure out what, if any, their play is, where do they spend, and more importantly, how to they track ROI.
While some traditional brands have found initial success, it remains the challenger brands that are taking the time to find the right engagement points and grow authentically. One of those brands is Quest Nutrition. Only five years old, the brand has found some of the right ways to engage both fan and gamers with healthy programs and product seeding, and as a result they are quickly becoming a brand not just doing the seeking, but being sought after for their best practices.
We caught up with Yoni Ginsberg, Marketing Coordinator at Quest, to find out how they are engaging and thriving in the wild west of eSports marketing and activation.
Quest could have picked any entry point into sports. Why eSports?
There are a few reasons why Quest decided to enter eSports. Whenever we asses a new online community, we ask ourselves one question: Can we add value here? And with eSports — through our mission of “Gamers Are Athletes, Gamers Should Eat Like Athletes” — the answer was overwhelmingly yes. We also saw an opportunity to fill a content void by creating high quality lifestyle video pieces that portray the human element of pro gamers and integrate our products in an organic way.
The style around your sponsorship is tied to health and nutrition. How has that platform been accepted by those in the space?
We’ve seen a large group of gamers emerge who are very conscious of how they eat and how often they exercise. The stereotype of the kid sitting in his moms basement eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew just isn’t true anymore and we’re doing what we can to help break that. Our activations have been focused on showcasing the stories of the gamers that have decided that health and nutrition are an integral part of their life.
What kind of ROI have you already seen?
We’ve been able to build gaming specific social media profiles that exceed 50,000 total followers and have earned millions of online impressions. It’s difficult for us to attribute ROI directly to a specific marketing initiative — as the majority of our sales are through our retail partners — but as a brand building initiative, Quest Gaming has been very successful.
What does a partnership in eSports entail?
We work with different partners across different platforms. For example, our Team Liquid sponsorship includes everything from social media campaign support, to our logo on their jerseys, to in person meetups, to monthly streaming events dedicated to our brand and products. We also work with a few streamers who have our branding on their channel and even stream on the Quest Nutrition Twitch channel.
What are the challenges and barriers you have seen that the brand has had to overcome?
Awareness is a big one — we’re only a five year old company and to enter into a brand new segment, there’s a lot of brand education that has to happen: what are the products we sell, what is our mission, why should a consumer care etc.
Another challenge is working within a nascent industry that is still building its infrastructure. Our partners are great and offer incredible value but they are still building their own operations and so we need to maintain incredibly open and clear lines of communication to make sure activations go over smoothly.
Which still exist?
Both.
Brand awareness is always a process and I won’t be satisfied until every single Twitch broadcaster AND viewer is aware of our brand and has tried a Quest Bar. So….ways to go there.
The operational challenge is improving — and has markedly improved since we started in the space in late 2014. Teams are beginning to make sponsors activations a priority, and are hiring professionals to run accounts which makes things much better from the sponsor’s perspective.
Has the sponsorship translated well to the fan base?
I think it has. We’ve seen incredible growth on our owned and operated social media profiles and have been able to create a few content pieces that went viral within the community. The feedback we receive from the community is overwhelmingly positive and our goal is to continue adding value by telling stories about players and teams that otherwise wouldn’t be told.
How do you identify which games or gamers fit the Quest sponsor profile?
Often times they identify themselves. We don’t have an “ideal profile” of a sponsored gamer, but certain attributes certainly help: an active & engaged online community, a passion for our products & brand, and an active lifestyle are good places to start.
Have you thought about adapting your eSports success more to traditional sport at all?
Yes. The barriers to entry with traditional sports tend to be higher, and with so much content being produced for TV, film, and digital, we’re more concerned with finding the right story to tell. It’s just a matter of time.
How do partnerships like your Paralympian deals tie to eSports, or are they siloed?
That particular partnership — with Blake Leeper — came through our marquee weekly show Inside Quest. If Quest Bars are the fuel with which to maintain a healthy body, Inside Quest is the fuel to keep a healthy mindset. It’s hosted by our President Tom Bilyeu and we’ve brought on incredible guests from Tony Robbins, to Tim Ferriss, to the incredibly inspiring Blake. While that show is fairly siloed in terms of how it operates, there’s more cool things to come between Quest & Blake Leeper – stay tuned!
Where do you see these partnerships going in a tear or five years, especially with competition looking at the space more closely now?
They’re going to be incredibly important for us moving forward — it’s through partnerships that we’ve been able to build out our Quest Gaming vertical.
We’re beginning to see a trend of teams taking on fewer sponsors in order to focus their efforts and time on creating really powerful, compelling stories and activations. And this means that our value add — both to the community and to our partners — is going to need to level up. And we’re braced for that.