What a brand actually buys in an esports partnership

When a brand signs a partnership with an esports team, it is easy to say it is buying “exposure”. That word hides almost everything that matters. A useful partnership is a list of specific things: what gets made, where it appears, who does the work and what the brand is allowed to do with it.

The brands that are happiest a year later are usually the ones that could describe their deal in a few plain sentences on day one. The ones that are disappointed usually bought a feeling, and found out later that nobody had agreed what the feeling was made of.

Start with the deliverable, not the audience

Audience size is the first number everyone asks for and the least useful one on its own. It tells you who might see something, not what you will receive. Begin instead with the work: a video, a series, a placement during a broadcast, an appearance at an event. Each of those can be described, scheduled and checked.