Endemic and non-endemic sponsors in Swiss esports : a comparison of sponsorship preferences
Creators: name: Goos, Lennart
Publisher: name: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Year: 2023
Subjects: 659: Werbung und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit

description: The global success of esports, or competitive gaming, has made sponsorships a viable choice to effectively target a hard-to-reach audience in their interest-related area. Historically endemic companies, namely companies from within the gaming industry, such as HP, Intel, or Logitech, were the first to sponsor esports. Nowadays, increasingly more non-endemic companies, such as Mercedes Benz, Louis Vuitton, or Just Eat have entered the scene. Despite the global phenomenon of esports amassing investments in the billions, sponsors are perceived as relatively restrictive on a local level in Switzerland. 
The aim of this thesis is to explore the sponsorship preferences of active endemic and non-endemic sponsors in Swiss esports. By uncovering achievable sponsoring goals and the reasons behind sponsorship choices, an improved understanding is fostered, potentially reducing entry barriers for companies that have been hesitant to engage in sponsorship thus far. 
In order to obtain answers relevant to the explorative research design, this thesis takes on a qualitative approach, contrasting the perspectives of endemic and non-endemic sponsors on their unique sponsorship activities. A series of semi-structured expert interviews were carried out, involving four non-endemic companies, three endemics, and one esports agency. Results are obtained over inductively identifying overarching themes and contrasting them to existing literature. 
The findings show that image and awareness goals are most achievable in Swiss esports sponsoring, with economic goals taking on a subordinate role, which particularly pertains to non-endemics. This is due to the proximity of endemic sponsors to the industry, allowing them to establish stronger links with their products that non-endemics lack. Consequently non-endemics have a narrow pool for selection of sponsorships that allow for viable integration of brand or products, and thus efforts are put into creating ‘fit’ with the industry. The selection for non-endemics is guided by affiliating with either esports consumer choices, object of sponsorship, esports genre, or esports game title, which may translate into more sophisticated sponsorship activations. Internal restrictions that guide the selection are budgetary and capacity constraints, with managerial constraints and knowledge gaps more found with non-endemics. External limitations include reach, publisher constraints, demand for agility and scattering awareness.
Considering the study's scope and limitations, the findings primarily apply to the Swiss esports environment and do not specifically address the level of affiliation of non-endemic sponsors with the industry. Future research may take on a quantitative approach to confirm the findings deriving from this thesis from an audience’s perspective. 
To maximize the impact of esports sponsorship, companies should identify goals, select a suitable sponsorship object that resonates with brand or product, and align activations accordingly. Depending on the goals, quantitative or qualitative awareness may be preferred, and measures creating ‘fit’ should be implemented.