Insomnia is the UK’s largest gaming festival and biggest annual event at the NEC. Despite this, the event struggled to attract brand sponsors. A new commercial strategy was required to deliver brand partnerships that delivered revenue and amplified the Insomnia brand, taking it to new audiences. They engaged Strive, a gaming agency, to help them build a strategy to attract sponsorship investment.
Gaming agency / Strive’s scope of work
- Define what commercial success looked like and the measurable objectives needed to achieve it
- Establish/refine the brand architecture to make it true to the business, meaningful to the audience, and attractive to sponsors
- Build audience insights to better understand how to grow and engage audiences, demonstrate the opportunity to brands, and deliver value to partner activations
- Develop a clear and investable commercial sponsorship proposition that brands could understand and would want to be part of
- Build a coherent sales narrative that explained the relevant opportunities the festival could offer brands in meeting their objectives
- Develop commercial sponsorship rights and engagement programmes that maximised the value existing partners could enjoy and that could be sold to a potential new partner
- Define the go-to-market strategy to target mutually beneficial partnerships
- Train the partnership management team on how to establish a return on investment (ROI) model for sponsors that both helped maximise and report value
Results
The project was suspended after early success due to a sale to Frasers Group.
Client comment
Strive is the first agency we have seen that has a unique blend of truly understanding both the gaming and esports scene, whilst having a legacy of proven success in the commercialisation of entertainment.
Need help from a gaming agency?
If you’re looking for advice from an esports or gaming agency, Strive Sponsorship can help. Contact us for sponsorship, marketing, commercial, content, media, investment, and communications consultancy services.
Frequently asked questions
What does a gaming agency do?
A gaming agency can provide an array of different services. In way of example, Strive Sponsorship advises on games marketing and sponsorship strategy (what and who to sponsor), helps negotiate sponsorship deals, and helps brands leverage sponsorships to maximise return on investment (this may involve PR, events, social media content and activations etc).
What is the top UK gaming agency?
Whilst there are various awards for work in the esports and gaming industries, there is no single definitive ranking of agencies. Strive Sponsorship had a 100% client retention rate and grew revenue by over 65% in 2022.
Is gaming growing in the UK?
About a third of the global population (31%) engages in playing video games on a weekly basis, according to YouGov. There are 39.1m gamers in the UK (source: Newzoo). Gaming boomed during the pandemic giving people a way to be both entertained and connected.
