????Relativity公司利用MLT.tv推廣了今年的兩部新片，一部是凱文?科斯特納主演的《三日刺殺》，別一部是保羅?沃克的遺作《暴力街區(qū)》。HBO也找到Riot Games公司，利用《英雄聯(lián)盟》這個(gè)平臺(tái)向游戲玩家們推廣第四季《權(quán)力的游戲》。

????今年年初，零度可口可樂（Coke Zero）與Riot Games公司合作發(fā)起了挑戰(zhàn)者系列賽，為業(yè)余《英雄聯(lián)盟》玩家進(jìn)軍職業(yè)聯(lián)賽提供了一次機(jī)會(huì)。它實(shí)際上是一個(gè)比較小的聯(lián)賽，讓業(yè)余玩家也有機(jī)會(huì)一展自己的身手。優(yōu)勝者有機(jī)會(huì)晉升到大聯(lián)盟，挑戰(zhàn)巨額獎(jiǎng)金、贊助合同，以及在全世界飛來飛去，參加職業(yè)比賽。

????可口可樂全球游戲總監(jiān)馬特?沃爾夫表示：“我們與Riot Games公司進(jìn)行了非常密切的合作，以建立一個(gè)能為粉絲和玩家?guī)碚嬲齼r(jià)值的聯(lián)賽。首先要做的是要為電競搭建一個(gè)類似傳統(tǒng)體育競技的基礎(chǔ)平臺(tái)。為了促進(jìn)兩家的合作，我們最近還在Twitter上建立了@cokeesports官方賬號(hào)，作為我們品牌與《英雄聯(lián)盟》愛好者交流的陣地。到今年年底之前，我們在韓國的比賽和十月的全球總決賽中都將占據(jù)一席之地。”

????《英雄聯(lián)盟》是當(dāng)下全球最火的電競游戲，玩家超過8500萬人。因此，《英雄聯(lián)盟》的專業(yè)玩家紛紛與各大品牌簽約。日產(chǎn)（Nissan）北美公司互動(dòng)與社交媒體營銷總監(jiān)埃里希?馬爾克斯就選擇與《英雄聯(lián)盟》的Curse戰(zhàn)隊(duì)合作，因?yàn)轳R爾克斯和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)里的許多成員都是電競玩家或愛好者，而且他們也非常看好電競的發(fā)展前景。

????馬爾克斯表示：“我們的工作就是找到那些傾向于和我們互動(dòng)并且欣賞我們的內(nèi)容、希望與朋友進(jìn)行分享的觀眾。電競是創(chuàng)新性很強(qiáng)的項(xiàng)目，因此它不僅非常適合日產(chǎn)的產(chǎn)品，也非常適合我們的營銷戰(zhàn)略。”目前日產(chǎn)就正在利用Curse戰(zhàn)隊(duì)知名玩家的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)影響來推廣它的一些在線廣告。

????紅牛（Red Bull）過去三年一直在積極擁抱電子競技，一開始它把重點(diǎn)放在暴雪公司（Blizzard Entertainment）的《星際爭霸2》上，后來又加入了《Dota 2》。該公司還自行舉辦了幾場電競比賽，邀請(qǐng)美國國內(nèi)的頂尖選手參加，并且邀請(qǐng)游戲愛好者觀看在線視頻直播。另外該公司贊助和獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)電競選手的方式也和他們對(duì)待其他體育項(xiàng)目的運(yùn)動(dòng)員別無二致，并且還向選手提供了保健和營養(yǎng)方案，以確保他們在訓(xùn)練和競技中能保持頂尖的表現(xiàn)。

????《Dota 2》戰(zhàn)隊(duì)的專業(yè)選手“惡魔”吉米?何表示：“像紅牛這樣的大企業(yè)參與電子競技，使得其他大企業(yè)也開始關(guān)注這個(gè)領(lǐng)域。比如麥當(dāng)勞（McDonald’s）最近也贊助了一場電競比賽。”

????除此之外，還有一個(gè)例子能夠說明傳統(tǒng)體育競技和電子競技的界限正在漸漸模糊。今年六月在X-Games極限運(yùn)動(dòng)的奧斯汀站上，舉辦了一場由八支電競隊(duì)伍參加的《使命的召喚：幽靈》邀請(qǐng)賽。電競選手們獲得的獎(jiǎng)牌，與紅牛的極限運(yùn)動(dòng)選手在本站爭奪的獎(jiǎng)牌是一模一樣的。

????羅技公司（Logitech）游戲業(yè)務(wù)總經(jīng)理艾蒂沙姆?拉巴妮指出：“這是電子競技走向成熟的另一個(gè)例子。我們相信電子競技有助于保持X-Games極限運(yùn)動(dòng)的關(guān)注度。當(dāng)前電子競技通過視頻直播，在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上已經(jīng)擁有了比許多體育項(xiàng)目更龐大的觀眾群，甚至超過了X-Games和不少NBA、NHL的比賽。電子競技成為全球最受歡迎的運(yùn)動(dòng)只是時(shí)間早晚的問題。”

????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.”