GameNation – Sponsorship Proposal

GameNation 1

GameNation

http://gamenationpro.com

Sponsorship Proposal for

ifrogz

http://www.ifrogz.com

GameNation – Sponsorship Proposal

GameNation 2

Contents

Overview……………………3

Demographics…………….4

GN Player’s Lifestyles…..5

Website……………………...6

GameNation Events…….7

GameNation Coverage…7

Event Participation……..8

Player Achievements.….9

Sponsorship Benefits…..11

Sponsorship Options…..11

More Information...……..12

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Overview & History

GameNation is a gaming news organization based in North America that at it’s roots was founded back in June of 2008. What began as a small community project under a different name, soon blossomed into an amazing journey to become one of the main places for gaming news in the United States. We strive for professionalism around every bend, and we think that the staff that represent us are beyond professional in every aspect of their lives.

We currently have members on our site from the USA, Canada, England, and more. We believe that a strong global reach is key to making a successful organization. We also believe that with the ever changing video game market, that integrating console and PC gamers alike is the wave of the future, and no longer is the only attraction in competitive gaming major PC games.

GameNation has a competitive base of players as well in addition to our staff of talented writers, videographers, and web designers. Although we began as just a small blog a couple of years ago, we have grown into well more than that sporting a major news site, forums, and more. With this, we have gathered a group of players that compete around the world with support from GameNation. These players compete at the highest level possible and we as an organization look to help grow them as players and teach them to become more professional in their journey to the top.

We have participated in and covered every league imaginable. We have also had people work in every league imaginable. We have members from previous gaming organizations that come to GameNation to put their talents to use as they have learned them. We have had staff work for most of the top gaming leagues in America. We know what it takes to work on the highest level of gaming, and now we are taking that knowledge and applying it to an organization of our own.

We regularly compete in and cover Major League Gaming (MLG) events, World Cyber Games (WCG) events, and other online events such as GameBattles, the Electronic Sports League (ESL), the Global Gaming League (GGL), and more.

Some of our staff members and players at the WCG Grand Finals in 2008 and 2009

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Demographics

The typical core gaming audience is males between the ages of 18-34. Casual gamers tend to be both women and men between the ages of 35-65, with a slight demographic shift towards women. The major demographic of professional gaming events is males age 18-34. Our site and forum’s content receives approximately 12,000 unique visitors every month. This includes our site, forum, live streams, and more. GameNation attends all major gaming tournaments in one way or another. In 2010-2011 these events would expose the “ifrogz” brand to over 100,000 professional and devoted gamers through multiple leagues and events, who are mostly males, aged 18-34 years.

Growing Industry

• In 2006, the entertainment software industry's value added to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $3.8 billion. The industry also makes a disproportionate contribution to the real growth of the nation as whole. For example, in 2005-06 the industry's contribution to real growth exceeded its share of GDP by more than four to one.

• California, Washington, Texas, New York and Massachusetts currently have the highest concentration of video game jobs. Collectively, these areas directly employ 16,604 workers and post 70 percent of the industry's total indirect employment. Over half of competitive gaming events we cover in the country take place in these states.

• 190 million households will use a next-generation video game console in 2012. 80% of that expected 190 million households, 148 million households, with next generation video game consoles will have this console connected to the Internet.

• Thirty-six (36) percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002. Leagues such as the World Cyber Games hold yearly championships for mobile games. The boom for mobile games is here and ifrogz products help players play in style and comfort.

• The entertainment software industry stimulates complementary product purchases of roughly $6.1 billion a year. A major part of this number includes accessories for mobile gaming devices (such as an iPod/iPhone) and headphones.

Data compiled via the Entertainment Software Association (http://www.theesa.com) and

links/studies from the ESA’s site.

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GN Member’s Lifestyles Our staff and members are very active people, even outside of gaming. We believe that a balance between a good social life, a good academic life (for those in school), and a healthy/active life is key for gamers to make the most out of their skills. We have regular members who play sports such as soccer, football, and baseball in high school, members who have played club sports such as hockey, team handball, and rugby, as well as members who have even played college football. Many members receive major injuries from their sports and are unable to compete anymore. That’s when they turn to gaming. It’s an excellent way to continue that competitive spirit. We believe GameNation can help nurture the athletes of the new world, a world with all kinds of new social mediums, including gaming. One of our staff members in college: Members of GameNation and

participants from WCG’s Ultimate Gamer Reality show enjoying the Chinese nightlife at an event:

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Website http://gamenationpro.com Our website is very active, providing the latest news about what is happening in eSports, special events that are going on, and even special events that we run and live stream over the internet. We provide event details quicker than almost anyone thanks to our insider knowledge and connection with all of the leagues and teams.

Our forums allow a great place for community interaction, and became a huge success when launched. They have become the main portal of communication for the members of our community.

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GameNation Events

GameNation has also begun to run its own events. So far we have run events such as an “Ironman of gaming” in the form of our GameNation Showdown series where players compete in multiple games across multiple genres to prove they are the best. We also have run community events where our members can get on, game with us, and have fun to break away from the competitive streak in our gaming lives. So far we have done these events on games like Halo: Reach (in the beta, and future plans for more when the game releases), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2, World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike: Source, Quake Live, and more. We are looking to up the ante now with a potential partnership where we can run events and promote them as sponsored by ifrogz with your products as prizes or bigger monetary prizes. We have developed some different systems to mimic the top professional leagues to run these events smoothly and efficiently. We also have the capabilities to live stream the events with your logo on the stream for people to come and watch on the internet.

GameNation Coverage

GameNation spends most of its efforts on covering events around the country. In the coming months, GameNation and it’s staff will head to Los Angeles, California for the 2010 World Cyber Games National Finals, and the Grand Finals in two different events. Our dedication to these events is second to none. While we will have players there competing on the biggest stage, we will also have staff members there working as well. GameNation does a ton of coverage of these events, whether it’s through articles, recaps, live blogs, videos, photos, or anything else – we do it all. However, this also means we need to be able to have an easy time doing it all or we will start lagging behind. We feel that ifrogz can help us in this regard. One of the biggest things we do is updating on the fly. We try to be the #1 site when it comes to getting the news to you as it happens live, and the best way to do that is via our iPhones. Our entire staff has dedicated themselves to using the iPhone as the best means of communicating with our site day to day when we are not at our computers. With the quality cases that ifrogz makes, we can use our phones with ease and not have to worry about breaking anything, while also staying stylish and true to our high standards of quality. We also do a ton of multimedia as well. Not only do we need headphones for gaming, but we need them to check audio in our camera feeds, as well as record interviews for future podcasts and articles. We need something that will get the job done, and get it done with precision, accuracy, and in style. Ifrogz provides us with all of the above. And when the day is done, and we’ve used our ifrogz headphones to game for gold and recap the day, then what better way to finish things off than to put those headphones in our protected iPhones and relax to some crisp, clear music.

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Event Participation Major League Gaming (MLG, http://www.mlgpro.com) is nation’s biggest gaming league that strictly operates in the USA. MLG tours to different cities each season and hosts tournaments for different games spanning from PC to console, awarding prize money to those who place highly. GameNation members travel to these cities and cover or compete in nearly every one of these events.

Ted Leonsis (majority owner of the NHL's Washington Capitals, the WNBA's Washington Mystics and minority owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards) calls the MLG the “fastest growing sports league in the universe.” –July 27, 2007

MLG’s pro gaming league runs on "seasons" just like any pro sport, with each lasting roughly a year. This past March, MLG began their 2010 season in Nashville, TN with their first “combine” event which featured amateur only players. Then they began their “Pro Circuit” event with the best of the best playing in Orlando, FL a month later. These events can be thought of as a proving ground, where the best players will earn invitations to play in the MLG Playoffs and Championship series, where the biggest prize money is paid out and players earn the right to be counted among the best of the best. Throughout 2010, MLG will be taking its tournaments on the road across the United States. These events draw thousands of players and spectators and receive expansive media coverage. --- The World Cyber Games is the Olympics of Gaming, and has shown steady growth since its humble beginnings in 2000. The WCG use a host city concept similar to the Olympics, which has brought finals to Asia, North America and Europe. WCG also hosts a reality show on the SyFy network known as WCG Ultimate Gamer in which some of our staff has interacted with and works behind the scenes with. Exposure: At the 2007 Grand Finals 400 members of the press representing 250 media outlets from 43 countries attended the event 2007 World Cyber Games. Mainstream media including Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS, and The New York Times all covered the Seattle hosted WCG event. More than 30 Million viewers watched the live satellite and video broadcast being televised all over the world. WCG 2007 was also captured by SpikeTV and televised in 11 separate episodes including an hour long special. The shows received very high ratings as 12 million viewers across the US were introduced to the WCG. At the 2009 Grand Finals, in which GameNation covered and participated in for the second year in a row, over 80,000 people went through the doors of the Chengdu Convention Center, and GameNation even had some members receive a bronze medal on stage and on a stream that hosted over 1.5 million viewers. This is the kind of viewership that we look for and that we look to expose you to.

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Player Achievements This is the heart and soul of what makes the players at GameNation so amazing. These are just a few of our achievements from our organization below to show the broad scope of skill and achievement, as well as the broad market we have traveled to and competed in. These accomplishments span a multitude of different games and genres from popular titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, to Gears of War, and all types of games. 2006 WCG US National Finals (Las Vegas, NV)

- 4th place 2007 WCG US National Finals (Orlando, Florida)

- 4th place 2008 WCG US Invitational (New York, NY)

- 2nd place 2008 WCG US Southern Regionals (Dallas, TX)

- Champion 2008 WCG US National Finals (Los Angeles, CA)

- 2 Championships - One 4th place

2008 WCG World Finals (Cologne, Germany) - 4th place

2009 WCG National Championships (New York, NY) - 2 Championships - One 5th place

2009 WCG World Finals (Chengdu, China) - One 3rd place - One 5th place

2009 WCG Holiday Heroes (New York, NY) - 7th place

2010 WCG National Finals (Los Angeles, CA) - Upcoming September 10-12

2009 MLG Pro Circuit - 4th place finish at MLG Meadowlands (Secaucus, NJ) - 2nd place finish at MLG Anaheim (Anaheim, CA)

2008 ESWC USA Championships (San Jose, California) - 7th place

Online events

- 2006 MLG Online Tournament A Division 1 – Top 16 - 2006 MLG Online Tournament A Division 2 – 2nd place - 2008 WCG Online Qualifiers – 2 Championships - 2009 WCG Online Qualifiers – 2 Championships - 2009 ESL 1v1 Winter Cup – 4th place - 2010 WCG Online Qualifiers – 2 Championships

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In short, GameNation has accomplished so much, and we are just now beginning to scratch the surface. As new games roll out, and as leagues continue having competitions, we are always there. GN is a news site that covers these leagues to the fullest, but we also love to compete and we all have that amazing competitive spirit that will never die. We want to help you be at the forefront of all of that, not only helping us to succeed by using your products, but to also by letting us be a great partner with you to help you out in any way possible.

President/CEO Phoenix cR receives his medal on stream in Chengdu, China at the WCG 2009 Grand Finals

The guys hanging out backstage in China before receiving their medals.

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Sponsor Benefits Competitive gaming is when traditional sport meets video gaming. The GN brand has to be ready to offer both sport and gaming related companies a way to promote brand awareness, through sporting and gaming excellence. GameNation Website • Banner ads on GameNation’s website: http://gamenationpro.com • A page about your company on our “Sponsors” page

• Side window box ads on forums (300x250) Apparel/Equipment

• Company logos on t-shirts • Using your products on stage including on our phones and headphones. • Exposure to literally hundreds of thousands over the course of a season’s events.

Sponsorship Options

Based on what will benefit our organizations the most, we have a few different options for you to look at: Apparel/equipment sponsorships. Benefits and time period can be negotiated. Also what types of apparel/equipment, and either full apparel sponsorship or partial. Monetary sponsorships. Benefits and time period can be negotiated. Event sponsorships. As we run events (as mentioned previously), ifrogz can supply prizes/other support for events. Given the lifecycle of sponsorships, we believe that these options will allow for a synergy between our organizations and allow for an evaluation by ifrogz of our organization and the value provided to you.

Evaluation As we believe that a sponsorship of GameNation can provide significant value to ifrogz, we are open to work with your sales and marketing teams in establishing benchmarks or a scorecard to measure and evaluate the benefit this sponsorship provides ifrogz.

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More Information More information about our organization and about who we are can be found on our website (http://gamenationpro.com). I have also provided you with our head staff’s contact information here. We are looking forward to your response to see where we can go with this partnership. All of us at GameNation thank you for taking the time to look over this, and we hope you have a wonderful day. Jon Lunceford President/CEO jlunceford@gamenationpro.com Zach Wolters zwolters@gamenationpro.com Michael Murray mmurray@gamenationpro.com GameNation members (right) after receiving medals in Chengdu, China at the 2009 WCG Grand Finals in front

of about 50,000 people in person, and almost 300,000 on live stream around the world.