Lately the online football manager ONLINELIGA.de has registered on Sponsoo. ONLINELIGA.de is an online football management simulation. Behind every team is a team manager, represented by a real person, who manages and trains his virtual team and takes tactical decisions. In the simulation, everything works exactly as in real-life football. For instance, the team manager is able to determine the performance of players according to their virtual training impressions and sets the line-up correspondingly. Last month Landpflegeheim Timm purchased a sponsoring offer of ONLINELIGA.de on Sponsoo. That made us very curious, thus we talked to the director of ONLINGELIGA.de Andreas Kunze about his sponsoring concept.

Sponsoo: Players at ONLINELIGA.de are also able to conclude sponsoring deals virtually. How does it work?

Andreas Kunze: As you know, without sponsoring, football would not work at all. And it is exactly the same at ONLINELIGA.de. A team manager receives different offers from sponsors and has to decide which deal is the most lucrative. There are many options of bonuses, e.g. joining bonuses, win bonuses or non-relegation bonuses. The special thing about it is that the money bonuses are obviously sheer virtual, although the companies are real! Therefore, the user is negotiating with real brands – which is either the local car dealer, the regional state bank or a nationwide corporation. As a sponsor I can precisely predefine the regions where I want to appear.

Sponsoo: Are there any virtual sponsorships which are particularly popular?

Andreas Kunze: Of course. Basically three groups occur: one prefers the local sponsor, another a huge, well-known brand, whereas the third focusses solely on the bonuses. However, the majority identifies with the advertising partner. We can observe this due to a large amount of shares on social media. The teams proudly present their new sponsors there, which generates extra reach for our sponsors.

Sponsoo: From your point of view, how do sponsorships within the game differ from real ones?

Andreas Kunze: On the one hand, there is no media disruption. Every sponsor is directly linked – it takes one simple click for the user to get to the sponsor’s website. On the other hand, the user, in other words the fan himself, is the one choosing a sponsor. The fan decides, matters and identifies himself entirely with his sponsor. After all, he receives plenty of (virtual) money from him.

Moreover, the sponsor is able to adjust his campaign every day: current offerings for his teams, banner, news, etc.

Sponsoo: How do you as ONLINGELIGA.de refinance yourself?

Andreas Kunze: First, the business model is based on premium accounts – which certainly do not lead to decisive strategic advantages. They simply provide more comfort and individual depictions (no pay-to-win). Secondly, it is advertising which exists solely in the form of sponsoring. There are none classical third-party ads.

Sponsoo: Which advantage does a sponsor obtain, when booking a sponsoring with you?

Andreas Kunze: There are quite a few. Initiating a sponsorship at ONLINELIGA.de is quite easy. Everyone can immediately do so within a maximum of five minutes. Without any agency or long lead times.

Sponsors are not in competition with each other, there is no bidding or a rally. Each sponsor will be displayed equally at a very low fixed price and a cost per thousand ranging from one to five euros. On top comes the already mentioned identification of the user with the sponsor.

Above all, it is something new and extraordinary. Many of our sponsors really appreciate that, especially because it yields a lot of sympathy. As a sponsor you are rather an important part of the game than an annoying ad-banner.

Obviously, the brand needs to match our target group: male, 16-60 years, 30-40 years on average. In this way, there will not be any spreading loss and we offer an awfully good branding effect, in addition to conversions. Recently, we extend exclusive sponsoring for banks and insurances in our in game finance and insurance section. For instance, they are able to design the whole finance and account section in their corporate design.

Last but not least: It is great fun, because as a company you join the game as sponsor.

Offers on ONLINELIGA.de start at €25 per season. A season lasts for 44 real-time days (34 matchdays, 3 days winter and 7 days summer break). Through our sponsoring system you can easily purchase sponsorship offerings within just a few clicks. Interested? Then check out the following offers or take a closer look at the Sponsoo profile of ONLINELIGA.de.