Credit: GIANTS Software/John Deere
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The Farming Simulator League 
kicks off this weekend at Giants Software’s own annual FarmCon 19 event, and the €250K ($279K USD) European league will bring in several team sponsors that have never before set foot into the esports space. As promised earlier this year, the publisher has wrangled a number of farm-tech companies to back teams, including CLAAS, Lindner, HORSCH, Bednar FMT, and AMAZONE .
There’s arguably no team sponsor bigger than John Deere , however, as the agricultural giant will sponsor the John Deere Gaming squad. John Deere’s European office is spearheading the company’s Farming Simulator League initiative, and has recruited seven German players to represent the company in the team-based competitions over the course of the next year.
According to Stefan Muegge, marketing manager and communications at John Deere, the company initiated entry into the league after seeing the announcement earlier this year, along with urging from one of its own marketing agencies. However, they have since been more closely aligned on the initiative with the game publisher and league operator.
“We decided that with the approach Giants is now doing with the Farming Simulator League, it makes sense for us to participate.”
“We are in close contact with the people of Giants, and we discuss with them together what the best opportunities are for us,” Muegge told The Esports Observer. “At the end, it’s driven by us, by John Deere.”
Muegge said that the company previously considered involvement when Giants began individual Farming Simulator Championship events in 2017, prior to the larger-scale league debuting this weekend, but opted not to jump in at that point. John Deere doesn’t see a broader opportunity in esports for consumer-focused marketing at this point, said Muegge, but the Farming Simulator League hits what the company believes to be a target audience.
Credit: GIANTS Software
“The marketing department here is always screening for new opportunities for marketing channels, and e-business is one,” said Muegge. “We decided that with the approach Giants is now doing with the Farming Simulator League, it makes sense for us to participate. We see it as one additional media channel.”
Related Article: John Deere to Sponsor Farming Simulator League Team
John Deere’s farming equipment was first made available in the most recent series entry, Farming Simulator 19 , and the company has announced plans to add even more licensed machines to future releases (John Deere’s U.S. division handles that part of the relationship with Giants Software). Continuing that support is one part of John Deere’s interest in this space, along with reaching more people between the ages of 12 and 30 and targeting current farmers and machinery operators.
“We see two opportunities for us. We need to be present in the game with our machines and solutions, and we need to promote the brand inside the farming community,” said Muegge. “Our main target is not the gaming community—our main target is the farming community, and we believe that many, many of our customers and drivers are also following Farming Simulator and they are active users of it. This is why we are active.”
“At the moment, it’s kind of an experiment for 12 months.”
A Trial Run
Unlike Team AMAZONE, which will field a team made up entirely of employees, John Deere Gaming is comprised of Farming Simulator competitors from the game’s community. They’ll be provided logistical and travel support, as well as brand merchandise, but no salaries. Muegge said that John Deere needed to ensure that the players could be trusted to represent the brand.
“We had first discussions with some members of the team, because it was very important that the people and personalities of the people fit to our brand requirements,” he said. “After those discussions, we decided that the people and the team fit for us, and we discussed how we can work together.”
Credit: GIANTS Software
Currently, John Deere doesn’t have any dedicated staffing resources devoted to the esports initiative. The Europe office’s team will handle the needs in addition to their usual tasks, ranging from PR to social media support. Some staff members will also attend FarmCon this weekend to see John Deere Gaming in action, and Muegge teased some kind of potential surprise promotion or activation from the company.
Ultimately, however, this Farming Simulator League initiative is a trial run for John Deere. Esports is an unfamiliar space, and one that didn’t seem like a good fit until this particular game’s maker unveiled its ambitions. The Farming Simulator League may well be the full extent of John Deere’s involvement in esports for the foreseeable future.
“We are in close contact with the people of Giants, and we discuss with them together what the best opportunities are for us.”
Even so, it’s interesting to see a storied brand like this become curious about the benefits of esports and the potential crossover with its target audience. Muegge and public relations manager Ralf Lenge told The Esports Observer that there’s plenty that they’ll need to analyze and learn from over the course of the season—including the potential for activation opportunities—and then they’ll evaluate their future involvement and resource allocations thereafter.
“At the moment, it’s kind of an experiment for 12 months,” said Muegge. “When it’s over, we will decide how we continue. In the end, the esports channel is in competition to all other marketing and PR channels. These are day-to-day decisions we need to make here, where we invest more marketing support.
“We see opportunities, but we need first to learn how the community is reacting on the whole to Farming Simulator League,” he added. “We see opportunities, this is for sure, but for us it’s also a learning process.”
