TSM launch new sponsorship deal for Fortnite licensed NERF Guns

Fortnite’s reach among young children is pretty well-established, this has now culminated in Hasbro launching a new range of Fortnite inspired Nerf Guns. These weapons will feature heavy Fortnite branding and are designed to resemble weapons from the game. To market these new toys, NERF will be launching a sponsorship deal with the TSM Fortnite team.

The toys will be marketed to younger fans of the game. Marketing copy claims that they help you ‘recreate your best Fortnite battle moments in real life’. With the help of these toys, kids will be able to act out all of their favourite Fortnite moments. This is assuming these children have chopped down and harvested enough wood, then mastered the art of split-second carpentry.

The toys themselves are a little lacking. They are just bright primary-coloured Nerf guns with a logo on the side. The shape is vaguely reminiscent of Fortnite weapons, but it’s a tenuous link. This is probably because most Fortnite weapons are a bit too real. They resemble real-life weapons, but in the aesthetic of Fortnite. It would have been hard to make a Pump Shotgun Fortnite toy that didn’t just look like a shotgun.

The toys aren’t particularly relevant to Fortnite. It’s no surprise that they’re looking for an angle to play up the Fortnite licence, they’ve found this in the TSM team.

TSM’s Commercial

This marketing push marks, a big moment for mainstream acceptance of Fortnite Esports teams. TSM will appear in commercials for the Nerf guns in exchange for a sponsorship fee. This deal is completely separate to the licencing deal reached with Epic games, meaning NERF is putting quite a bit of money into this campaign.

The players won’t be wearing TSM outfits in the commercials. However, the ads are banking on recognition of the players so it is still a good opportunity to raise their profile. The ads currently shown off prominently display the screen names of each of the TSM players.

Hasbro has also launched Overwatch themed NERF weapons and a range of action figures based on that game. This push into Esports territory for toy maker would indicate that their target market is increasingly drawn to Esports over other interests. Good news for Fortnite, even if it isn’t great for parent’s wallets.

ZexRow represented TSM at the recent Fortnite Secret Skirmish but his performance didn’t exactly set the world on fire. For the first day’s Duo event, he was paired with Dassiren and failed to gain any points at all. In Solos he placed 22nd, only gaining three points. These aren’t the best results in the world. The competition was fierce, but it is still a disappointing showing for a major team. The TSM team continue to be big personalities in the world of Esports. Hopefully, their performance at tournaments begins to line up with their prominence in marketing.