2025 NFL Sponcon Scouting Report

👋 Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, a weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

Uninterrupted’s Off Day shows what happens when athlete lifestyle storytelling doubles as a travel marketing engine, with The Infatuation and Chase Travel woven in to guide the fan experience.

Each ~15-minute episode drops fans into an athlete’s “off day” — Naomi Osaka’s Tokyo homecoming, Aryna Sabalenka’s New York escapes, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s Toronto routine. It’s authentic, aspirational content that also doubles as a branded travel guide.

From a sponsorship lens, here’s why it works:

• Right athlete, right timing. Episodes landed when search interest was already high — Naomi & Aryna during the US Open, Vlad in the middle of a playoff chase with the first-place Blue Jays. Smart SEO strategy layered on top of smart casting.

• Travel + utility. Each episode’s description links to a curated food guide on The Infatuation (owned by Chase) and travel guide on the Chase Travel website, giving viewers a practical reason to extend their engagement. That’s more than awareness — that’s conversion-friendly content.

• Distribution + searchability. Travel destinations like Tokyo, Toronto, and NYC have evergreen search demand. Combine that with athlete name searches, and you have a series built to perform long after release.

• Strong early results. With 765K+ YouTube views across just three episodes, the format clearly has traction.

Guides: Naomi Osaka (The Infatuation | Chase Travel) - Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (The Infatuation | Chase Travel) - Aryna Sabalenka (The Infatuation | Chase Travel)

With smart casting, built-in search value, and a clean funnel back to owned media, Off Day is more than athlete content. It’s a reminder that sponsorships can create both cultural relevance and measurable brand utility when every piece of the puzzle fits.

In Today’s Edition:

• NFL Week 1 Sponcon Spotlight 🔦

• Tarheels Unbox The Feels 😭

• Liverpool’s adidas Archive ⚽️ 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The Best Sponsored Content From Week 1 Of The 2025 NFL Season

New season, new sponcon.

The NFL is back, which means teams are rolling out fresh ways to weave brands into the action—on the field, on the plane, and everywhere in between.

I followed all 32 teams (plus the league) through Week 1 to see what’s new and what’s working.

And while plenty of fan-favorite activations are still running strong, I didn’t rehash them here. You can find those in last year’s edition, linked here.

Here’s what caught my eye from opening week.

Arrivals That Sell

The Washington Commanders snagged the money shot for Audi during pregame arrivals, capturing second-year QB Jayden Daniels walking past the branded tunnel wall in slow motion.

Speaking of branded hallways, the Seattle Seahawks rolled out a slick new Funko entryway for arrivals.

On the player front, Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts had a Sprite in hand — the brand’s first-ever NFL athlete partner — for his season-opening arrival. Meanwhile, Tyson looks to be sponsoring Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s arrivals, and it’s almost too perfect. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Travel Meets Fashion

Sticking with the Chiefs, I also liked their Away Game Runway card — a clean setup for fashion-focused content as players boarded the plane.

The Carolina Panthers put American Airlines on their aptly named Tarmac Threads series. A clever name that ties the brand to the content.

Out in LA, the Chargers earned an AA+ for making American Airlines the de facto presenting sponsor of their trip to São Paulo against the Chiefs. The airline was integrated everywhere: a travel-themed question of the day, a Brazilian Snacks Taste Test, team travel gear, tarmac photos, and arrivals when they landed.

Travel-themed questions of the day are catching on. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers worked with Signature Aviation on one I hadn’t heard before: Crying Baby or Snoring Adult? And for International Games, I’d borrow from the Chiefs’ version, where players guessed the host city’s population.

Favorites, Reimagined

I’ve long been a fan of the Buffalo Bills x Miller Lite Roll Call on X and Instagram Stories, but this picture really takes it to the next level. Love how the team continues to weave in fan submissions on Stories.

It was also great to see Paramount+ back sponsoring the New York Jets’ Green and White Day. The all-day giveaway event (full details here) even included a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano — part of a new partnership in 2025.

Design Wins And Opportunities

The Commanders’ 2025 GIF package was one of my favorites this year. Hercules Fences sponsoring the Sack GIFs gave me a laugh, but I wish the design had leaned into the classic “D [Fence]” visual with their logo built into the fence.

The Chicago Bears get the design win here. Their Injury Update logo — with a first aid kit subtly woven in — is perfect for their partner, Athletico Physical Therapy.

Native Social Plays

I also like how the Denver Broncos build their BetMGM Game Previews to feel native to X with the four-photo layout. Bonus points for including the game’s over/under.

The Chargers nailed it by putting Bud Light on the first and second cards of their final score carousel. Those are the two cards Instagram shows to users, so it makes sense to spotlight the brand there.

Game-Day Footage, Elevated

Here’s a great inside the huddle video from the Houston Texans and Slovacek’s. I noticed a few teams have figured out how to strip the natural sound from these moments, which is huge for avoiding licensed music issues.

The Bills’ Josh Allen runout video was electric. That style could easily anchor a series similar to Game Time presented by 2K from the Golden State Valkyries. @NFLOnPrime has had success with a comparable 360 cam execution.

SONY showed up in the Chargers’ Win Cam, which was a smart fit. It would also be cool to show the reverse angle — like the Atlanta Falcons have — to highlight the actual camera here and there.

Shout out to the Broncos for getting their postgame player phone review video sponsored — also by SONY. Still waiting for a team to land a phone carrier as the presenting partner on this concept.

The Buccaneers are on it, though. They had players call friends on other teams to wish them good luck — in a Verizon-sponsored video.

Equipment in the Spotlight

Both the Jets and Falcons found success with first-person POV videos of players setting up their helmets. Perfect territory for an equipment partner.

The Seahawks and Riddell Sports gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at an NFL helmet audio check.

The Green Bay Packers put out a sharp edit highlighting the making of their gameday threads. Meanwhile, the Bills featured Delta Sonic Car Wash on a video showing farewell patches for Highmark Stadium being sewn on their jerseys.

Sherwin-Williams is a natural fit as the Jacksonville Jaguars as the new sponsor of their Uniform Combo series.

The NFL is getting creative in this lane too. In the latest edition of Most Interesting Jobs, Steve Smith Sr. learned how to fit rookies for helmets — reeling in 500K views. And speaking of reels, Fish and Yap featuring Ravens WRs DeAndre Hopkins and Zay Flowers is ripe for an outdoor or fishing brand sponsor.

Product Integration Done Right

The New England Patriots teamed with Brunt Workwear to spotlight how an NFL field crew preps for gameday. Great product integration. They could build that framework into a series, similar to what the Bucs did when they interviewed their former Director of Athletic Fields and Grounds, who spent over 30 years mowing NFL lawns.

The New York Giants rolled out a Campbell’s Chunky Can Ring Toss challenge with players.

In Buffalo, the Bills used a Question of the Day (Milk or cereal first?) to promote Josh Allen MVP Puffs at Wegmans.

Strong Series Names to Steal

The Cleveland Browns deserve credit for two strong content series names. Road to Gameday (for injury reports) opens up the Auto category for this high-performing content — you could even repurpose it for Inactives. And Dawg DNA presented by University Hospitals could inspire a version like “Winning DNA” to showcase box score stats after victories, tying back to the Medical/Healthcare space.

Speaking of healthcare, In the Lab has always been a favorite content name of mine for practice footage. The Patriots are using it with Mass General Hospital.

Over in Kansas City, it was smart to put UMKC on a trivia series called Schooled.

Experiential Activations Worth Noting

The NFL brought a Bud Light can-themed grill setup to the season opener in Philly.

The Los Angeles Rams worked with Taco Bell to bring Davante Adams’ “Rams House” to life (a fun nod to the Taco Bell in his actual house).

At MetLife Stadium, the Jets built a College Gameday-style field goal challenge with Hellmann’s.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Love this surprise-and-delight moment for UNC Football players, especially in the NIL era. They thought they were filming unboxing content for Lenovo, but instead got surprise messages from loved ones ahead of the new season.

I’ve really been into Oklahoma Football’s Scene Setter series with Mercy Hospital (Week 1 | Week 2). These hype videos set the tone on gameday and give fans exactly what they want.

Liverpool and adidas reunited in August after 13 years. Their carousel, pairing iconic memorabilia with legendary moments, was a perfect way to celebrate the new chapter. The series made a strong return this weekend with six finds from the adidas archive.

Mercedes F1 and title sponsor Petronas nailed this explainer on the 2026 Power Unit regulation changes.

And FC Bayern’s latest player challenge with Paulaner — from guessing bottle caps to guessing weight — gave a fresh spin on a tried-and-true format.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Fantasy Gets Fizzy: Coca-Cola just kicked off its new Premier League partnership with Beat The Icon — a Fantasy Premier League challenge where fans compete against Rio Ferdinand, Alex Scott, and top creators for 20,000+ prizes. Entry’s easy: scan a QR code on promo Coke cans or head to this website.

Serving Up Insights: You need to check out Malph Minns’ US Open sponsor breakdowns. He’s been digging into whether on-site activations actually made an impact for fans — with some sharp insights.

Your Ferrari Moment: Ferrari F1 and Shell are letting fans score personalized videos as if they just signed with the team as a new driver.

Sideline To Timeline: Three months after Inside the NFL was canceled by The CW, it’s already been rebooted — this time as a short-form original on X.

Court To Closet: When Jordan Clarkson left the Jazz for the Knicks this summer, he hosted a Closet Sale of his personal collection. It has me wondering: shouldn’t more teams host offseason thrifting events with brands tied to sustainability and reducing waste [via Jeff Chen, The Baseline Newsletter]?