Baseball’s Super Bowl Blind Spot

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

When Apple showed up in Red Bull’s car launch content, I had one question: is this the start of something bigger?

It was.

Last week at preseason testing in Bahrain, Apple extended the play, this time with the new Cadillac F1 Team, the American entrant expanding the grid to 11 teams.

It showed up with three collab posts and one clear system.

The Reveal (Carousel): High-res action shots of the car and team in Bahrain. Caption included #ShotoniPhone17Pro and Apple TV as the new U.S. home of F1 (with a March 7 tune-in).

Those same visuals were repurposed as OOH creative in Times Square, hours after Cadillac unveiled its livery via a Super Bowl spot and in-person activation [h/t Vincenzo Landino].

Dual Capture POV: All three Cadillac drivers using Dual Capture mode to share first impressions of the car. Same core caption message. Product feature demonstrated through personality.

First Laps Hype Edit: A tight cut of Cadillac’s first laps, highlighting the iPhone’s .5x to 8x zoom. Again, product capability woven into a genuine motorsport moment.

The social content generated 5.8M Instagram views and over 700K engagements.

The views matter. The discipline matters more.

This content was published on Apple’s account, not Cadillac’s. That’s intentional. The collab tool extends reach across both audiences, but three product-forward posts in tight succession make more sense for Apple’s followers. Cadillac gets amplification. Apple keeps alignment.

Bahrain testing remained the hero. The phone proves itself through the footage (no additional forced branding). The Apple TV message stays in the caption clearly and consistently without hijacking the moment.

Meanwhile, the U.S. thread continued, for now, in Detroit with Red Bull. Now Cadillac, an American team, in Bahrain.

At this point, it’s fair to assume this is becoming a season-long system using tentpole F1 moments to remind fans where to watch and build affinity for the device capturing it all.

That’s how you build brand recognition without getting in the way.

In Today’s Edition:

• From Post To Platform 🏘️ 

• Panthers Break The Silence 🤝

• Leclerc’s Sky High Storytelling 🛫

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
The Sponsorship MLB Didn’t Sell

Super Bowl Sunday is an annual ritual.

The NFL owns the night. The confetti falls. A champion is crowned. 100M screens in America are tuned to football.

And then, almost immediately, baseball starts tapping you on the shoulder.

Within 10 minutes of the Seattle Seahawks winning Super Bowl LX, MLB teams flooded social with the same message: football season is over. It’s time to turn the page. Spring Training begins this week.

This strategy is intentional, and it performs.

63% of MLB teams posted Sunday night to mark the transition. Across 19 team posts on X, the average was:

• 105.4K impressions

• 4.0K engagements

• 3.7% engagement rate

For context, a 1.0% engagement rate on X is considered solid.

The league account went even bigger:

• 1.1M impressions

• 21.2K engagements

• 1.9% engagement rate

This is a high-performing cultural handoff moment.

Naturally, I started asking: why isn’t this sponsored? If I had a Spring Training presenting partner, this is the launch asset. No question.

But the bigger opportunity revealed itself when I looked closer at the creative.

Three teams — the Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, and Toronto Blue Jays — used the phrase: “We’re On Deck.”

If you know baseball, you know the term. The on-deck batter is next up. Warming up. Ready.

It jumped off the screen because “On Deck” isn’t just a baseball phrase, it’s tailor-made for the home improvement category.

Think The Home Depot. Lowe's. Menards.

Baseball is back just as fans are getting outside again. Building. Fixing. Hosting. Standing on their actual decks.

The language is endemic to the sport.
The category tie is obvious.
The seasonal timing aligns.

But one clever Super Bowl night post isn’t enough to move a brand budget.

To make this meaningful, it needs to scale. It needs connective tissue. It needs to become something a partner can own.

The good news? Baseball gives you an entire season to build it.

If I were pitching an “On Deck” platform to a home improvement brand, here’s how I’d structure it.

New SZN On Deck (Spring Training Launch)

Spring Training is baseball’s warmup.

Which means the regular season is…on deck.

Create a “New SZN On Deck presented by [Brand]” lockup as the anchor asset for a Spring Training presenting sponsor.

I opted for “SZN” instead of “Season” so the brand logo can be larger without creating a lockup that obstructs or distracts from the content.

Place it on:

• Starting Lineups

• Final Scores

• Daily Highlights

• Practice clips

• Roster announcements

These are high-frequency, guaranteed posts. Consistent impressions. Consistent repetition.

Layer in a Countdown to Opening Day using the same lockup. Those countdown posts tend to spike engagement because fans are genuinely excited for baseball to return.

Low lift. High visibility. Clean tie to anticipation.

In-Season: “On Deck” - High Frequency

Once games begin, the phrase becomes even more powerful.

Social Media

Gameday “On Deck” Graphics to lead Instagram Stories. They can be shared every game (162 touchpoints), or at the start of each series (52 touchpoints).

Pair it with a countdown sticker for added urgency.

If leading inventory is locked up, place “On Deck” at the end of Stories:

• Upcoming schedule

• Direct ticket link for home games

• Subtle CTA: “Next Homestand On Deck”

It turns routine scheduling content into branded anticipation.

Owned Channels

“On Deck” is a natural name for:

• Game preview stories on team websites

• Preview modules in the MLB Ballpark App

• Email series

Email is especially interesting because you could build three variations:

1. Know Before You Go: Sent to ticket purchasers ahead of home games

2. Game Preview: An email-native version of your game preview stories

3. This Month/Homestand: Schedule lookahead to drive ticket sales and giveaway nights

It becomes the umbrella for forward-looking content. Be sure to give the brand a clickable logo back to their website in a header banner as well as an interstitial ad placement in the body of the email.

Take a similar approach across the website and app by giving the brand 100% share of voice on landing page banners. You could also layer in a lead-gen element — like this Chicago Bears and Connie’s Pizza example — by asking fans to submit a game prediction for a chance to win a gift card.

Prospect Storytelling: The Future Is On Deck

The On Deck thematic doesn’t have to live only in gameday content. Baseball’s farm system gives you another layer.

Top prospects are literally on deck to join the big-league club.

That opens the door for:

• “Big League Debut On Deck” graphics ahead of a player’s first game

• A recurring short or long-form series, called “[Team Name] On Deck”, spotlighting your best, or most notable minor leaguers. I personally like this voiceover style from @dsarm.

It aligns perfectly with a home improvement message: building for the future.

Lead Gen: The Backyard Upgrade

If you’re pitching The Home Depot, Lowe's, or Menards, you need data capture.

Run an “On Deck Backyard Upgrade” sweepstakes:

• New deck installation

• Backyard remodel

• Team-branded outdoor furniture

• Game tickets in a branded area of the stadium (more on that later)

Anyone entering is likely signaling real purchase intent around home improvement. That’s qualified lead generation wrapped in baseball excitement.

Community: Youth Baseball On Deck

What comes before the minor leagues? Little League.

“[Team Name] On Deck” becomes a youth baseball initiative:

• Brand logo on local youth jerseys

• Member discounts at retail locations (when wearing the uniform)

• Field refurbishments funded by the sponsor

• Team and brand staff volunteering together

It gives the platform long-term credibility and community depth.

In-Venue: Where It Naturally Lives

The most obvious placement? The on-deck circles.

A brand logo inside the circle delivers repeated, camera-visible alignment. These aren’t premium, TV-visible assets. But when the alignment is strong — like the Cleveland Guardians’ Uncrustables on-deck circle — they can generate earned attention.

Beyond that you could include a branded space in-stadium. Something like premium group spaces modeled after concepts like the Chicago Cubs YETI Yard or upper-deck event area like The Rooftop at Coors Field reimagined as the “[Brand] Party Deck”

It extends the wordplay into physical space where the brand can show up in a big way.

The Takeaway

The Super Bowl moment works because it captures attention at a natural transition point in the sports calendar.

But the real opportunity isn’t one Sunday night post. To get a brand to step up to the plate, that spark needs to power a fully integrated program that runs from Spring Training through the final out, building the repetition and relevance that turn presence into recall.

🔍️ SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

In a special edition of 4th & 1, BetterHelp reunited Cam Newton with former Carolina Panthers teammate Steve Smith Sr. for a candid conversation after nearly a decade of silence. They unpacked their fractured relationship, personal struggles, and the role mental health has played in both of their lives. It’s raw, reflective, and purpose-built for the brand.

England Rugby rolled out its own version of the “Overheard” format, mic’ing up fans at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham. This example showed me the concept is tailor-made for a venue naming rights partner.

After the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX, Raising Cane’s hosted a local meet-and-greet with quarterback Sam Darnold. The recap video from the celebration racked up nearly 8 million Instagram views.

Charles Leclerc took to the skies with VistaJet, and I loved the use of the carousel. Paired with the right music, the short videos captured the calm of flying private with his fiancée, Alexandra Saint Mleux, and his long-haired dachshund, Leo.

In his new partnership with CeraVe, Kevin Durant was dubbed the “new face of legs.” The campaign has already generated more than 44M views on X. And it didn’t stop there. The brand extended the idea to his high school teammate Chris Matthews (aka @LethalShooter), adding another 1.3M Instagram views to the tally.

Cleo Abram has built a massive YouTube audience by making complex topics feel accessible. Her partnership with NBC Sports around the Winter Olympics shows exactly why that works. Instead of producing another “here’s how curling works” explainer, Cleo reframed it: why curling drives physicists crazy.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Dominate YouTube In 2026: I can’t recommend watching this interview enough. Open Residency sat down with Samir Chaudry, co-host of Colin and Samir, for a deep conversation on building audience, staying relevant, and monetizing effectively on the platform.

Jersey Sponsor Social Value: Zoomph analyzed how often uniform sponsors show up across six US major sports focusing on the average percentage of in-season team social posts where a specific sponsored uniform asset is visible.

AI On The Course: In partnership with Salesforce, LIV Golf launched Fan Caddie, an AI companion built into the league’s mobile app. “Chip,” the Fan Caddie, delivers real-time stats, highlights, merchandise recommendations, and league news, all tailored to the individual fan.

NFL Trends Report: YouTube dropped its latest trends report focused on the expanding entertainment universe of the NFL.

From Reach To Engagement: Alyssa Meyers outlined how Samsung is evolving its longtime Olympic sponsorship from top-of-funnel awareness to mid-funnel engagement through a new, athlete-led content strategy [via Marketing Brew].