I need your help.

Reply to this email if you know how to activate the Hot Ones sponsorship model.

Specifically, I’m looking to find out how First We Feast guarantees an unskippable preroll ad for the sponsor of each episode.

In the example linked above Häagen-Dazs got the six-second preroll ad, a “presented by” open slate after the title card, and a branded segment at the 16-minute mark.

If the unskippable preroll ad is a placement available for sports teams to activate, it’s something that must be added to your YouTube activation plans.

In Today’s Edition:

• How To Win With Digital For B2B Brands 💼

• A Game-Winning Goal Shot On The Google Pixel 🤳 

• The Perfect Name For Hockey x Spirits Sponcon 🍸

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
Digital Partnership Strategies For B2B Brand Growth

B2C and B2B digital partnerships might start similarly, but as you move deeper into the sales funnel, the strategies diverge significantly.

These brands aim not just to reach these individuals but to engage them with compelling stories about how their products can benefit a business.

As mentioned in our first issue, content should align with what fans expect when they decide to follow or subscribe. This means B2B content often doesn’t fit well on a team’s main organic social channels due to differing audience interests.

By forcing content onto these channels for the sake of being there, it will likely lead to wasted time and resources.

So, what strategies can drive B2B growth through sports digital partnerships? Here are seven approaches to consider:

Team Organic Social Media

What social channels are the best fit to reach business decision-makers?

LinkedIn: This is where people are talking about and reading about their jobs, their industries, and career-focused topics. B2B content on this platform matches follower expectations.

• Example: Chicago Bears x CDW - Draft Day Decisions

If you need help to put together a B2B content plan for LinkedIn, I cannot recommend Tommy Clark’s Social Files newsletter enough. Start here and be sure to subscribe (not sponsored).

Tommy strongly believes B2B content doesn’t need to be boring. Here’s an example I love from the recently announced Inter Miami x Duracell partnership (even though it lives on Instagram).

TikTok: I can hear it now. Just LinkedIn?! If you need a “sexier”, mainstream option to add to the channel mix, TikTok is the place to be.

Take a page out of the Golden State Warriors book and launch a company-focused account like @LifeAtGSW.

I wrote about this account last January and since then their following has grown from 5.5K followers to 138.3K followers!

The goal of an account like this is to show people what it’s like to work for a professional sports team. This provides ample opportunity to show people how you’re using partner solutions to help you do your job.

Some of the top-performing posts would be a great fit for B2B brands.

• How We Operate The Largest Scoreboard In The NBA

• NBA Gameday: Engineering Edition

• 2023 GSW Summer Internship FAQ

The best part is this type of account can provide solutions well beyond B2B brands. Some of my favorite concepts are the Day in the Life series, Theme Night Coverage, and In-Game Entertainment BTS.

Team Employee LinkedIn Pages

What if your business page on LinkedIn isn’t active, has a small audience, or you want another place to post B2B content?

Have your staff post sponsored content on their LinkedIn pages.

Select employees who have firsthand experience with the partner’s products to share genuine insights and benefits.

For instance, If your partner has a product that helps with hiring, like Workday, you would want someone in HR to post about the benefits of how it’s helped the hiring process.

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that can help drive leads for your partner.

• Example: Trafton Eutsler (Van Wagner) x SQWAD, Miami (OH) Hockey Case Study

Admittedly, building this requires some effort. The team needs to actively encourage its employees to develop their personal brands on LinkedIn.

Remember, while encouraging employees is mutually beneficial, you should compensate the employee posting the sponsored content.

If you're curious about how to start or why this approach is worth considering, you have to check out Lia Haberman’s conversation with HeyOrca!'s social media community manager, Qetsiyah Jacobson.

Create Assets For Partner Channels

Whether we want to admit it or not, sports teams are media houses.

While the number of team channel options is reduced for B2B content, we can create great photo and video assets for our partners.

Even if we need to outsource those projects, in many cases we have better connections to freelancers and agencies that can help compared to our brand partner. We’re still providing our partners with a solution by handling the logistics and project management.

The key to doing this correctly, and making it worth our time is proper pricing.

While expected performance will likely not be a factor for pricing in this scenario, be sure to understand the total costs and the margin you want to achieve before pitching this idea to a partner.

Not only can these assets be used on partner owned and operated channels, but they can also be shared on team channels via paid social media.

Paid Social Media

Speaking of paid social media, this option almost always will be included in a B2B partnership because of its targeting capabilities.

I would prioritize LinkedIn and Meta (Facebook and Instagram).

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is your best option if you want to get granular with targeting.

You can target users by company, industry, seniority level, and more. No other social channel offers this type of targeting, and even if they did, users are most likely to keep their professional information up-to-date on LinkedIn, making that targeting more accurate.

The downside is cost. CPMs on LinkedIn are significantly higher than on any other social channel. You’ll need a healthy budget to run ads on this platform.

Meta: If you’re looking for more cost efficiency, Meta is your best bet. CPMs are much lower. Plus you get two channels for the price of one.

While the targeting options for B2B aren’t as strong here, there are workarounds with first-party data and purposeful creative.

• First-Party Data: We know business decision-makers often have season tickets or sit in suites, clubs, and premium seats. Upload this CRM list as a custom audience in Meta. To increase reach, create a lookalike audience from that list of premium ticket purchasers.

• Creative: Develop content that will attract your target audience. For example, run lead form ads (or sweepstakes) offering the chance to use your venue for a team outing or conference. Chances are, those who enter their information are doing so for business purposes.

Employee Participation In Partner Content

We can enhance the visibility and credibility of B2B content by leveraging the team's influence to draw more attention from the target audience.

There are many options in this bucket at varying levels of commitment.

• Provide a written testimonial for your partner’s website.

• Supply a quote(s) for blog content.

• Record a video testimonial to run on partner O&O channels.

• Share results and data for a case study.

• Allow employees to speak on a panel for a webinar or be a guest for live (LinkedIn live) and or recorded content (podcast).

Player Deals

Today's players and alumni are more entrepreneurial than ever. Connect your B2B partners with players (current and retired) who are managing businesses for potential partnerships and content opportunities on the players’ channels.

If a player deal is agreed upon, you can then amplify that content through team channels where applicable.

Team Partner Digital Community

A digital community, such as a private Slack or Discord, offers a unique way to connect partners in a digital space, facilitating networking and collaboration without the need for personal information exchange (at least at first).

This community also provides the team with the opportunity for quick communication with partners, making announcements about deadlines and events, as well as using it as a hub for activation resources like specs for creative assets.

The Takeaway
While the essence of sports digital partnerships remains consistent across B2C and B2B contexts, the execution must adapt to meet the specific goals and audience characteristics of B2B brands.

Tailoring content and choosing the right channels is key to maximizing the impact of these partnerships.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

What a kickoff to Google Pixel's first season as a Liverpool FC sponsor!

Their key digital asset? On-field highlights shot on a Google Pixel, which stole the spotlight in Sunday’s nailbiting 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.

In the climactic 99th minute, as Darin Núñez headed in the game-winning goal, the LFC content team was perfectly positioned, Google Pixel in hand, capturing every thrilling second.

But the real cherry on top? Liverpool’s captain, Virgil van Dijk, grabbed the phone and recorded the ensuing celebration before the phone then became part of the celebratory scrum with Núñez and his teammates.

This highlight, branded throughout with a “Shot on Google Pixel” logo, exploded across social channels, generating nearly 10M views and over 600K engagements - not to mention some earned media pickup in The Daily Mail, Sport Bible, and more.

An underrated detail: this clip went live on their social channels before the official broadcast clip did. You might wonder, "Why?" It seems clear now, but it's worth highlighting because it shows a deliberate choice to prioritize sponsored content—a move not always seen in the sports world.

But that detail points back to why I love this sponsored content series in the first place.

• It gives fans a field-level angle of the action on the pitch only the team can provide.

• The content matches what works on social - raw, phone footage.

• The product is good enough to capture content worthy of posting on social media.

• The brand message speaks for itself by simply including the Shot on Google Pixel logo.

This wasn’t just a fluke.

The content team has been consistently delivering this kind of gold all season. The players knew the drill, ready for their close-up at any celebration. The stroke of luck? Virgil van Dijk remembering to grab the phone in the heat of the moment.

So far, on-field highlights from this series have been posted 17 times this season. On X alone they have racked up 11.8M views and 232.5K engagements, averaging 692K views and 13.7K engagements per post.

I’m not sure about the usage rights rules in The Premier League, but if I were Google, I would use this video (and others from this series) as creative for ads on social and TV.

The Takeaway
Sports are unscripted and unpredictable, yet partnerships can grant access to incredible moments otherwise missed. Without the requirement to capture content on a phone, this particular post might not have existed.

There's a possibility the content team would have been there anyway, and indeed, they captured the moment on a standard camera. However, without the routine of capturing content on a phone and player awareness, would Virgil have thought to grab the phone?

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Love this sponcon, turned tradition from Red Bull Racing. After each race, they put a sticker on a YETI cooler filled with Red Bull and champagne on ice. As you can see by the comment, it’s become something fans want to see.

Shout out to the Dallas Stars! Inside The Glass presented by Patron is the perfect name for on-ice content sponsored by a spirits brand.

The Bundesliga worked with RB Leipzig players to guess their teammates based on stats in EA Sports FC. The concept also works for other partner categories using players’ career path or even their career stats.

Really like how the Boston Celtics utilize presser, announcer, and nat sound to build their post-win recap videos - aka The Sound of the Celtics presented by JBL.

Outstanding work from the LEGO team who supported the launch of their McLaren set by working with former McLaren Chief Mechanic, Neil Trundle, to recall his time with Ayrton Senna and the McLaren MP4.

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Must Read: You need to check out this edition of The Online Rule by Scott Goodacre as he lays out how teams are using digital channels to keep fans informed about match day info, as well as how they focus on first-time fans.

Cowbunga: Paramount+ utilized its front-of-shirt sponsorship with Inter Milan to promote more of its IP. Players wore Ninja Turles jerseys for this week’s match against Genoa.

Dude, Where’s My Seat: Celtic Football Club has partnered with Ticketmaster Sport to launch a virtual version of Celtic Park. The virtual venue allows fans to view inside the stadium from any angle [h/t Behind Sport].

Ducks Fly Together: Learn how the Oregon Ducks content team took advantage of an ice storm, turned it into a photo shoot, and used the new creative assets to promote the Bend Classic AND sell more jerseys for their partner Verbero Hockey [h/t Sydney Becker].

Revolut-ionizing YouTube Ads: ChrisMD strikes again with another amazing brand integration for a Revolut ad read. Luis Conte shared the thinking and the results from this project.