👋 Hey, it’s Alex. Welcome back to Sponcon Sports, my weekly newsletter dedicated to sponsored content strategy in the sports industry!

Happy Holidays and how bout those…Chieeeeefs! Sorry, I’ve watched their T-Mobile locker room victory speeches too much.

While the Kansas City Chiefs didn’t win on the field this week, they certainly took home the W with this Christmas post. Shout out to Grant Gruenhaupt and Tom Goulet for the illustration and animation.

In Today’s Edition:

• Perfecting Postseason Planning 📝 

• An A+ Collab From Steph Curry, The Warriors, and Rakuten 🚶 

• My Favorite ‘24 MLS Schedule Release Video 📆 

🏊️ DEEP DIVE
Postseason Playbook: How To Streamline Your Digital Inventory Process

A gift everyone on your team can enjoy is finalizing digital inventory for the postseason by the halfway mark of the season. While it's tempting to delay until your team is "truly in contention" for a playoff run, proper planning yields significant benefits.

Specifically in the United States, the recent expansion of playoff fields in MLB (from eight to 12 teams), NFL (from 12 to 14 teams), and the NBA (from 16 to 20 teams, including the Play-In Tournament) increases the likelihood of needing to be ready for postseason play.

Setting this earlier deadline unlocks valuable time:

1. More Time To Pitch: It provides additional time to pitch new and current partners before the postseason begins.

2. More Time To Design: It sets up your design team for success by helping them understand the workload in advance, along with the details of potential partner brand integration.

3. More Time To Think: With foundational inventory in place, you'll have more creative space for the inevitable last-minute internal or partner requests for "splashy," earned-first ideas under tight regular-season deadlines.

Note: This plan is developed from a partnerships solutions POV. It’s tailored for sports with six-month regular seasons. For sports like the NFL with a four-month regular season, cut the timing in half.

Offseason - Inventory Sheet Development
Proper postseason planning starts in the offseason.

You need as much free time as possible to do a thorough audit of the latest playoff run. Bonus points if you tagged your content in the moment, to help speed up this process!

Review all content from the most recent playoff run and input the following details into an Excel Spreadsheet for every recurring content series:

• Name of the series

• Channels it aired on

• Frequency

• Was it sponsored

• Who sponsored it

• Brand integration

• Average performance per post

• Notes

Record information for unsponsored content (in addition to sponcon) to unveil new opportunities for partners next season. While it can take a lot of time, pulling performance metrics is crucial for selling opportunities to partners they haven’t seen before.

Be sure to type in any thoughts fresh on your mind in the notes section. You want to highlight key learnings such as whether you should bring back a content series next season, if something was over or undervalued, if any changes are needed to channel selection or brand integration, etc.

What If My Team Didn’t Qualify For Postseason Play The Last Two Seasons?

If your team hasn’t been in the postseason since, let’s say, TikTok and Reels have been a thing, there’s still plenty you can look at for inspiration beyond what you already do in the regular season.

The biggest difference is that analytics won’t be properly represented. You can use regular season averages (where applicable), but that will likely undersell content’s potential performance as typically there’s a bump in the postseason.

• X Advanced Search: Type anything into the search bar and hit enter. Tap the “…” icon and select “Advanced search”. Scroll down to “Accounts” and type in the handle of a playoff team(s) from the most recent season. Scroll down to dates and enter the desired period you want to look at - I’d recommend the day after the regular season ends to the day after their postseason run ended. Now you can see every post that went live and can save anything you want to try. Note - while it’s good to look at teams in your sport, it’s worth looking at other sports so the ideas stand out more compared to your competitors.

• Real-Time Playoffs Monitoring: This works for any sport, but for example, the NFL Playoffs are right around the corner. I would keep an eye on what teams are doing across social channels, adding any tactics that stand out.

• Phone A Friend: Call a team that consistently makes the postseason and ask them for any advice and or key learnings from their activations. When I was with the White Sox, we called an NFL team to learn more about partnership packages, pricing strategy, and more. It helped shape how we were thinking about the nuances of home and away games as well.

Even if your team has made the postseason in the last two seasons, these techniques also work if you need inspiration for reaching later rounds in the postseason, including how to handle winning a championship.

Regular Season - Month 1
After a month you should have a strong sense of the flow of gamedays and off days as well as how content is performing in the new season.

Based on those learnings and results, revise the inventory sheet you built in the offseason. If any new content ideas have been produced, consider adding those to your postseason inventory.

This is also the time to review all sold sponcon assets for the new season. By now, sponcon activation plans for new and current partners should be fleshed out.

Your content teams need to decide if regular season sponcon will be carried into the postseason the same way, if at all.

For example, let’s say you run Tale of the Tape every game during the regular season featuring head-to-head stats between teams. In sports where you play multiple games per round against the same opponent, Tale of the Tape should not run every game. Instead, it should run once, before game one.

Meanwhile, if you produced a custom content series that requires player access and time to record, that likely will not be carried into the postseason. You’ll need to be prepared with alternate solutions for those partners.

Regular Season - Month 2
Connect with other departments to identify new opportunities, build on existing ideas, and address any activation concerns.

• Marketing: Meet with the marketing team to understand what story they want to tell during the postseason as well as any goals they have (e.g. app downloads, increase CRM, etc). You should discuss what they plan on doing with and without partner dollars required. Plus, be sure to check if assets via email, paid media, SMS, and or mobile app are changing from their regular season cadence.

• Design and Video: Review what’s currently listed on the inventory sheet to allow these teams to ask any questions or highlight any issues with what’s currently planned. You should also align on deadlines of when a partner needs to sign on to have assets ready in time (design) or the turnaround time on a content piece (video).

• Partnerships: Connect with your sales and activation partnerships leads to ensure there are no missed gaps in what you’re building.

Regular Season - Month 3
The bulk of the work is done. Now, focus on approvals:

• Final Review: Conduct a comprehensive meeting to review postseason inventory with content, video, design, and marketing teams. Designate each item as approved, approved pending edits, or removed from the list. You’ll need an hour, so order some food and do it over lunch.

• Meet with PR, Legal, and the League: Ensure alignment with PR, legal, and the league to avoid post-agreement changes. Meet with each group and walk them through the inventory to guarantee you can deliver what you’ve promised to partners. These meetings are not all negative by the way. A key meeting we had in 2021 unlocked the opportunity to mic up players during a playoff game - which was our top-performing sponcon that postseason.

Your inventory is set! Run through it with your partnerships team, address any questions, recommend assets for current partners, and start pitching.

💼 CASE STUDY
Sponsored Content of the Week

In one of the more innovative partnership activations I’ve seen in 2023, the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, and Rakuten joined forces, producing a compelling narrative that blends sports, fashion, and social impact.

Before the season tipped off, Rakuten teamed up with the Black In Fashion Council to support emerging Black designers. To generate awareness for BIFC designers, Rakuten leveraged its partnership with the Golden State Warriors and two-time MVP, Stephen Curry.

This was primarily executed through their existing sponsorship of Warriors player arrival content, featuring a branded hallway at the Chase Center.

Throughout the 2024 NBA season, Curry will walk through the tunnel before select home games donning outfits from BIFC designers. Items from these outfits are made available for purchase through Rakuten.

Content captured from the tunnel walks is posted on social media through Warriors, Rakuten, Curry’s, and the designers’ channels. Rakuten and Curry also collaborated on designer spotlight videos posted on their channels and shared on Warriors channels.

Each of the three parties involved plays a crucial role in elevating this initiative from good to great.

Steph Curry

• Steph brings more than just being the model for BIFC designer outfits. He puts a face to the campaign, providing the human connection necessary to tell the story of Rakuten’s partnership with the BIFC. Curry is a cultural influencer with a global audience that extends beyond basketball fans.

Golden State Warriors

• Golden State provides the runway on which BIFC designer outfits are showcased. The content team captures photos and videos of Curry’s tunnel walks for use on his, Rakuten’s, and BIFC designers’ channels. The team amplifies the story by sharing Steph’s posts on their channels.

Rakuten

• Working with Rakuten opens up a marketplace for BIFC designers, driving awareness and traffic for their work. By offering consumers these pieces on Rakuten, they are rewarded with up to 15% cash back to support the designers.

Breaking The Mold
Overall, I appreciate how this story comes to life on social media. Often, when digital assets involve a team deal and a player deal, the brand requests the team to post hero content natively on their channels.

Rakuten was purposeful in their activation here using Steph as the lead storyteller for this initiative. The story is most relevant to his audience because when they follow him, they expect to hear about what he stands for on and off the court.

While the hero video could be posted on the Warriors’ social media channels, it likely would not be as impactful (in terms of reach and engagement) since people follow the team accounts expecting to hear about Steph in relation to the team.

That’s not to say the team’s support is lacking. It provides a significant boost to awareness by sharing Curry’s posts with tens of millions of followers on each social channel.

The Takeaway
Successful partnerships like this one involve a thoughtful balance between individual player influence, team support, and brand collaboration.

Crafting an authentic and relevant narrative, understanding social media dynamics, and leveraging each partner's strengths contribute to a compelling, and effective storytelling strategy.

🔍 SPONCONSPIRATION
Steal These Ideas

Atlanta United FC had my favorite video from MLS Schedule Release, taking on a travel crossword theme in partnership with Delta Airlines.

ESPN asked followers to start a franchise on a $12 budget as part of its Team Bundles series. I like the name as well as how they gave State Farm a branded card as a separate piece of the carousel.

Streaming from the Sidelines courtesy of the NFL and Verizon, is a great content series name for highlights shot at field/court level.

Not sure if I know many other teams that have a sponsored content series designed to campaign players for league awards, but I love what the Miami Heat are doing with, The Case presented by KIA.

You need to see the latest football challenge video from ChrisMD, who put together a 90-second ad read for Revolut, which authentically blends into the video and holds your attention [h/t Rich Johnson].

🚨 ICYMI
What To Watch For

Kelce’s Cookies: Donna Kelce partnered with Aramark at this week’s Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs games to sell her Mama Kelce’s Cookies recipe at both stadiums. All proceeds were donated to the teams’ selected charities: Eagles Autism and Operation Breakthrough.

Social Standouts: Jess Smith, VP of Brand and Digital Strategy at Stewart-Haas Racing shared the 6 things the best social teams in sports do differently. Spoiler alert - embracing sponcon is one of them!

Christmas Games: The NBA launched six interactive games in its mobile app, ranging from Guess the Player (Full Court Guess) to a twist on the Immaculate Grid (Hoop Connect). I played them and think all the concepts and names are worth bringing to your team.

Welcome to the BAMAverse: You’ve got to see this Instagram activation from the University of Alabama Football team for this season’s National Signing Day [h/t Ashlyn Remillard].

App Goals: The Bundesliga is embracing short-form, vertical video and personalization in its mobile app, resulting in an average of 20 videos viewed per session.